In 2016, I shared my home with a Roborovski hamster who seemed to run for most of the night. I could hear his wheel, but I had no idea how far he went. I wanted to know more about that part of his life — and building a little wheel counter was a chance to learn electronics and soldering along the way.
Nine years and two rebuilds later, that curiosity has become a record of three hamsters: 4,549 km and 11,569,520 wheel turns. Each had his own routine. Keeping those nights together let me see changes that were hard to notice from one evening by the cage.
2016 – 2017
371 nights recorded
2025 – 2026
461 nights recorded
2026 – still running
32 nights recorded, as of 20 September 2026
Getting to know the first night runner
The first version paired a small controller with a sensor on the wheel and a simple website. Each turn added to the story: 2,630 km over 371 recorded nights. A familiar sound in the evening now had a morning answer — this is how far he ran while I was asleep.
The early counter had limits that only became clear when I revisited the records in 2026. After a lost connection, it sent accumulated turns together, so one reported hour could contain half a night of running. It also did not save zero counts. A quiet wheel and a disconnected sensor could therefore leave the same blank space. Those details matter when looking back: a gap in the record is not proof that a hamster was resting.
A clearer picture, nine years later
When the second hamster arrived in March 2025, I rebuilt the tracker. It kept counts through a lost connection without grouping them into a single time slot, could update wirelessly, and displayed the last 24 hours beside the cage. Behind the scenes, the records were stored over time, with charts to explore them and alerts when a sensor stopped reporting.
These improvements served a simple purpose: making the record easier to trust and easier to use. I could check the display in the morning, then look back through earlier nights instead of trying to remember whether he had always been this active.
What 864 nights helped me notice
A single night tells you how much the wheel turned. Weeks and months begin to show a routine: the busy hours, the quieter stretches, and whether activity returns after a dip. These are activity records, not medical records. They cannot tell us why a hamster slowed down, or whether a change is due to age, season or illness. They can make a change easier to describe.
The first two hamsters left different patterns, and those differences deserve a careful look. Explore their nights, seasons and changing routines →
A new companion, a new routine
Hamster 3 began using the wheel in August 2026. As of 20 September, his first 32 recorded nights add up to 184.2 km, averaging 5.8 km a night. That is above Hamster 2’s 3.8 km nightly average across his record, but it is not a target to beat. He is young, and we are still getting to know his own pattern.
He is also the first hamster here to use hardware that other people can buy. What began with wanting to understand one pet’s nights has become a way for other owners to follow their own hamster’s activity, too.