Stopping a squeeky wheel?

Ok, aside from buying those silent wheels...

How are you guys stopping the squeeking? My asfs run on the wheel like no tomorrow. All day, night, 24-7..... Before I get more tanks and add on to the colony I gotta figure out how to stop the squeek.

You can use vegetable oil but it only works for a few days.

Yea, I used vegetable oil...

I like peanut oil! It held for quite a while when I had mice. I don't know whats the difference between it and Veg oil, but the squeak was gone.

I use Mineral oil. :)

when you're basically asleep, eyes all crossing and not focusing, and you hear the wheel, but you try to ignore it but you cant, and you're too tired to go down stairs... you get a little creative LOL.. ive been known to use a little chap stick or even flavored oils LMAO (they work in a pinch but dont last too long)

but if I hear it before im in bed, I usually use veggie or olive oil. what ever we have on hand

:) You buy the silent wheel.

Using natural oils works for a day or two, but they lick it off or wear it off and you're back at square one.

I replaced all my old wheels with the silent type and it's great! I only have to nudge the wheels away from water bottles every now and then. Now our problem is our female rats clunking around all the time by jumping against the wire or yanking on their toys. :rolleyes:

I've tried it all... last time I thought I had them, and I used Vaseline... all 5 ASFs ran up and licked it off with their wee tongues.

Ten minutes later (squeek, squeek, squeek). That noise gets in my head and messes with my dreams.

I bought a few silent wheels, great for the mice and the juvies, but the adults chewed through them in no time.

Grrrrrr...

Bruce

Hi,

Would it be possible to get the ball-races out of computer fans or similar or even re-use the surviving bits the asf's hadn't destroyed?

Could it be mounted so only the shaft and wheel were inside the tank and the bearings etc were outside?

Might stop them eating the lubrication at least.


dr del

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Originally Posted by LadyOhh

I use Mineral oil. :)

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I second that. Seems to work for a couple weeks for me. But I only ever have one or two at a time.

I use crisco, it lasts for about a week until I need to reapply it. My spiny mice don't seem to care about eating it all off right away, so thats good.

Well I stopped the squeek for now...

I cut a thin slice of clear heavy duty plastic tape and wrapped it around the exposed metal on the wheel...

Lets see how long it will last until they rub right through it...

yeah, veggie oil, or natural oils works good. now somebody please post a pic of a silent wheel so I can see what Im missing. Cause I have one female mouse (her daughter recently passed) and she runs in her wheel all the time and all I hear after a bit is the squee squee squee.

did a quick search and found a pic for ya.. they are very quiet, and wow they can get them justa' goin' LOL only noises they make is if they are too close to the sides of the cage, food dish or water bottle.



http://i85.photobucket.com/albums/k4...y/SSR61412.jpg

I dont know about this one, with rats and mice, etc, the silent wheels seem to work pretty well. My sister has a silent wheel for her hedgehog, and that is another story because the sound of his nails on the plastic is more annoying than what the squeaking would have been.

The silent wheel that I have is a different type, could not find a pic of it.

It is a *slatted" wheel, with a base stand that is a large plastic triangle that holds the wheel in. Both pieces are plastic... no clicking of little feet, no whizzing sounds... nothing. :)

Bruce

Ahhh! -twitches- Don't get the silent wheel unless you want to have to clean it everyday. Theres these little cracks in it that love to get nasty pee/poop in them and make it impossible to clean out.

Eh, a good soak in hot water and a scrub brush fixes that. Not much more work than cleaning a regular wheel. :) I have 8 of those things: 4 small and 4 large. I think the cleaning is worth the silence!

thanx for the pic filly77. I have seen them in the stores but I'm usually rushing around to really pay attention. I guess the wheel I have for my mouse is a silent wheel but a different style. It is plastic and is solid, but with raised slats for their feet to grab onto.. yes a great place for stuff to stick too. But I usually let it soak for five min in super hot water and scrub clean.

If you're somewhat of a handyman you could make a teflon bearing. possibly positioning it so that the rats or mice couldn't get to the teflon. That'd solve the problem till the teflon finaly wore through... 10 years later... lol... Rather complex... but hey, for silence...

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Originally Posted by J.Bissell

If you're somewhat of a handyman you could make a teflon bearing. possibly positioning it so that the rats or mice couldn't get to the teflon. That'd solve the problem till the teflon finaly wore through... 10 years later... lol... Rather complex... but hey, for silence...

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is that just wrapped some teflon tape to the area?

I don't know that you can get Teflon tape. You can get blocks and rods of the stuff on ebay pretty easy, it's just a hard plastic block. Then machine it to the right shape. Probably you would have to make a custom stand to accept the machined Teflon bearing then put the wheel on that. Pretty involved to exterminate a squeak... I'd just put them in the garage... lol.

Teflon tape is a good idea. I haven't tried it, but I think it would work. Not sure how long it would last. I also don't know if it would be dangerous to the critters if/when they decided to eat some of it.

Teflon tape is inexpensive and readily available at Home Depot, in the plumbing section. Super easy to use too.