THe Wheel

Question
Why do hamsters like the wheel so much?  I understand it is normal behavior for them, buy WHY do they like it?

Thank you!!!

We have a teddy bear hamster.

Answer
Hi Fred.

Ahh, The Wheel.  I'm not quite sure of the reason for the attraction (or is it addiction?) to The Wheel myself.  But it certainly is there.  I've known mother hamsters to completely abandon a litter to run in The Wheel non-stop.  By the time she loses interest in The Wheel enough to go check on her pups, they are too dehydrated to save or already gone from exposure to cold.

I've known gerbils that run on The Wheel seeimingly to the exclusion of everything else in the cage.

A possible explanation is that they eat a high energy diet (especially if it is a mixed-seed diet with sunflowers - sunflowers are a very high energy food) and are just hyper because of it.  They've gotta burn off the energy somehow.

Another possible explanation is sheer boredom.  What else do you do when you live in a 12 inch by 6 inch box?

Maybe one explanation is that they know they're running - maybe they actually think they are going somewhere.  (I've known small animals that this statement would be a major insult to their intelligence, but I've known others I'm not too sure about..) My Roborovski's hamster sees my hand coming, jumps in The Wheel and runs for all she's worth - as though she thinks she can run away from me by running in The Wheel.  When she finally stops, she takes a look around and seems perplexed that she hasn't really gone anywhere.  I say she seems perplexed because she'll jump out of The Wheel, take a sniff around, and jump right back in to run again, as though she knows she's still in the same place because it smells like the same place, but she thinks she should be somewhere else by now.

The addiction to The Wheel is something we may never fully understand.

But I do understand one thing:  If you have a hamster cage in your bedroom, or you have a lot of hamster cages above your entertainment center, you should definately invest the extra money into getting SuperPet's Silent Spinner solid-construction type wheel.  They run and run and run.. and you don't hear a thing.  Bliss.