Hamster Central - View Single Post - Wheel location

Pebbles82 · 03-24-2017, 06:57 AM

I used to have the wheel on the base of the cage with an inch or two of substrate (assuming the cage isn't tall enough to have the wheel higher up), and then either slope the substrate away from it or "fence off" the wheel end with a medium bendy stick bridge on its side, so you can have split level substrate. Sometimes hamsters do push substrate around and it blocks the wheel but you should check regularly to see the wheel is safe/spinning ok anyway and can just remove the offending bits again

Partly because of this issue, with my last cage I had a wheel that screwed to the bars and the wheel sat above the substrate so it was about the same depth throughout the cage base. This was more to increase floor area than to stop it jamming really. Also that cage was tall enough (but not too tall to do that). So for example, internal cage height was about 43cm. The diameter of the wheel without the stand (screwed to the bars) was 30cm, and the wheel was screwed 1cm from the top of the cage, meaning there was about 12cm of substrate underneath it. Even then if a hamster decided to push a mountain of substrate up to it, it would jam lol. But it is trickier when it's on the floor and substrate just falls into it easily.

Is it for a dwarf hamster or a Syrian? If it's a Syrian it depends how tall the cage is and what wheel it is, what you can do with it. If it's a dwarf with a smaller wheel I would try making a subterranean hide - like a wood box that sits on the floor of the cage and just protrudes from the top of the substrate, with the wheel on top. That way the hamster can burrow under the wheel without blocking it up - but if they decide to block it up they just do it!

03-24-2017, 06:57 AM
Pebbles82 Hamster Antics Join Date: Sep 2014 Posts: 23,533	Re: Wheel location - lower substrate? I used to have the wheel on the base of the cage with an inch or two of substrate (assuming the cage isn't tall enough to have the wheel higher up), and then either slope the substrate away from it or "fence off" the wheel end with a medium bendy stick bridge on its side, so you can have split level substrate. Sometimes hamsters do push substrate around and it blocks the wheel but you should check regularly to see the wheel is safe/spinning ok anyway and can just remove the offending bits again Partly because of this issue, with my last cage I had a wheel that screwed to the bars and the wheel sat above the substrate so it was about the same depth throughout the cage base. This was more to increase floor area than to stop it jamming really. Also that cage was tall enough (but not too tall to do that). So for example, internal cage height was about 43cm. The diameter of the wheel without the stand (screwed to the bars) was 30cm, and the wheel was screwed 1cm from the top of the cage, meaning there was about 12cm of substrate underneath it. Even then if a hamster decided to push a mountain of substrate up to it, it would jam lol. But it is trickier when it's on the floor and substrate just falls into it easily. Is it for a dwarf hamster or a Syrian? If it's a Syrian it depends how tall the cage is and what wheel it is, what you can do with it. If it's a dwarf with a smaller wheel I would try making a subterranean hide - like a wood box that sits on the floor of the cage and just protrudes from the top of the substrate, with the wheel on top. That way the hamster can burrow under the wheel without blocking it up - but if they decide to block it up they just do it!