[AmityvilleHams]

There are so many reasons that housing hamsters outside is a very bad idea, even on porches. One big reason is that you have no real way to keep predators out of sight and even preventing a hamster from smelling them, which most can lead to very harmful chronic stress and could cause serious illness or even death. We've found that hamsters have extremely good senses of smell, so even if you get lucky and never have outdoor cats for example clawing through mesh on a screened in porch the smell alone is a factor for stress which should be avoided.

Perhaps the overall tone of my posting has gotten harsh, and that's not really the intent for me.

I would happily give some ideas for stepping stone cages of sorts towards that square meter size or even ideas for working with small space, small budgets, etc. Looking back I don't exactly clarify that big changes don't have to come overnight or even right away, but gradually increasing space as possible is absolutely an option. Making changes and working your way towards better care is sometimes how it unfortunately has to go for some people, and that's completely understandable.

I would like to say that even being on this forum is a big step in the right direction. The more people learning about hamsters from a reliable source the better!