Tamie, thanks for posting Jean's full post on here. I'm glad people who haven't already read it in full now have the chance to.

Can you tell me the best way of stopping the sand/soil becoming too dry? Mine, especially under the basking area, is drying out really quickly and I'm concerned about it irritating small hatchling eyes. I've been spraying in the evening and then first thing in the morning but it's still drying out too quickly - any tips?

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Just out of interest andynclaire , what substrate are you changing to?

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Thanks,
Carl

0.0.1 Testudo Hermanni Boettgeri

The more basic question would be the number of deaths vs the number of people using it but it doesn't end there.

The health and the environmental conditions of the animal have to be considered also.

Ed

i geuss there is always a risk of an animal choking/getting impacted on anything loose in the environment. as Ed said, one death ( while very sad) from the use of hemp is very low indeed given that LOTS of people use this as a substrate. I personally dont use it and never have, but even swapping to soil and sand presents problems. impaction, eye irritation, bacteria build up. I personally always try to weigh up the pros and cons of anything before using it. there will always be a draw back to any rpoduct/method, no matter how well researched and maintained.

True - but I would'nt expect the Trust to collate data on this particular topic in the manner you suggest but my guess would be 'very few' vs 'lots'

The point to get across to the other readers that while this kind of information is interesting it is far from conclusive to the point that it is hardly a reason to abandon a particular practice.

Ed

well for now im going to use the usual soil/sand
befor i had hemp at one end with the sand and soil but now just that ,untill i find somthing i like
pic of substrate

Sand and soil has been rumered to cause impaction leading to death and eye irritation are we to stop using that?

I posted about my problems with hemp over a year ago i didnt expect everyone to stop using it.

Its seem to me that when a certain organisation reports something we must all jump and do as we are told!

Yes read people experences and make your own mind up!!! come on tortoise people we do have brains dont we!!

Im not saying this is not a awful thing that has happened and yes it has made me think!

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To be fair to the Tortoise Trust they didn't report this incident... Jean, the original poster, posted her story on quite a few of the Yahoo tort groups not just the TT. Tamie just kindly copied it on here so that people could read the full story - which I myself would have done but I didn't have Jean's permission - sharing information is an important aspect of keeping any reptil so that people can make their own decisions based on theirs and others experiences.

There will always be debates on substrate in whichever section of the forum you post in. You only need to do a search on sand in the Lizard section to see how many times that's been debated and how heated it can become. We all have to make our own decisions, based on our own research and what we feel is right. Unfortunately sometimes we have to live with making the wrong decision in certain situations and sometimes things go wrong which we couldn't have anticipated. All we can do at those times is learn from and share those experiences with others so that they are fully aware of what can happen sometimes, which is what Jean was doing in this situation. Let's hope a similar situation never occurs for any of us and count ourselves very lucky.

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Does anyone else see the humor in this objective post?

or

Maybe I just read it wrong.

Ed