I've read that this is safe and some say this isn't... so confusing... just curious to what others have to say and if anyone else has experience with this particular type of substrate... saw it at lowe's today and it was fairly cheap.
Mao Senpai said:So I did some research kinda... and according to the specs for the materials used...
# Percentage of Product Made From Wood (%) : 100
# Primary Specific Wood Species : Hemlock (Tsuga)
# Secondary Specific Wood Species : Eastern Hemlock (Tsuga canadensis)
Seems lot a lot of people recommend it and have used it for their lizards of all sorts and tortoises and was fine. It looks just like dark wood chips... but I am no expert. http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Tsuga
I also read somewhere these are part of the pine family(?) and isn't pine one of the poisonous types of wood for tortoises...
Madkins007 said:Can anyone find any clinical evidence that pine is harmful to reptiles, especially when it is in a mulch form (as opposed to shavings)?
I have searched for a long time, and all I can find are anecdotes, second-hand info, etc. There is no comment about avoiding pine in Mader's "Reptile Medicine and Surgery" and it is not listed as a toxic element there.
It would just be nice to know if there is really a risk here or not.
Mao Senpai said:Well after searching long and hard and after 20 phone calls later I found a place that can order me cypress mulch. Some place called Agway and I got myself 4 bags for 6 dollars each. Pretty pleased. Now I didn't realize each bag was 3 cubic feet. So.... now I have a whole lot of it......
Mao Senpai said:omg! Don't tempt me. I nearly bought another leopard just looking the other day. I had to restrain myself...... such awesome little things