Gerbils love to spend much of their time running in their wheel and this activity is a good form of exercise and entertainment for them. In order to enriching the lives of gerbils and prevent some serious diseases of gerbils, it is worth to spend your time for proper research best gerbil wheel.
When choosing a gerbil wheel for the first time, it is important to consider the style and design of it to ensure that the wheel not only suits your cage setup but also pleasant for the pets.
#1 Gerbil wheel style
There are two main style of gerbil wheels: the traditional ferris wheel-shaped design and the flat, saucer-style wheels. With the traditional wheels, you can choose the separate wheel and place freely in the cage or get the cage mounted designs, which included with the cage. They are come with solid-surface and wire construction.
I do not recommend the wire construction wheels as the gaps between the rungs can get gerbil’s tail caught in between them. This is not only dangerous but also extremely unpleasant for the pet. Choose a solid wheel, one that your pets can’t get tangled up in.
Luckily, saucer style wheels usually provide a naturally flatter and usually solid running surface, which you can rest your mind to offer your pets.
#2 Material
There are many gerbil wheels are made of plastic. This is because plastic is cheap material, easy to clean, lightweight. However, plastic is not a suitable material to for gerbils wheels as they love to chew and they tent to chew everything surround include their wheel. what you will notice is that when your gerbils are not using their wheel, they might chew on it. So, your gerbil may unintentionally eat plastic.
There is one more safer material that is wood. Wood is the perfect chewing material for gerbils. You also do not need to worry if your gerbils chew their wooden wheel, at least they are not ingesting something bad for them.
#3 Size
Gerbils can’t run enough in a wheel that’s too small for them. An ideal size for a gerbil wheel is about seven or eight inches in diameter. This will ensure your pets have enough space to run without having to be at an uncomfortable angle and twisting their body or arching their back.