Body surface area of the golden Syrian hamster.

The body surface areas (BSAs) of 30 Syrian hamsters were actually measured. From these areas, the Mass Coefficients (K values) for the Dubois and Dubois equation (5.31) and for the Meeh-Rubner equation (11.89), were computed. These values were independent of weight and sex. To verify the applicability of the Mass Coefficients, the BSAs of another 20 animals were calculated and compared with the actually measured BSAs. The difference between measured and calculated BSAs was not significant. Therefore, these values can be used with their respective equations to compute BSA in Golden Syrian hamsters.