ArticleAnimals : an open access journal from MDPI2025
What Are the Most Prevalent Welfare Issues for Pet Small Mammals?
Article in Animals : an open access journal from MDPI, 2025. The graph could read no effect estimate from its abstract, so it casts no vote on the map. Cited by 1 paper.
What it found
Each row is one number read from the abstract, on the scale the paper reported it, with its interval. Left of the dashed line favours the treatment, right favours the comparator. Under each row is the sentence it came from. New to these charts? A ten-minute tutorial.
The abstract states no effect estimate the extractor could read, or names no intervention and outcome on the map, so this paper lights no cell and moves no belief. It is still indexed, cited and linked below.
The trial behind it
Trials whose registry record cites this paper, or whose number appears in the abstract. A trial that started after this paper was published is citing it as background, not reporting it.
Neither the registry nor the abstract names a trial number. If this is a trial report, that itself is worth knowing.
Who cites it
1 citing paper in PubMed.
- Perceived Rabbit Care Knowledge Does Not Consistently Align with Owner-Reported Husbandry Practices: A Survey of Pet Rabbit Owners in Croatia.Animals : an open access journal from MDPI · 2026Article
Corrections and comments
PubMed lists nothing against this paper. Absence here is not a guarantee, only a check that was made.
Authors and funding
4 authors.
Funding
No grant is acknowledged in the PubMed record.
Abstract
The welfare of pet small mammals is an understudied, but growing research topic in the UK and Europe. We surveyed European veterinary experts who each rated severity and prevalence of a large number of issues in the eight most common species. Overall, 46 responses were obtained. We calculated the mean expert's ratings for severity and prevalence of each issue, which were multiplied together to create an overall impact score. We then ranked issues from most to least impactful for each species. The most impactful welfare issue was perceived to be small housing for all the species apart from the rat where the main concern was respiratory disease. Where comparing veterinary surgeons and veterinary nurses, rating differed significantly on numerous issues. Veterinary nurses generally rated welfare issues as more prevalent than veterinary surgeons. UK respondents also rated numerous issues as more severe and prevalent than non-UK respondents. Better guidance on, and increased availability of, affordable large housing is likely to greatly improve small mammal welfare.
Indexed as
Identifiers
What OpenQuestion holds
Registered trials
Read under generation 80e0d062 · epoch 390. Bibliography from PubMed, PubMed Central and OpenAlex; grants from NIH RePORTER; trial links from ClinicalTrials.gov; estimates, votes and beliefs from the OpenQuestion graph.