A Word About Exercise Wheels

I've gotten a few messages this month asking about the wire mesh wheels in many of the photos on the Twin Squeaks site. Thanks to everyone who asked about them. It's a reminder that our old gerbil-safe wheels tip is a little bit out of date. At the time that we wrote it, there were basically two styles of exercise wheels: plastic wheels and wire wheels that had ladder-like rungs.

The problem with the rung-style wheels was that gerbils' tails could get woven in between the rungs and get pulled off as the wheel spun. That's why we always recommend covering the wheel with paper if you use a rung-style wire wheel.

After we wrote the gerbil-safe wheels tip, though, Super-Pet and a couple of other companies came out with wire mesh wheels like the ones you see the Twin Squeaks Gerbils using in our photos. These wheels are great. The mesh openings are small enough that the gerbils' tails can't get caught in them. Most of the members of the American Gerbil Society that I know also use the mesh-style wheels.

Today, the mesh-style wheels are widely available. For instance, I know that both Petco and Petsmart carry them. Many online pet supply sites also offer mesh-surface exercise wheels. If you have the rung-style metal wheels, please keep covering the wheels to protect your gerbils' tails. If you have the exercise wheels with the mesh surface, though, your gerbils' tails should be fine.

I do apologize for any confusion that the gerbil-safe wheels tip on our site may have caused. We just hadn't seen the mesh wheels at the time that we wrote that tip back in 2003.

Thanks again to everyone who asked about the safety of the mesh wheels. I really appreciate that several people pointed it out. I'll try to get the gerbil-safe wheels tip rewritten sometime this week so that it includes information about mesh wheels. :)