Wheels for Rodents.
Most small animals really enjoy a run on a wheel so here are a couple of wheels that you can buy for your furry friends. Never use the standard wire wheels with cross spokes that are generally sold in Pet Shops for animals with tails as they can catch their tails and feet in them and do a lot of damage. This is particularly important with Persian Jirds who have such long tails. There used to be a major problem getting hold of a good wheel in the UK but there are a number of choices available now. If you find it difficult to get hold of a wheel there are lots of ideas for entertaining your pet at the Environment Enrichment page. When you first get a wheel, they do have a habit of getting on top of it or trying to jump into/out of it at high speed. So it is best to secure it away from anything that your pet can fall against. They will soon learn that it's not a good idea. Some chinchillas and degus, particularly older animals who have never seen one before, may not use the wheel immediately. It's worth persevering and leaving the wheel in the cage and sometimes, just as you think they will never use it, they suddenly get the point even after several weeks.
This page is only an information page with some experiences of the wheels concerned. I do not necessarily recommend any of the suppliers on this page and it is for information only. The prices could well be out of date as well. I have tried to include negative experiences as well as the positive ones - most of these are under the Leo Braun wheel as this was the one that most people had for a while. If you want to find out more about wheels and people's experiences with them go to the forums at Chinchillas Unlimited and do a search on Wheel. I am always interested in hearing about people's experiences with wheels so feel free to e-mail me.
John Hopewell
John Hopewell, who makes great chinchilla cages, also makes both 12" and 16" wheels. Shown below is the 12" wheel £40 + postage at time of writing - which is a great degu or jird wheel. The larger 16" wheel at £50 + postage is better for chinchillas as they can run flatter on a larger wheel - go to his wheels page here for more details. Quite a few of the people on Chinchillas Unlimited have these now and I have not heard anything but positive comments about either the wheel or ordering them.
I ordered a 12" wheel my degus for about a few years ago now. John kindly made me a custom bracket for my Terenziani cage, which has a lip running round half way up. In fact the standard bracket is fine for these cages. I was told that this would take 3-4 extra days - and as promised my wheel turned up in just over a week.
It is a large wheel for a degu, but Pumpkin was soon rattling round on it and by the evening she was using it pretty much constantly so I could get the photos below. Because of the size of the wheel she can run flat out, at full stretch, rather than having to lift up her head and tail. This reduces stress on her spine and stops her rubbing the fur from the base of her tail. It gets up quite a bit of momentum, but she's soon learnt to slow down to stop it. The original wheel was not as quiet as the Leo Braun wheel, but John has kindly let me try his updated wheel and the new bearing is very quiet and he has refined the metal joins to make them smoother (not that I ever had any problems with the old ones). It does its job very well and is a fraction of the cost of the Leo Braun even before considering import costs. If you have an old style wheel get in touch with John as he can update the bracket for you. It's taken several years of constant use and degu pee (which is seriously corrosive) and still looks as good as new. It also acts as a favorite sunbathing spot as the metal warms in the early morning sun (never leave your degu's cage in full, hot sun). I haven't heard of anyone having problems with chinhchillas chewing this wheel and it certainly looks like it would stand up to it.
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Wodent Wheels.
Transoniq make Wodent Wheels which are super wheels for hamsters, rats and less chewy degus.They are reasonably priced and they will ship to the UK. At the time of writing you can also get Wodent Wheels in the UK from the Pet Planet web site. If that link doesn't work go to the main Pet Planet page and do a search on Wodent. I have ordered a couple from them and they turned up in good time and are now being trashed by the degus!!
Take a look at my Degu pages for pictures of them enjoying their wheel. The Wodent Wheel site also has a really cute picture gallery of different rodents using the wheel. As they are made from plastic these wheels are not suitable for Gerbils, Jirds and Chinchillas who will destroy them for the fun of it. My Degus also chew them but it takes them a couple of months to completely trash one which isn't too expensive.
Here is a review from the rat and mouse gazette.
Note : I have had a lot of emails from people saying that their degus have been trashing these wheels really quickly. I think that it depends upon the degu but certainly some of them will destroy them so quickly it just isn't economic. Some ideas to help are to provide your degus with lots of alternative things to trash such as boxes (I use only ones that have had food in because I figure they are not allowed to use toxic dyes on food boxes), willow toys, wood toys etc. I have an Environment Enrichment page with ideas on how to keep your pets entertained. I find that the back from one wheel can be re-used as a new front if you cut a couple of holes in it. I believe that Wodent Wheels also sell wheels with smaller holes in for heavy chewers and it is much cheaper to ship a few fronts rather than the whole wheel. I've changed over to a John Hopewell wheel for the degus now.
Flying Saucer Exercise Wheel.
The Flying Saucer Exercise Wheel is an amazing looking wheel designed to have no openings or spokes that a chinchilla can get its legs caught in. A smaller size available that would suit degus. It's worth following the link above to see the wonderful animated gif of a chinchilla running on the wheel! I bought one for the degus last year - they ended up with two wheels, a John Hopewell and the flying saucer which meant they could both run at once. You could get two degus on a flying saucer at once though!
There is someone importing them into the UK at present - this is the website. I bought my wheel there and it arrived promptly and the site has been running for some time now.
Stan kindly emailed me to tell me about his experiences with a flying Saucer Wheel for his chinchilla Einstein: -
"When I was reading it said that some chin have problems learning how to run it, but within a few minutes he was "jogging" and now sprints.
I don't know if it is common but it also changed his demeanor. We had owned him a few months and both my wife and I were disappointed that he wasn't more social. He seemed to be withdrawn and was always skittish. Within 2 days he was coming to the door and waiting for us to rub him and crawl on us. I would have never thought that adding a wheel would make that kind of difference.
As far as Einstein is concerned, if he could talk he would say he loves it. I find him sleeping on the wheel daily. The first week he didn't get off except to eat, drink, and urinate.
So, if asked if I would recommend this wheel, I would give it high marks and say it is a must. My only negatives is that the product was back-ordered for 2-3 weeks and it takes up a large amount of space."
So another happy, wheel obsessed, chinchilla then! I am particularly interested in the fact that several people have reported improvements in their chins temperament after getting a wheel. I think bored chins get depressed and withdrawn really easily and so a wheel is obviously worth the money. Other toys to chew and throw around such as cardboard boxes, chews, tubes etc will also help or try the Environment Enrichment page for more ideas.
A big thumbs up for the flying saucer wheel then.
Ed Wheel
Chinworld are now doing a solid 14" wheel that is half the price of the Leo Braun. I quote:
"Is this wheel as nice as our Leo Braun Wheel? Frankly, no. But it is still a very safe wheel that is made to last. In fact, we like to think of this wheel as the economical alternative to a Leo Braun Wheel. "
Because it is cheaper you may also avoid paying customs on it - the only lady I know who has imported one did but I can't guarantee she wasn't just lucky. It is also a couple of pounds lighter which should mean cheaper postage. I'd like to hear from anyone else that has one of these.
Sadly I've had to remove the video of Pepper having a good run on his wheel as my download limit has been exceeded and this was the thing that was using most bandwidth.
Leo Braun's Small Animal Wheels
Leo Braun used to make very high quality 12 and 15" wheels for Degus and Chinchillas, which were sold by Chinworld. However they do not appear to be selling them any more.
As you would expect a wheel of this quality it came at a price - $99 and the shipping was almost as much. Leo Braun was going to stop making the wheels and the people at Chinworld persuaded him to do one more run and then another. It might be worth contacting Chinworld to ask if there are going to be any more if you are interested. I've left my review of the wheel here as it's quite an interesting study of what happens when you give two young chinchilllas a wheel! I still have the wheel many years later, still being used heavily by Fidgit - never had any problems with the bearings although it did get slightly chewed at one point.
My first impression was that it was a beautifully made bit of kit and absolutely enormous. I had to take the roof off the cage to get it in! The photos above give some idea of it's size - the fluff balls did at least seem interested in what I had leant against the side of their cage!! It has a sturdy, completely enclosed bearing mechanism that runs completely silently and it affixes to the side of the cage with 3 wing nuts. There is so little friction that if one of the chins sits in it any movement causes it to swing higher and higher from side to side until they start to look quite green - very amusing!! It took Spike about 15 minutes to work it out and was walking very slowly in it by the time I went to bed. It was a bit nerve wracking as Fluff obviously thought that the whole point of it was to jump on top of it and run at high speed until she catapulted across the cage landing in a heap. By the morning Fluff was rattling around on it and I took the photo above. Spike can really get up to speed as well. They then spent all day asleep and were not interested in coming out this evening - I think that they had completely worn themselves out on it. I know that the Wodent Wheel people recommend that you limit your rodents time on a wheel to start off with but I have no way of getting it out.
For the first 2 weeks after its arrival both Chinchillas refused to come out for a run in the evening they were so obsessed with the wheel. I got a bit of a scare with Fluff as I would come into the room and she would be breathing really heavily - I thought she might be developing pneumonia again. What was really happening was that she had been running on the wheel but had got off when she heard me coming to beg for a treat!! After the first couple of weeks they started to want to come out again. I am particularly please with the fact that Fluff, who is a picky eater and tended to loose weight really easily, put on weight over the months. Spike was a bit of a porker at the time, but lost a bit of weight with the extra exercise. I am also sure that they are both happier than they were pre-wheel. Spike developed a bit of an attitude problem when picked up - it's like he has become a much more self confident animal and doesn't see why he should put up with the indignity of being held! Fluff also stopped her habit of violently shaking the door of the cage to get attention which I take as meaning she isn't as bored as she was. When I had to go into hospital and they didn't get out for a week and I felt much less guilty than I would have done.
They have both learnt to control the wheel and can slow down and stop without falling out now. They seem to share fairly well and only occasionally think that it is a good idea to jump in when the other is running at speed. Really the only disadvantage I can think of is that it is quite noisy as the back of our cage isn't very rigid. We had to reinforce the bars with strips of aluminum because a couple of them snapped from metal fatigue - this should be less of a problem on a standard galvanised mesh cage as it has the stability of a grid but the bars on our cage are only attached in two places.If you are concerned about fixing your wheel onto the cage or are suffering from excessive noise from a vibrating cage, have a look at Trayce's page Dragonfly Wood. Scroll down the page to see how she has secured her wheel using pine board.
So my overall conclusion is that it is a brilliant investment and worth every penny. Both chinchillas love running on it already and get themselves really out of breath which is great aerobic conditioning. They do have plenty of room in their cage and get let out fairly regularly, but I have no doubt that it will improve their general fitness and state of health no end. I have one question though - why does an obviously fairly intelligent animal like a chinchilla get so much enjoyment of running on a wheel? I just don't get the attraction and I could have sworn Fluff would have turned her little furry nose up at it. Now is it just rodents or would something like a dog use one if you had a large enough one?
Seriously Chewy Chinchillas : Abbie emailed me to tell me that her chinchillas
had been busily destroying their Leo Braun wheel. At first I thought she must have a different sort of wheel as I couldn't imagine them chewing through solid metal. However, she kindly sent me the photo below. Darren also emailed me to say that his chins chew his wheel (although not as enthusiastically as Abbies!). But these stories do seem to be very much the exception rather than the rule and don't let it put you off getting one as this is a very robust wheel. Having cheerfully written on this site that my two had theirs for 2 years without touching it they did go through a stage where they did chew the edge of it - it was because there was a chube that Fluff slept in next to the wheel and she would stick her head out and have a got at the edge.
