Re: The ethicality of scientific research with hamsters as subjects
I don't see why the hams couldn't have toys, but each cage would have to contain the same ones.
Suppose you had less hamsters, with each one having a small portable house where its stash was and its favourite bedding etc, and you could move that from one cage to another with its resident. Then the same hamster could be observed in each environment for a certain number of days/weeks.
You could have an experiment where you measured hours spent chewing against number of toys.
What criteria could you objectively use to measure stress or contentment? Would you have to stay up all night to measure it? Could age be used as an indicator? It's objective and you don't have to stay up, and you could use other people's data though you would need a lot of it given all the other factors involved in a Hamsters longevity. The hamster would have had to live in the same cage throughout its life and you could collect data that is historical.
It's fascinating thinking about it isn't it?
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