Petition · past parliament · Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs

Ban the sale of hamster cages under the size of 620sq inches.

Closed 3,598 signatures

What the petition asks

To ban all sales and resales of cages under 620sq inches (the recommended minimum) for all breeds of hamsters. This is unbroken floor space.

Hamsters in cages that are too small get stress and leads to health problems and often death. Small cages also leads to not enough enrichment and exercise.
Hamsters have been wrongly marketed for years as small pocket pets. This is simply not the case. They need at least 620sq inches of floor space. It is cruel for hamsters to be kept in cages that do not meet this minimum requirements of floor space that a hamster needs to recreate their natural behaviours. In the wild a hamster would run for 4-5 hours every night, forage for food, go in and out of burrows and search high and low for food. Hamsters need the opportunity to recreate this in cages.

Timeline

15 Mar 2021 Petition opened for signatures
15 Sep 2021 Closed to new signatures

Key facts

Signatures 3,598
Status Closed
Department Department for Environment, Food and Rural Affairs
Opened 15 Mar 2021
Closed 15 Sep 2021

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Source: the official petition page. Last checked 15 Jul 2026.