06/12/2026
A quick note regarding our recent wheel video, as we've received a number of questions and concerns about the wheel shown.
The video was taken in a temporary playpen during free-roam time with a particularly large litter of babies and an 8-month-old adult male who was participating in introductions. The wheel shown is a 12" Wodent Wheel, which was widely considered one of the safest and highest-quality exercise wheels available when the company was still active in the rat community. This particular wheel is not something that is permanently housed in any of our cages.
For context, this wheel is used only as a temporary enrichment item occasionally during supervised playtime and introductions. It is not part of our standard cage setups, particularly for adult male rats. While a 12" wheel may be suitable for many young rats and smaller adults, larger adults will often outgrow it, which is one reason we do not use it as a permanent exercise solution.
No rats were injured or harmed during the making of the video. However, because wheel safety is an important topic and many of you brought up concerns, we took the opportunity to revisit some of the history and reviews surrounding this particular product. It appears that over the years the company has vastly changed, the product has largely fallen out of favor within the rat community, and concerns have been raised regarding the exposed metal axle and exterior retaining clip, which some owners have reported as potential injury risks.
While we have personally never experienced an injury related to this wheel in the years that we've used it, we recognize that husbandry standards evolve as new information becomes available and new products come out. As a result, we will be discontinuing the use of this wheel moving forward. We also have removed the video from all platforms .
We appreciate the feedback and discussion from the community 🖤✨ this has been a learning experience for us too. Our goal has always been to provide safe, enriching environments for the rats in our care, and we're always willing to reevaluate practices and equipment as standards continue to improve.
