Exercise Wheel for Chinchillas

November, 2002
We like the spun aluminum wheel. It may be better for the chins feet and for cleaning if it were powder coated. However, we cannot find a way to get these wheels made at a reasonable price. It would be closer to $200CDN plus packing, shipping and handling. So for now we have given up our search.
However, on the the ChinNet there is a link to a web site where they sell wheels, toys, gifts, etc for chins and chin lovers! They sell 15" and 12" powder coated, aluminum chinchilla wheels. They also have a funky looking Flying Saucer wheel. Follow the links to the "Toys for Chinchillas" page.
*Disclaimer* These links are provided for your information only. We assume no responsibility for any interaction you have with the web sites or their owners.
September, 2000:
We were testing a new spun aluminum wheel. This seems like a good solution to the problems we’ve been having but the cost of the spun aluminum, when combined with shipping costs, may be too high.

After finding several shortcomings in two wheels I purchased, I endeavored to design and build my own 16 inch wheel (prototype shown above). For safety the wheel features a solid running surface and no spokes. For quiet smooth operation, the wheel is mounted on a ball bearing. The prototype is designed to hook onto the side of a cage but a model with a stand may also be made available. I am currently investigating the feasibility of producing wheels for sale. I hope to keep the price of the wheels to less than $55 CDN ($37 US) plus shipping and applicable duty. Please e-mail Joey and Aisling and ask them for more information about the availability of exercise wheels.

Drawback: We found that the Chinchilla urine soaked into the plywood backing and was therefore hard to keep clean.

Wheel Data

The Prototype wheel described above is currently being tested by Joey and Aisling. Out of interest I have installed some instrumentation on the wheel and a data acquisition card in my computer to allow monitoring of the chinchilla's wheel usage habits. Some of the data I have collected is shown to the left.
The first plot shows the distance the chinchillas ran in the wheel on two consecutive nights plotted versus time. It is interesting to notice the similarity in their running patterns between the two nights. They actually started running at 10:24pm on the first day and 10:22pm on the second. I guess they really are creatures of habit.
For the second plot, I broke down the measured speed data (collected over a 24 hour period) into one mile an hour categories and plotted the distance they ran in each speed category. For example the plot shows they ran 29.16% of the distance travelled at speeds ranging from 3 to 4 miles/hour.