HammyWorld - DangerZone, Wire-Wheels

Wire-Wheels

Our hamsters needs exercise-wheels - no question. The different kinds of available wheels are described in the section products, wheels.

Wire-wheels (see pictures below) are dangerous for our hamsters, cause

Hamster-feets can and will slip through the spaces between the rungs. Thinking a minute about the normal speed a hamster will turn the wheel, possible injuries are easy to imagine. In fact, i know more than one hamster serious injured by a wire wheel. Worse case is a broken leg. Cause you can´t fix a hamsters leg or prevent him using his leg, a broken leg will never heal completely without any disorders left.

The metal-bar on both sides connecting the the wheel to the axis can work like a guillotine. I don´t want to give description about possible injuries here. I know one hamster that died cause of a wire-wheel has broken his neck.

If a wire-wheel is the only available one, you should at least use cardboard to secure the space between the rungs like displayed at the pictures on the right (pictures courtesy of Susan Mireles/Mad House Hamsters).

A big wire-wheel is much better than another sort of wheel with a much to small diameter ! If your hamster is running in his wheel building a "U"-shape, the wheel is too small !

If the axis (of any kind of wheel) is touching the hamsters rear, the fur (esp. if you have a longhaired hamster) could get caught and wrapped around the axis.

So avoid a wheel with a too small diameter - regardless of the kind of wheel !

Your hamster will lose interest in running in his wheel, if it´s too small. And hamsters NEED the exercise of running miles each night in the wheel ! It´s much more important to have a wheel big enough for your hamster, than which kind of wheel it is !

(c) Kay Michaelsen 2002