People Pets

Get Moving! Spin Class for Hamsters

By Carol Vinzant

01/08/2009 at 01:30 PM EST

We caught up with the French owner of these two hamsters, who enjoy spinning around so much that YouTube's Vlanico installed a device to see how fast they got the wheels moving. (Answer: their record is 8.6 kilometers per hour.)

Now the hamsters, Tic and Tac, have become international stars. More than five million people have watched their work out–which includes an amazing 12 upside down spins when the wheel really gets moving. Don't you wish you could exercise this much?

Q: What's it like to have hamsters famous worldwide?
A: It is very funny. I receive some mails from all around the world constantly for 2 years and it makes me pretty famous within friend's relations. Everyone has seen my video!

Q: Can you tell me anything about your hamsters' personalities?
A: Tic is very active and adventurous while Tac is shy and fearful. Of course the hamster who did the video is Tic!! Tac is so fearful that is is almost impossible to catch him.

Q: How did you set up the device to see how fast they go?
A: I am keen on cycling so I use this kind of set up device designed for bikes a lot. When I saw how fast the hamsters where running in this wheel I had the idea to adapt one of my bike speedometer to the wheel. The only thing is that these speedometer are not designed for such small wheels, this is why one has to divide the speed by ten in order to get the real speed of the hamster (the hamster wheel is ten times smaller than a bike wheel).

Q: What's been your favorite response to the videos?
A: My favorite response to the videos has been when some Japanese TVs contacted me in order to broadcast my videos on national TV in Japan. They wouldn't stop at nothing to have my permission to broadcast it. They LOVED it !!