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Originally Posted by Kittiy_Ashford
I've had Chewy a week now, and he is displaying zero interest in his wheel. Previously he was in quarantine at work due to chronic sticky eyes (we had to make sure it wasn't an infection/contgeon he could spread to other animals) so his habitat was very limited for observation. IE: he was wheel-less.
All he seems to do now is use his wheel as a kitchen table! He doesn't sit in it or run in it, but instead he sits in front of it, puts his food on it, and eats off of it!
Has anyone else noticed this behaviour in their hammy's? It's pretty freaking adoreable, but totally odd!
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Most hamsters will use their wheel at some point if they are able to but some hamsters are a bit funny about having spectators whilst they are doing it.
You may find the odd hamster who genuinely has no interest in it and it tends to be more common in males who are a bit lazy. My male Chinesey doesn't really bother with his wheel so it's not always in his cage and he doesn't seem to miss it in the slightest.
One way of telling if he's using it at all is to place a small piece of substrate or toilet tissue on the top and if it hasn't fallen off then he's not been using it. It could be that Chewy is unsure of how to use a wheel, particularly if he's never had one in which case he may get used to it but it's also worth checking that he would be able to use it comfortably. On a whole a 6"-8" is fine for dwarf species but you'll need something bigger for a syrian.