Kuhnen, G. 2002. Comfortable quarters for hamsters in research institutions. In: Comfortable Quarters for Laboratory Animals, Ninth Edition. Reinhardt, V. , Reinhardt, A. (eds.), 34-38. Animal Welfare Institute, Washington, DC.

Practical guidelines for the species-adequate housing of hamsters in research facilities. Any housing system for hamsters should satisfy the physiological and ethological needs for resting, nestbuilding, grooming, exploring, climbing, hiding, digging, searching for food, hoarding and gnawing. Golden hamsters readily overcome their instinctive fear of humans when they are regularly handled with gentless [p. 37]. ..Regular, gentle handling of a research hamster is no waste of time but will pay off in more reliable research data [p. 37].