The Silent Spinner

We've always had a Silent Spinner wheel in our cages, but it hasn't always gotten a lot of use. Mystery and Weasel used it a little when they were babies, but quickly grew bored of it as adults. Gabe, Pirate, and Loki never used it at all. The most use it got with our older boys was as a cool place to sleep in the summer.

But boys have never been known to be avid wheel runners. There are, of course, exceptions, but so far, not among our rats.

Now we have girls. Granted, they are still very young, but I put a Silent Spinner into their quarantine cage, and it has gotten more use in the last three weeks than it has ever gotten in the years before. Sometimes, there are even two of them in there racing in frantic tandem to some unattainable destination. The wheel is an excellent outlet for pent up energy - and these girls have plenty of that.

The Silent Spinner (Chinchilla size) is an ideal wheel for rats. It is 12" in diameter (anything smaller is too small), and it is made of solid plastic - safe for feet and tails and easy to clean. I like that part of the wheel is made from colored but transparent plastic, so I can get a good view of the rattie running in the wheel. It comes with a stand, but the stand is removable, and you can easily and securely attach the wheel to the side of a cage. And since rats frequently run at night, it is good that this is a fairly quiet wheel - as far as wheels go. It still makes some noise, but it is not too bad.

It can be difficult to find the large-sized wheel in pet stores, although our Petco has had it in stock on occasion. However, it is more affordable to purchase from Amazon - although you cannot select your color when you purchase online.

The video above demonstrates the Silent Spinner in action as Ruby gets a little exercise. The quarantine cage here is actually a Martin's Play Pen, which is not as structurally secure as a regular cage would be, so there is a little wobble in the cage when they run in the wheel. This is not an issue in a regular Martin's cage or Critter Nation.