Liz Buchanan BVSc MRCVS
Keymaster
Hello! I have no experience of this, but I would have concerns. Very small animals are not good at showing signs of stress - sometimes they bite at the threat of a predator, but in general they hide tgeir stress and pain. A weak, scared looking hamster makes a good target for a predator. Hamsters tend to be lone rangers, so there is no evolutionary or social advatage to showing their fear or distress and in general, unless they are very, very scared or distressed, it is hard for humans to perceive it. However, if you can imagine being a small animal enclosed in a cage, being taken through the range of environments required for being on a flight (airports, planes.... what noises and conditions would this entail? Does it include potentially being close to predator species such as cats?) then I believe that it has huge potential to be a welfare issue. Furthermore, you do not mention where you are flying. I dont know where in the plane the hamster would be able to travel. If you are in the Uk flying for that length of time, there would also be export / customs issues that you would need to look into. On top of that, there are some pressure changes encountered (you made have experienced your ears 'popping' - I am not convinced that this would be a positive experience for an animal so small. Perhaps I have raised more questions than answers here, but these would all be things to bring up with your airline and registered vet.
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