Hamster wheel

This article is about the exercise device for rodents. For the Australian television satirical comedy series, see The Hamster Wheel.
Wooden hamster wheel, size 33cm
Like other rodents, hamsters are highly motivated to run in wheels.

A hamster wheel or running wheel is an exercise device used primarily by hamsters and other rodents, but also by other cursorial animals when given the opportunity. Most of these devices consist of a runged or ridged wheel held on a stand by a single or pair of stub axles. Hamster wheels allow rodents to run even when their space is confined. The earliest dated use of the term "hamster wheel", located by the Oxford English Dictionary, is in a 1949 newspaper advertisement.[1] Squirrel cages featured in an 1885 catalog titled Catalogue of the Osborn M’F’G Co. came with running wheels for the squirrels, just like a hamster cage.[2]

  1. ^ Los Angeles Times, 9 Oct. 1949, p. B20/4 (advt.), referenced in Oxford English Dictionary, Draft Additions, Sep. 2007, under entry “Hamster.”
  2. ^ "A Squirrel's Life – Smithsonian Libraries and Archives / Unbound". Smithsonian Libraries and Archives. Archived from the original on 2020-03-28. Retrieved 2024-08-17.