always poopy wheel to clean wheel?

[lmg_319]

My hedgie's wheel has always been super dirty every day. 4 days ago it was clean so I have been putting kibble on the wheel and every morning there is no more kibble..
But the wheel is clean. No paw prints or pee or poop. It seems as if he is still running since the kibble falls off but I don't know how much. Has this happened to anyone else?
I am a little concerned as I thought he might only have one off night but it has turned into 4. He's eating, pooping, temps and light cycle are normal and the same as before. Thanks

[Sheryl]

I have a little bike odometer on my wheel so I can see how much he has run each night, but I've seen it suggested a few times that putting a bit of flour on the wheel can help determine if a hedgie is running.

[nikki]

He could just be eating the food off the wheel. Try putting a bit of flour on the wheel, if its all tracked up in the morning you'll know he ran.

[PJM]

My girl Zoey usually leaves me a clean wheel. I used the flour trick before I got an odometer & it worked great. You know they used the wheel, just not how much. I love my odometer & recommend it as well. $15 at Walmart.
Happy flouring!

[lmg_319]

I put flour on tonight and already I can see he ran! He was tricking me. I do have an odometer though and it is set up on my CSW exactly how Larry set his up in the pictures..but it doesn't seem to be working Unless Holden is only running for 0.018km a night...

[PJM]

I find that when my odometer isn't working, most likely it's because the magnet doesn't align with sensor. I've had to play with it a bit. But you can tell if it's matching up when you turn the wheel, there's a little turning wheel figure that will pop up on the digital display. And, if you listen closely, every time the magnet passes the sensor, there will be a tiny *click*.
I've had to adjust where my sensor is located - move it up just a bit & so now it's only attached by 1 tie instead of 2 so it can get over that pvc end cap. So 1/2 of the sensor is on the pvc end cap & the other 1/2 is on the pvc pipe that runs down.
If yours do match up, perhaps they aren't close enough. In that case, maybe you could put something under the sensor. Anyway, don't give up on the odometer - once you figure out what's wrong, it's so neat.

[susanaproenca]

I'm having the same problem with the odometer on Mustard's wheel. Some nights it only register that she ran 0.001 miles, which I know it's not true -- I hear her running for quite a while and there's such a huge mess on the wheel in the morning that it would have been impossible for her to make it in only 4 minutes or so.

I'll try to follow PJM's suggestions and see if I can figure what is wrong. Every day when I reset the odometer I make sure the magnet is aligned to the sensor, so it must be something else -- maybe it messes up when she starts running.

[PJM]

Here's a picture of what works best for me. I think I have to do it this way because Cholla is pretty little & so my wheel is low.

[lmg_319]

Thanks PJM. My boyfriend informed me tonight I had the wrong settings in my odometer
Hopefully I'll get some results tomorrow!

[lmg_319]

Still not working I have it set up exactly as you do, I don't know what the problem is. When I turn it, it clicks and registers. But for some reason it only registers 0.0**kms a night. I'm sure Holden is running more than that.