Wheel killed gerbil?

Question
First off, thank you for taking the time to read my question.

I had three gerbils living together.  One day as I was watching Nano running on his wheel he was clocking up some serious speeds on the thing :)  Suddenly while he was running he was flung out of the wheel which looked like it caught him by the neck and flung into the side of the cage.  He started flinging his hind legs violently and was shooting all over the cage until i caught him.  He was still doing this until he gradually stopped.  Unfortunately he had stopped breathing and died :(((.  I think he may have broken his neck or something it was very sad to see.

I have taken the wheel out of the cage for now until i can get a safe answer so that Micro and Pico don't have the same problem.

Is it safe to put the wheel back?
Is there anyway to place/mount it in a way so that they don't get flung out when running fast?

PS: the wheel they have is called the silent spinner


Regards,
Jerry

Answer
Hi Jerry

I was so sorry to read about Nano - this is so sad.  I've never heard of this happening before.  He really must have been running fast.

One of the differences between hamsters and gerbils are their paws.  Hamsters have quite fat, podgy paws and are designed for climbing etc.  Whereas gerbils have very slender paws which are designed for digging.  Therefore, a hamster can grip much better than a gerbil.  This is easily seen if you put a hamster in an exercise ball.  They don't have any real problems running around in them, but if you put a gerbil in an exercise ball, whilst they can run in it, you can hear their paws slipping as they don't seem to get much traction.

I use silent spinners for my hamsters which are great as they cut down on the noise level, however, they are a solid shiny plastic.  In many ways this is ideal for a gerbil, but perhaps the surface of it was too shiny for Nano to grip on, and also these wheels can go fast.

Trying to find a wheel that is suitable for a gerbil is difficult because of this reason.  You can't use 'wodent wheels', wheels with drainage slits or wire bar wheels as a gerbil can get their tail caught.  Standard plastic hamster wheels (the larger type) are OK for gerbils, but as it is a softer plastic gerbils can chew them.  However, they don't go as fast, but they can be noisy.

I have a couple of gerbils at the moment and they don't have a wheel.  Instead, they live in a large glass tank with 3 platforms and I have filled the base of this with various tubes (plastic and ceramic) and coconut shells and I give them loads of cardboard to shred. Because it is a glass tank, they are able to make their bedding really high and burrow through it which they really seem to enjoy.  They are very clean in that they use one of the platforms as their bathroom area so that can easily be cleaned out every couple of days and this means that I only empty out their shredded cardboard when it is too deep (usually every 2 - 3 weeks).  What type of tank have you got your gerbils in?  If you don't give them a new wheel, would you be able to give them enough things to occupy their day with so that they don't get bored?   If not, I would be tempted to try them with one of the large standard solid plastic hamster wheels and be prepared to replace it if it gets chewed. You can get some that have suction pads to attach to a glass tank.

I hope this helps you.

Regards
Sheila