Silent Spinner

[Lee Van Cleef]

Hi,

I adopted a Russian Dwarf hamster (from P@H...) named Rusty last week. The poor little blighter was one of the "Over five weeks old" crew and I didn't like seeing him there on his tod. I haven't kept a hamster since I was in my early teens.

Anyway, after putting up with a pretty meh wheel for a week (that came with the cage) I went out and got him the 6.5" Silent Spinner which seems more comfortable for him, a bit bigger and he doesn't start sliding out of it. The one concern I do have is there is very little friction which means when he builds up a good head of steam then all of a sudden just stops, the wheel keeps going and he flies halfway up the wheel and then comes either sliding or tumbling down. Is that something he'll adapt to by learning to slow down rather than just stopping or do I need to do something about the wheel?

[Roxie]

My Chinese did this when she first tried out her silent spinner. It did worry me to see her do an almost backflip off it but within a week she had adapted and hadn't injured herself in any way. She now gradually slows down and makes the wheel come to an almost stop and doesn't fall off anymore.

Your dwarf should soon learn to adapt so don't worry

Oh, and great username

[Lee Van Cleef]

Thanks for the response, I'll keep an eye on it all then.

He's still getting settled the little mite. Changing his wheel on him fairly early probably unnerved him a bit but I think he's starting to get there. Thanks again.

[MzWiz0915]

my two robos make sport of this, they are perfectly capable of slowing the wheel down and running for lengths of time without flipping out of the weel, but they just seem to enjoy it. We've tried other wheels, which caused them to pout and exercise less, and so we have just give in.
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Since I know they do this for sport though I am very cautious with their cage layouts so that there is no chance they well fall on something or hit a wall and get hurt. Just loads of fluffy bedding surrounding the wheel

[firedrake13]

When I first introduced a wheel to my babies (I had the omg my hamster just had babies moment not so long ago lol thanks pet shops ) and I just got em a cheap-o wheel for their monitored wheel time, they did the same thing once they really learned to get going, thank goodness I tend to give loads of bedding so loads of padding when they took a tuble, and was right there watching and to make sure no one got hurt, they learned very quickly how to slow down, sometimes they do it for fun tho I think.