[beepbeep]

Hello! I’m new here and I haven’t owned my hamster for long, but I have owned rats for a year and a half now so I know a little bit! Anyway, I wanted to share some thoughts and ideas! A little backstory...
my hamster has two cages: a wire cage and an aquarium. I’m considering using the aquarium as a travel cage and the wire cage as an everyday cage, as the wire cage is much larger than the aquarium. My theme for the wire cage is wood and natural things in general and my theme for the aquarium is mostly clear acrylic things. Today, I will be discussing the aquarium.

The Wheel

I was having the hardest time finding a clear wheel that was the proper size, so I decided to make one! I considered getting a large plastic food container and cutting it, but I instead decided to find something already made from acrylic to match the theme. I also considered making or buying a stand, but one thing I didn’t like about my hamster’s current wheel (Wodent Wheel) was length of the stand. She often pushed bedding under the wheel and it would get stuck, so I wanted to figure out some way to attach it to the aquarium above the bedding. I also wanted to be able to take it out for cleaning. Hopefully the pictures will help explain some things if this gets confusing. The cake cover has some sort of handle thing going on in the middle where it plateaus. What I actually added is the suction cup and the clear circle under which it's attached to. The wheel is 11.78" in width.

WHAT I USED:
a container
a fidget spinner
a strong suction cup with hook
super glue
a craft knife
optional:
clear scotch tape
pliers

Because I wanted all of my wheel to be clear, I decided on a clear fidget spinner. I removed the ball bearing and its covers. I was then left with the parts needed to make it spin. With a craft knife, I slowly cut a hole in the cake cover which was the exact width of the ball bearing. I made sure it fit snug. Then, I superglued the ball bearing to the cake cover. Next, I sandwiched the covers together through the ball bearing (the inside piece later came off but the wheel was unaffected because the ball bearing was superglued). I covered it with scotch tape for safety. Using pliers, I bent the hook of the suction cup to be parallel with the cage instead of perpendicular, and hooked the ball bearing cover on. Finally, I attached it to the aquarium!