Guinea Pigs And Rabbits...

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cavy clicker

cavy clicker

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I was just wondering, how come so many people say that you can't house guinea pigs with rabbits, that they kick, bite and bully the guinea pig. Hundreds of people do actually keep rabbits and guinea pigs together and they are absolutely best friends. That doesn't really make sense to me. I used to keep a rabbit with my guinea pig and they got on fine, I wouldn't do it again because I know now that you're not supposed to. Do accidents happen a lot more then we know? Or is it a hit or miss type of friendship?
 
There's a lot of reasons guinea pigs and rabbits aren't supposed to be kept together.

Two of the main reasons which are, guinea pigs and Rabbits actually have quite different diets to one another. And rabbits also carry some kind of illness (I forget the name) which doens't effect them but it can effect a guinea pig.

Then of course rabbits can accidentally badly hurt or kill a guinea pig. From personal experience, before I was born. My mum and dad had a rabbit and guinea pig together. The rabbit was a male and it humped the guinea pig and started biting and being very vicious in its mating, which I hear is a natural way rabbits mate and the poor guinea pig was screaming in pain and blood was everywhere. It was very lucky that my family heard the guinea pigs screams and managed to seperate the two. We gave the rabbit to a neighbour and rushed the guinea pig to the vets.
 
Hi, l beleve there is another danger, apparentaly rabbit poo contains somthing (enzines l think? ) that can be harmfull to a gp
 
There's other reasons you shouldn't house guinea pigs and rabbits together, even if they're the best of friends.

Rabbits are pretty tempermental, and yes, when they are bothered enough they may 'bully' your pig. Guinea pigs have weak bones, especially their spines and rabbits are strong.

Next, they both hold diseases that don't affect themselves but may infect another species. Rabbits and guinea pigs are no exception to this and I have heard of diseases being transferred.

It's not even a good idea to try, housing guinea pigs and rabbits together is very a archaic set of beliefs. It was common back in the day as people believed that there would be no production of offspring if the two were housed together. We now know that it's best to keep eachother with members of their own species and gender. They aren't friends and I'm sure a pig would much rather a pal of their own kind! Plus less chance of unforeseen vet bills.
 
I am covered in scars from a badly behaved rabbit it just isn't worth the risk, they latch on with their teeth and swing their very powerful back legs in kicking! All my guineas are sweet and gentle and no match for a stroppy rabbit.
 
Touie said:
I am covered in scars from a badly behaved rabbit it just isn't worth the risk, they latch on with their teeth and swing their very powerful back legs in kicking! All my guineas are sweet and gentle and no match for a stroppy rabbit.
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I prefer guinea pigs ;)
 
When I was at college we had a guinea pig (he was so beautiful I miss him so much!) put in with a giant rabbit.
They had a massive area penned off so they had a lot of space.
As far as I'm aware there was no problems, probably because the rabbit was too old and lazy to do much but still myself and a lot of the others said that it was not right and anything could happen but apparently the owner of the animal centre (who NEVER made an appearance) said it was fine so that was the end of it. Would've loved to have given that woman a good piece of my mind over various problems of how that place was run :(
 
I remember that the local pet shop has them housed together. Yesterday I wrote an email to our local pet shop to tell them, in friendly terms, why rabbits and guinea pigs shouldn't be kept together. I hope they listen :)
 
cavy clicker said:
I remember that the local pet shop has them housed together. Yesterday I wrote an email to our local pet shop to tell them, in friendly terms, why rabbits and guinea pigs shouldn't be kept together. I hope they listen :)
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might be an idea to send them a link to the adove rspca peice ,
 
The reasons I have always heard is that rabbits are much stronger than guinea pigs and may cause injury, either intentionally or accidentally, rabbits and guinea pigs have different nutritional needs and if the rabbit is eating the guinea pig food the guinea pig may not be getting enough vitamin C, and that rabbits can be carriers of Bordatella, which may not cause illness at all with the rabbit but can cause severe respiratory infection in the guinea pig. I do still see them housed together though (particularly in some of the lazier shops around here... they also don't separate by gender and probably sell a lot of pregnant guineas because of it.)
 
Well our rabbit and guinea pigs have play time together because it was that or have a sick rabbit: his companion died and he stopped eating, lost almost a kilo in weight in less than a month. As a last resort i put him with the pigs for play time., and they aren't exactly all over each other but get along okay. They pretty much stick to their own ends of the rooms and so far as bunny poop harbouring diseases Pickles is litter trained and the pigs so far have shown no interest in his "potty". If anything he is bullied by the pigs, who like to steal all his chew toys and take them where he can't get them. Also Lenny has taken to humping Pickles stuffed toy!
It's o
But I would not do this again. I didn't KNOW they were a risk to each other or that you weren't supposed to have them together and as I said it was a last resort.

No hate please.:ple:
 
I just thought I would like to contribute to this thread and post a picture as well to show you first hand what I see every day in my house.

I currently have 3 rabbits who have the run of my living room. I believe rabbits need a large amount of space and do not like to keep them enclosed in a cage or hutch. I also have 7 piggies who live in the room in their cages who also get to come out and run about with the rabbits. As well as them I have 2 Syrian hamsters in the same room and a puppy who goes wherever she likes lol .

One of my male piggies (Elvis) before he was neutered did not like any of the other piggies and wanted to be a rabbit and loved them more than his own kind. He lived with them out and about in the living room very happily as you can see by the picture below.

This is April one of my female rabbits and Elvis who often cuddled up to her and fell asleep.

2.webp

He absolutely adores her and she is just the loveliest rabbit. Whenever the piggies come out for playtime she basically lines them all up and cleans each and every one of them. They stand enjoying the clean until she moves on to the next one lol.

Once he was neutered and I was able to put him in with the sows he decided he preferred them to live with but still enjoys time with the rabbits.

I would not recommend anyone put a rabbit and a piggy in the same cage to live together because they are very different sizes and have totally different exercise and food needs and of course they do need they own kind as a mate. However I do not agree that different animals cannot live in harmony together as part of a family.

My hamsters come out for floor time and once again run around with the piggies and the rabbits and the dog quite happily.

The puppy loves to play with the hamsters especially our boy Travis who loves to play and chase her and she him.

My animals are all fed what they require for their own needs according to their species. Just like I do not feed my children rabbit food so I do not feed my piggies rabbit food and so forth.

My rabbits are immunised every year and therefore the risk of them passing on any diseases to the piggies or the hamsters, dog or me and the children is very slight and no more than the others passing anything on to us.

If all animals are fed and their health and well-being looked after correctly then it is possible to have a happy and healthy environment where they can live together. However as we are all very much aware on this forum this is not always the case and therefore guidelines are put in place to help people understand what is now a better life for all species of animals.
 
No reply from the pet shop, they obviously don't care. I've changed my views about them now and they have just lost my respect for them :box::td:
 
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