Hm, what would you say a most natural environment is? Or the right amount of contact with humans? Perhaps I should check some of your other posts to get the idea, but I would love it, if you could say a bit more on that subject.
I don't know, it seems I always come back to the same problem.
What makes an animal happy? How can I tell if it is happy or at least content? I decided to bring home a small animal and she will probably have a very uneventful life. No rain, no major temperature changes, most of her life spent in the same cage, food almost always a few inches away from her home, no other creatures that would want to hurt her or eat her ... The only stress will probably come from us trying to interact with her in one way or another. And our needs are purely selfish: she is our pet and we don't want to just look at her, no matter how cute she is. And I may be wrong but I think none of my previous hamsters would mind if I kept our interaction (touch, talk, handling) to zero. Two of them never ran away from me, but I don't think they enjoyed my company either. They probably saw me as a source of food and that's it. Clicker training exploits that in a way, or it regulates it.
I know some people that have the same interaction with hamsters as they do with fish. They enjoy looking and observing their hamsters from afar. They feed them, give them water, maybe change one thing or two in their cages and clean their cage from time to time. During cleaning time they lure the hamsters in to the box, or just pick them up while they are in their house. I on the other hand would like at least some contact with my hammie. And I'm trying to find ways to do that in a way that doesn't cause too much stress for her.
The other day I actually googled Where do hamsters like to be petted. Simply because I like stroking that little ball of fur. But in the back of my mind I doubt that she will ever enjoy it. My only hope is that she can learn to tolerate it for a minute or two
