Thank you so much everyone for the educated and well thought out responses! This is some good feedback. I'm not going to respond to everyone's messages individually, as many have points that are generally the same, but will take certain statements from certain people's posts and respond
To address, and sonewhat back up what fluffagrams has pointed out,
we know that 100-360 sq in is completely unethical. The problem here is not so much the hamster community, as much as it is the welfare of hamsters in general. As mentioned, the lack of research really makes setting a definitive standard (when it comes to organizations) quite hard. Besides that, regulations could be made much more easily and put into place to help the welfare of hamsters. Something I would like to note- every community of animals that I take part in (quite a lot!) all have definitive standards which are seldom argued. There is no wishy-washy unsureness of which cage size suits that animal best. The reason being? Research! For example, gerbils only need 20 gallons per pair. The standard used to be 10 gallons, until research was done, and they concluded that 20 gallons and larger could easily fit a pair, and that rather than running space, it was burrowing that was so incredibly important to these critters. Another little note is that the most research that has ever been done, has taken place in Germany. It also just so happens to be that they have the largest cages and best standards of all the countries, far surpassing any other countries. The problem though, is that most of the articles are in german, and have yet to be found and translated properly. I think a study of this in English, would greatly benefit countries which do mostly speak English. Now I suppose the argument that we'd run into the same problem with smaller countries that don't speak English not being able to read this. However, I do hope to get this translated best I can. Most countries outside of Canada, the UK, Germany, America, etc, don't have any standards for what is okay when it comes to hamsters. I believe one of our own members,
hamsterita has even voiced this!
For an organization to see someone say "crittertrails are bad because they stress hamsters out" is not pressing enough evidence for them to say that it's true and create standards. There's just not enough research backing this up, and the research there is, isn't the best, leaving too many variables. I think though, if we could have a study that said with certainty, and tangible evidence that "yes, this stresses hamsters. Hamsters that are kept in cages of this size had heightened levels of cortisol", this provides definitive evidence. Anecdotes and subjective observations will never be the same as scientific research.
To address why I would take toys away- I'd like to note this would not be ALL toys, just quite a lot. The reason this would be done is to determine whether hamsters with a good amount of stimulation can be satisfied in say, a cage of only 800 sq in. Also to eliminate other factors.
All in all, I have more to add, but I will do so later today. If you have more to add, please don't hesitate to! Thank you all again
