Quote:
Originally Posted by Serendipity7000
I think the Germans have 3 "grades" of size. A legal minimum of 50cm square. A welfare minimum of 100cm by 50cm and an "ideal" or "recommended" size of 1 metre square.50cm square sounds like an odd size but I guess it's basically 2500 square centimetres (although my maths is atrocious ha ha).
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Wow, you did quite some research on German cage size recommendations!
In Germany the legal minimum is 3000cm² for dwarf hamsters (465sq inches) and 5000cm²(775sq inches) for Syrians and other medium sized hamsters. These regulations are stated in a
report published by the "Bundesministerium für Ernährung und Landwirtschaft" (Ministry for Nutrition and Agriculture) in 2014 that deals with the keeping of different mammals.
So technically, you could go smaller than the recommended size of 5000cm² for a dwarf but from what I've seen on German hamster forums most people won't go below 4000cm² (620sq inches). For me, 4000cm² is the absolute minimum but bigger is always better.