The bit about chemically treated is a dubious. I had heard of vinegar being used but I have since found out that the seed is heat treated. You can find this out from looking at nutrition information of hemp from various sources. When you think about it, it makes sense in a big way. Much quicker and cheaper to heat sterilise the seed. Unfortunately it does denature the vitamins slightly but I don't think they do it at high temps. I once germinated some to see how effective this "treatment" is. I would say 10% will grow so it can't be excessively high heats. But as they mention using chemicals, it may be worth ask them what chemicals they are. That would help.
I feed it as part of a mix, every few days. Fishing shops are by far the best and most economical way of getting ground hemp. Plus, I cannot see them being allowed to contain pesticides or insecticides as managed fisheries would probably not allow such things. Sarah tried that frenzied hemp with no problems. I prefer the seed coz it is cheap and I can wash it first. After you've tried it, if you want to use it regularly get a cheap grinder and buy seeds from a pet shop. You'll save a lot of money.
Hempseed carries such microscopic traces of TetraHydroCannibanol that there is no risk of getting high from seeds. There is a lot of misinformation about hemp. For instance, you can buy hemp tea that does contain traces of THC. Now, this is minute seeing as the leaves are harvested from industrial and not medicinal hemp. So technically, to own the tea is breaking the law, as the tea is cannabis leaves with some THC content! Figure that one out. Some people think hemp is not the same as marijuana and this is not true. It is the same plant that botanists still struggle with. Essentially, there are three basic holotypes if you will (I avoid the word species for these);
Cannabis sativa (African, tall growing) for industrial use, stronger varieties for cerebral high. Pet shop seed is an industrial, low medicinal (ie. low THC, CBD and CBNs) variety that would struggle in our climate.
Cannabis indica (European, very bushy) for medicinal use. Very strong, for couch-lock effect. You've heard of skunk. Skunk is a variety of this type. Sometimes, this is bred with sativa for the best of both worlds, recreationally and commercially (in countries like Holland that aren't braindead - though perhaps not for long
).
Cannabis ruderalis (Russian, small variety) used very little. Little industrial or medicinal value although sometimes used to breed certain physical qualities into the other varieties, like cold-hardiness.
All varieties are bred from these types, because they can all be crossbred. It has male and female plants so genetically it is easy to create strains. Somewhere along the line, the law got a bit messed up with the lies about it and we're now in a situation where no-one of importance really seems to know the facts. There is currently a campaign to get cannabis strains with next to no THC legally classed as hemp and other strains to continue being cannabis. The idea is to try and make it clearer so it is easier for the government to declare hemp legal, but not for recreational use. Not a bad compromise in the current circumstances of no, no, no. But in reality it just muddies the water even further in my book.
But to be clear, in ALL cases, you cannot get stoned from the seeds, they were a huge part of the staple diet in this country and countless others for hundreds of years and in fact here you could be imprisoned for not utilising your land for hemp production for the King.
It is shocking to think that we cut down trees that takes decades to grow, when we can grow hemp, crop every 12 weeks and make 4 times more paper per acre of a better quality that requires far less chemical processing. (US department of Agriculture). And you can make the ink you need for the paper from it also. By using trees we're literally wiping our own ass with our future. One day, perhaps this country will grow up from the level we are at, which is about an 10th grade emotional level I think, and start judging things using FACTS and not "reefer madness" lies.
I know I mention this whenever I get the chance but I'm driven to do so, not least because it is has been campaigns like this that have perpetuated myths such as drug effects of seeds. If you mention to people you're feeding your snails cannabis seed you'll definitely get a few raised eyebrows and probably some busybody taking far too keen an interest in your business. An old woman near me had her door kicked in by police because she'd thrown budgie seed in the back yard and it had grown. That would have had to come from a neighbour. So know the facts, that's all I'm saying so you know everything is legal and why.
Not to mention I feel strongly about it, purely for the idiocy and selfishness of it all. At the absolute least in my opinion, if it can benefit someone medicinally, and we know it can, they should get it instead of waiting for the exalted disease industry to crack splitting the recreational effect from the medicinal value. People who use it medicinally stop getting stoned but the medicinal value is still the same. MS, Glaucoma, Epilepsy, nausea-relief for AID and cancer patients who can't swallow medicines, and many more uses, and perhaps one of the biggest killer of all, stress.
Anyway, I hope that answers you're questions. But I'd like to mention something about food in general. Like anything you're not 100% about, if you get some take it easy at first. I can't foresee any problems but I would still suggest you feed 1 snail and observe, just in case. At the end of the day, supermarkets admit that they can't guarantee even their organic food is organic. And there have been cases of organphosphates such as Dichlofenthion found on seeds in this country. It is not on our approved list, but there is a scam for want of a better word that somehow allows the UK to import seeds after they have been treated abroad. The Minister for Food at the time (2002), Lord Whitty didn't have a clue what was going on. Quite shameful really, especially since it caused health problems in workers transporting the seeds. So wash everything if possible and definitely test everything first since snails are so sensitive.