Wheels?

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plstwd

Member
Joined
Oct 13, 2015
Messages
14
Do you guys keep wheels in your cages? When I was looking into buying a chinchilla, I was getting a lot of different answers. Personally, I have a flying saucer and I keep it in at night but take it out during the day. If I forget to put it in at night, my chin will let me know, she'll bite the cage and rattle it until it's in. She hasn't lost weight from it, she's perfectly fine. What do you guys do?
 
I keep mine in all the time, I have a flying saucer and I think it would be a real pain in the butt to take it out. My boys did lose a little weight when I first put the wheel in, but regained it. I think they burned off fat and then gained muscle since they seem more solid now, they were fed treat filled food when I got them so they were on the chunky side. The only time I removed the wheel was when I had a cheap drum style wheel that sounded like a paint mixer when they ran on it, and I had the chins in the bedroom at night (so for my sake not theirs).

Most adult chins are smart enough to know when to stop running on their own. It does happen sometimes that you end up with one that's obsessed and would rather run then do anything else, so in those cases you need to remove the wheel. So long as the chin isn't losing weight, not running on it nonstop (not eating or chewing, just running when awake), the chin isn't hurt or sick, and noise isn't an issue there is no real reason to remove the wheel.
 
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