Hi
What wheels are in your experience the most silent?

And can anyone explain to me, why most of the recommended wheels (if not all) have mesh?

I have had numerous different small animals as pets and it was ALWAYS and I seriously mean always adviced agains getting anything with mesh or bars!

I get that the recommended sugar glider wheels doesn't have the middle rod part and that you can fasten some fleece on top of the mesh, but I'm still quite confused as to why they have the mesh in the first place...

Check out spinzone products, they have some neat products. Also stealth wheels are highly recommended.

The mesh in the wheels is really nice. It allows their pee and poo to fall through into the bottom of the cage as opposed to just splattering around on the inside, possibly dripping onto your gliders eew.

Before I did all the research I purchased the wodent wheel. It does have the center post, but has now been revised to have it covered to protect gliders tails which may get caught. This stock wheel is not silent and has the solid track. I did not like that...excrement was easily caught in grooves and stunk quickly. I have since modified it to have a mesh track which in my opinion is far better and easier to clean and manage. I also changed the mounting to be a cage mount and used some fleece as cushion on the new way I mounted it and now it is nearly silent. When I purchase another wheel, it wont be this kind. Probably a Spinzone or Stealth product.

Hope this helps.

Having a mesh run in their wheel helps not only pee and poo drop, but also gliders don't really run in a wheel, they jump. And they go really fast. Then they grab hold and spin with the wheel or the second glider just hangs on for a ride. Either inside or outside the wheel. They hang on to the mesh. Otherwise they can be thrown out of the wheel with no traction.