training to run in a wheel

[pbcup]

hi
my husband and i made a homemade running wheel for my boys. the wheel is similar to the silver surfer wheel. ours is 3" wide 12" dia. not 4" wide 14" dia. like the silver surfer. do chins take naturally to running wheels? my chins are 8 months and 5 months old. i'm wondering if 3" isn't wide enough for them?

 

[TessVH92]

Wheel question

I am not super knowledgeable in chins but I have had a total of 3 in a short period of time, and all of them immediately took to the wheel I have for them. Mine is a metal wheel with a chicken-wire type body to it so that her tail wont get stuck, the squares are about 5mmx5mm. All the ones that i have had will actually run to their wheel like they are trying to runaway if they do not want to come out of their cage or get spooked.

I hope that helps. I would say just put the wheel in by your boys and they will probably decide whether they like it pretty fast or not, especially because most chins are really curious about new things in their environment.

 

[Amethyst]

That homemade wheel sounds all around too small. The minimum diameter should be 14"-15", depending on the size of the chins, otherwise the chin's back is going to bend too much and get hurt (they don't have spines like most other rodents, they can't bend backwards without issues). Also I know I've heard complaints about the silver surfer running surface being too narrow and the chin falls off, so 3" would really be too narrow. Most chins do catch on pretty quick to the standard type wheels, but you do get the odd ones that think it's scary or think it's a bed, lol.

 

[akane]

Some just aren't fans of wheels. I had 3 young females in a double FN with a silver surfer. The female of the fully grown pair tried to run in it all the time and found it too small and would fall out or have to stop repeatedly so I moved it. I have yet to hear the smaller females use the wheel after months of being a pair and a month of being a trio but my husband says when he goes out in the kitchen really late or sometimes when he's leaving for work before I get up he sees them using it and poop appears in the wheel. I was going to move it to yet another cage to see if someone would like it better but apparently they are using it. I'm planning a flying saucer for the big standard and big hetero beige females. My ebonies and whites are smaller and seem to be fine with the silver surfer if they care to use a wheel.

 

[CRG7]

I'm not sure of training them to run on it; they'll just pick it up eventually if they choose to. I had a plastic wheel in with my boy when I got him, and all he did was use it as a seat while he ate some food for a while. Eventually, he started climbing on it, and would sometimes climb on top of it and run on it like that. He finally took to running in it the proper way, and would do this especially at night. I just replaced that one with a Chin Spin. He had to check it out the first night, and has been running in it on a regular basis since.

 

[pbcup]

thanks everyone for the advice! chins n hedgies is awesome!