Where to find peer reviewed literature on exceeding the minimum husbandry for hamster

[Coral4429]

Hi I’ve never used a forum before so i apologise if I’m in the wrong place or anything.
I’m doing a research project into the hamster care in pet stores and I need to do literature reviews for it, I’ve managed to find plenty of things about the minimum requirements and how legislation applies to these stores but the problem is I can’t find anything about exceeding those bare minimum standards that counts as professional research. As in written by someone who studies the field and has been peer reviewed, blah blah blah.
I just want something I can use to prove that the minimum is the minimum for a reason and that we should aim for more than that.
I was wondering if anyone on here has anything they would suggest i used, it would also be super helpful if it applied to UK animal welfare standards as that is where I am.
Thanks so much.

[Amethyst_ice]

Hello and welcome,

The problem with trying to find studies on this is because there is little value commercially for it, I am not aware of any specifically being done or how exactly you could do such a study methodologically.

As you likely know, most studies are funded so unless there was a commercial or sceintific need for change you likely will not find what you are looking for.

Also if you did find anything reviewed, you'd of course have to look at who commissioned the study and who reviewed it; I suspect it would be hard to find genuine peer review without any bias.

Most requirements are based from studies in labs which of course does not translate into the home or store environment well.

The sad fact is, research is time consuming and expensive, it is not an area there is great demand for. Also trying to measure animal needs in terms of happiness etc is rather hard to quantify so you may be best looking in the behavioural sciences areas that arent maybe focussed on rodents specifically but study impacts UPON rodents. Finding hamster specific studies may also be difficult as mice and rats are the preferred lab animal.

Like most pet ownership issues, like parenting, lots comes down to personal choice, preference and interpretation.

I'd suggest looking in vetinary journals as a starting point. However, even in a literature review, if you find little, you still mention that and it shows you undertook one.

[LunaTheHamster1]

have you heard of this website?
ResearchGate | Find and share research

They have lots of hamster info, not sure if any relate to cages and if been peered reviewd