Quote:
Originally Posted by lucyhope
But if hamsters' natural habitats are burrows surely squeezing through a tube is pretty normal for them, is there a study that compares two 400 square inch cages to one 800 square inch cage or not?
I understand the different studies done on minimum size, it's a controversial topic so I decided to just go for something we can all agree with in principle.
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In the study I quoted, they did look at whether hamsters used an "internal platform" in differently sized cages. They did use it when in a too-small cage and when in the larger two cages they showed much less interest. The conclusion was that when they had "enough*" flat space they didn't feel the need to use a level.
The connectable cages (an idea popularised by crittertrail) are based on nothing. There is no research to support that hamsters going through plastic tubes is anywhere close to approximating a natural behaviour. The "logic" there was invented by cage manufacturers so in asking for studies to disprove that logic, you're starting from the wrong place.
*The overall conclusion tho was that the 10,000cm2 cages were still not really large enough for them to be content.