Gerbil all of a sudden keeps falling off wheel?

[emmalr]

Hi, I've had my gerbils since march and only one of them uses the wheel, a silent spinner.

He absolutely loves the wheel but now all of a sudden he keeps flying out of the thing, I'm wondering why this is as I'm worried she might injure herself.

I only noticed it happening recently, I got them back from the pet sitter on monday and it is only since then that I have noticed it happening.

Any ideas, I don't want her to hurt herself as there is a bit of a drop from her wheel to the bedding.

Thanks

[emmalr]

Just to add she's completely fine in all other ways, eating, drinking, digging and climbing like a lunatic and when she does fall of she jumps straight back on.

[hannah4049]

Unfortunately I don't really have any suggestions, other than maybe you will have to take out the wheel to stop her from injuring herself if this continues. But my gerbil used to do this as well.

He started doing this a few weeks after we got him and his brother. As he gained more confidence using the wheel, he started running in it faster and faster. Eventually he would run so fast that he would get flipped around and fly out of the wheel, like you describe. It was really scary, but he stopped doing this on his own. He doesn't run very fast at all in the wheel now, he has learned his lesson! 

Your gerbil might stop on her own too, but if she doesn't you might have to either remove the wheel or get a different one, if that makes a difference.

[emmalr]

I'll try keeping an eye then, hopefully she'll calm down a bit, as I say it's only been the last couple of days that I've noticed it and she didn't do it before I left them at the sitters so I'm not sure if it was happening their either.

[Jazzable]

Did they have the wheel while at the sitter? Maybe she's just out of practise?

[emmalr]

Yeah I kept the wheel in whilst at the sitter as they were getting less out of tank time, I'm not sure how much it was used though. She's been on and off it now for the past couple of hours and has fallen off quite a few times but kepps jumping back on.

[crittercrazy]

One of my gerbils used to do that. (With the same type of wheel) She eventually stopped. . . anyway I didn't do anything about it and the problem sort of fixed itself.

[eleda]

Jean Luc flipped himself out of his wheel a couple times. But I think that was because he was over-eager and out of practice because he'd been without it for a little while. there wasn't room for it in the tank; when i got my topper I put it up there. He doesn't use it as much anymore, tho he and his room mate have taken to sleeping in it! I think it's their summer home.

[t0m]

Just to add that both my boys have managed to do this with a heavy wooden wheel, so it's not specific to one type of wheel. They both figured it out after a while, and it didn't seem to do them any harm, they were just slightly dazed before they jumped right back on! But if you're concerned then do remove the wheel for a while and see if the situation improves.