Spdrjay: We should set up thousands of them in the fields and let the rodents power our cities!
tatarzak: where do rodents living outside of captivity even find those wheels?
OlyScott: A researcher set up a wheel outdoors where wild animals could access it, and put some food out so that the animals would be attracted to the area and find the wheel. She left a video camera pointing at it. I saw a YouTube video with rodents running on it, a frog hopping on it, and a snail using it.
PNKNS: My hamster lived in a huge rabbit-sized cage that with a huge running wheel… but it was making all kind of noises (hamster didn’t mind but I could not get any sleep) so one night I just pulled that wheel out of the cage and hoped for some sleep.
Some time later I wake up and hear that wheel rattling again, I am like wtf, it was much quieter and slower noise, not consistent, it was like accelerating and then letting go and I recalled clearly I took it out of the cage.. turn the light on and to my surprise, some random mouse that lived in our house climbed onto the table where hamsters cage was and started running in the wheel – and now was terrified because of all the light. I was terrified even more, only later I realised that this mouse must have been comming to that cage every night and this time it was like early christmas, that magical running wheel was finally out. I wonder if that mouse and my hamster were friends, maybe exchanging food or dunno 🙂
Cashforcrickets: This is why I run when I masturbate… for the runner’s high.
268852458642258: Why don’t humans have wheels like this at home?
saijanai: Whenever any of the mice I kept as pets managed to escape over the years, I’d just set the wheel out in its cage and when I heard the squeak, squeak squeak of it turning, I’d come and close the door. The mouse would just kept running.
Hipolymerduck: Okay, I know I’m crazy… That being said, I regularly catch wild mice by hand. Most the time, if you’re confident and don’t hurt them they won’t bite. I keep a few wild mice as pets. In my observations over the last three years, the wild mice will do one of two things immediately; drink from the water bottle of run the wheel. All I can think is that mice are really well connected, and keep in contact with their relatives at the pet stores regularly.
Gaelicthunder: Running on wheels gives them a sense rodents a sense of pride and accomplishment…
Captain_Farts_: zoomies are zoomies
nakedvagina: As someone who runs simply not to be fat…where is this elusive “runner’s high?” I hate running, it sucks. I’ve never said “goddamn I feel good!” after a run. It does jumble up my tum tum to make me poo poo which is nice.
mshuster78: Now I know why wheels on cars get stolen.
Takashirojm: I just imagined a capibara running in a wheel.
Lucybeatrice: When I’m cleaning out my hamsters cage I let her run freely around my room but if I put her wheel on the floor she goes straight to it and spends the whole time running in her wheel instead
johncopter: What the fuck is “runner’s high” and how much for a g?
june606: Awesome they don’t watch TV or browse the internet and thus are not yet aware that is is possible to run without the latest pair of Nike or Adidas shoes.
weblynx: I caught a two house mice a couple years ago and put them into a cage with bedding, a hamster wheel, and those plastic reconfigurable tunnels. They both loved running on the wheel for hours on end. Then the first night one mouse killed the other mouse and ate it’s eyes. I found it the next morning running on the wheel (no doubt whistling innocently to itself). I kept that mouse for a couple months, but no matter how much I replaced the bedding it always smelled strongly of mouse pee. Eventually I took it to the suburbs and released it into a nice neighborhood. I didn’t have the heart to kill the little guy although I’ve since snap trapped a dozen or more mice in my house.
TL;DR: It seems like the hamster wheel is good fun for rodents on an instinctual level. Bravo to whoever invented it.
Doktor_Dysphoria: Which rodent did you interview that told you this?
shadow-warlock: Is it true that these wheels are bad for hamsters? On every video of a hamster running on one on Youtube, people always claim so in the comments.
1live4downvotes: I always thought rodents loved wheels cause they were gym rats.
PepeErnaga: Guinea pigs are rodents and they dont. Capybaras neither
huboon: I’ve never seen a rat actually run on a wheel. Their tails don’t bend enough. I’m sure you could train one though
TimelySir: We had removed our hamster wheel from the cage because it was too big for the hammie and placed in under the table, but then early one morning a wild mouse in our house started running in the wheel!
inciteful17: I ran for a few years. The only high I ever experienced was when it was over. Mostly the experience was just what the fuck am I doing this for? Respect to serious runners.
Ramoach: Can’t get my chinchilla to run on his wheel for shit and it’s been like 2 years,
jamespherman: Excellent observation, and definitely true. In the lab I work in, we make use of this natural tendency to (we hope) make experiments conducted on mice more engaging for them (we test certain basic functional aspects of their visual system). However, your statement implies that “runner’s high” is the cause of this tendency to run in wheels. To demonstrate that, you’d have to either block production of the “runner’s high” endorphins or their receptors in the brain (somehow prevent that “high”), and show that the behavior is abolished. There are other possible reasons that rodents innately tend to run in wheels.
MartBehaim: [Rodents are not unique behaving like this](https://youtu.be/YZekqEv8_0w)
ImNotYourBuddyGuy69: TIL that EA is run by rodents
milkn0sugar: r/hamsters
oscar3kings: It gives them a sense of pride and accomplishment.
redheadartgirl: Quick, somebody get a giant wheel for the capybaras!