Hamster Welfare Concerns – Presentation

Hamster Welfare are pleased to have supported SPRAW (Small Pet Rodent Awareness Week) which took place between 20th – 26th September 2021. The first day was dedicated to hamsters and the below slides where shown at the end of the day to highlight the differences between the correct welfare advice and the wrong products that are sold.

 

 

The Presentation highlights five areas of concern, these are:

  • Small Cages
  • Small Hamster Wheels
  • Fluffy Bedding
  • Hamster Balls
  • Rodent Mills

 

TVT Research says ALL species of Hamsters require a minimum cage size of at least 100cm x 50 cm of unbroken floorspace.

Most pet shops don’t respect any cage size welfare concerns, not only does an animal feel trapped in a small confined environment, cages are often targeted at children and resemble a child’s toy, making it more likely for a child to choose and for a parent to buy a small inappropriate cage. Furthermore, TVT research says that hamsters are not an appropriate child’s pet as they are often only active whilst children are asleep. The community get further frustrated to here shops describe hamsters as a perfect child’s pet.

 

 

Small wheels cause hamsters to run with a curved back, research shows that this can cause permanent spinal injury as can be seen on our Hamster Wheel Page. The issue can be clearly seen in the video that shows a Syrian hamster running on a small wheel with a curved back. This is not the natural running posture of a hamster and running like this for a prolonged period of time can cause pain an injury. This is why we believe that small hamster wheels are in contravention of the protection laws established by the Animal Welfare Act, where a keeper must protect their pet from unnecessary pain and suffering.

 

 

 

HamsterWelfare.com has presented the accumulative evidence and advice against the use of fluffy bedding to retailers and will continue to do so. To this day it has helped many major retailers to take the decision to stop selling fluffy bedding and stock safer alternatives. Our research and advice against the use of fluffy bedding can be seen here.

 

 

For many years hamster balls have been a debated subject: Do hamsters enjoy the experience? Are they safe?

 

The RSPCA have brought some clarity to the matter and they say that hamster balls are stressful experience for a hamster as they have no access to food or water and their senses are deprived.

 

Hamster balls are also dangerous because hamsters claws can get caught in the slits and ripped out. Major Ouch!

 

 

When buying a hamster the public can only imagine where that hamster has come from. All too often the truth is it was bred in Rodent Mill. As can be seen in the above pictures, many hamsters are kept together in tiny enclosures and it seems that all welfare laws i.e. “to provide a suitable environment” are being ignored. At HamsterWelfare.com we have provided a page exposing where do hamsters in a pet shop come from.

 

In the future Hamster Welfare have plans to provide a directory of ethical breeders and rescue centres so that less hamsters are purchased from pet stores.