Once upon a time I was cleaning my cages. I had my 12" Wodent Wobust Wheel apart to clean and left the track lying on the ground to dry. Along comes a puppy who takes the track outside to chew on. I caught it in time but what I didnt realize was that I had left the track connector on one end of the track and I didnt retrieve that piece from outside so it became lost to the world.
Searching and searching online for some sort of track connector replacement piece, I finally came across what I was looking for. FRP (Fiberglass Reinforced Paneling) is what you might cover a bathroom wall or commercial kitchen with. For this, they have 8ft long vinyl strips that butt connect the panels together to form a clean look. Once I knew what I was looking for, I found the FRP trim pieces at Home Depot expertly hidden amongst all of the other wall trim and moldings.
I had always wanted to experiment with converting a wheel to a mesh track so I went about doing that as well. I cut the plastic mesh the same length and width as the original track. I used the plastic mesh seam side for the outside and the cut side for the inside. I had to use a medium screwdriver to slowly and patiently force the cut side mesh track into the inside wheel wall piece. Then I inserted the track connector and then installed the outer wall with little problem.
The thing came together and works like a champ. And after taking photos of it and deciding that I should compare it to the Stealth for sizing, I finally came to realize that the Stealth uses that exact same RFP butt strip that I was trying to locate for such a long time. It sure helps to know the name of what you are looking for, I tell ya...
I placed this into the Nut House cage last night and all five of them spent lots of time spinning around together. Pican tends to go inside of a wheel to eat, so a mesh wheel will do some good in that cage. I'll keep the smaller 11" Wodent Sr's in there as well to manage nails.
UPDATE: FOUND IT!
It looks like a piece of bacon now.