Did you know, most hamster wheels available commercially are unsuitable for hamsters?

a) they are generally too small - hamsters benefit from much bigger wheels.

b) they normally have a solid central axle that in the event of a mis-footing can see the hamster break its back.

c) hamsters can cover several miles in a night, most of these wheels use friction bearings that wear out and worse can fail, leading to injury.

Here is my new improved Hamster Wheel!

There are two versions:

One you print in vase mode - that is not as strong but is super light and is actually fine for most hamsters. I do not have a 0.6/0.8mm nozzle so can only just about manage 0.8mm walls on my 0.4mm nozzle. With a 0.6 or 0.8 you could potentially increase the wall thickness to 1.2mm or 1.6mm. To print this one you need to print both the wheel and the hubs / centre (in a seperate profile as BS only allow vase to be a global setting.)

The 2nd is a normally sliced version - this is harder to print with more than a single colour, but with 1.2mm walls this one is solid enough even for a rat. (would probably need 12" not 9" for a rat though!)

The only hardware you need are 2x 608 bearings for the hubs and the axle is an M8 stage / shoulder bolt. In my orginal design (Silent Hamster Wheel by sirfragalot - MakerWorld) I printed the axle bolt - and to be fair to it, it lasted about 8 months…and our hamster was on it ALL night EVERY night!