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[Cod78]

My daughter has 2 guinea pigs but there not very social anyway my friends rabbit has had babies continental giant. Crossed with giant french lop now she wants one which I'm still thinking about but at present the guinea pigs are in a 5ft something two tier hutch. So I was thinking can I have the guinea pigs on the top part (obviously close the hole )and then have the rabbit at the bottom.

 

[My Piggies]

I wouldn't recommend doing that. That doesn't seem like enough space for a rabbit, especially a continental giant. Rabbits need a lot more space than guinea pigs - I've read they should have at least 12 square feet of hutch/enclosure space, and then a run of about 24 square feet . Then again, I don't own rabbits, so I'll tag @Piggies&buns who has both piggies and bunnies, and may be able to give you detailed advice

 

[Ras]

No rabbits carry bordatella which will make the pigs very sick and can possibly die, my vet asked me about my cats and dogs because of this, however my cats and dogs have the bordatella shot so we are all good there.

 

[Piggies&buns]

Rabbits and guinea pigs should not be kept in the same room or share an air space. Rabbits carry diseases harmlessly to them but those diseases can be fatal to guinea pigs.
If you want rabbits, then they need to be kept in an entirely separate area, well away from the piggies.
As a 30 year rabbit owner myself as well as having piggies , I work incredibly hard to make sure there is never any risk of cross contamination between the two species (no sharing of equipment, always dealing with piggies first and then washing hands etc).

Please also note that rabbits must kept in pairs so you cannot get just one.
They also cannot be together if they are not neutered, and given a spayed doe and neutered buck are the best pairing, you would need to keep the two rabbits separately but next to each other for months until they were both old enough to be neutered and safe to live together and then carry out a bonding (which is done differently to a piggy bonding so is a much slower process, sometimes taking weeks for them to bond).
A buck/buck pairing can work but are less likely to. You definitely don’t want to put two unneutered bucks together as soon as they become sexually mature, fights will occur. Even after neutering, two bucks may not accept each other.
A doe/doe pairing can work (I’ve had several doe pairs) if they are siblings or introduced at a very young age. Again though, once they hit sexual maturity issues can occur as they become hormonal and territorial but they aren’t old enough to be spayed until closer to 6 months (no earlier than 4 months of age) So if can be a tense few weeks.
You will find it hard to bond two unrelated, sexually mature but as yet unspayed does. Not only for bonding, its essential does are spayed to remove the risk of uterine cancer occurring.
The best and most stable pairing is a neutered buck/spayed doe.
Unlike with piggies, neutering and spaying rabbits does calm their behaviour, stops urine spraying, makes it easier to litter train them as well as being essential to stop pregnancy in a mixed sex pairing and cancer in a doe.

If you really want rabbits, it’s best to rescue an already bonded already spayed/neutered pair, particularly if this is your first time rabbit keeping.

Space is a major issue with keeping rabbits though - they need a huge area and a hutch alone is not enough. A 5ft hutch is not big enough for rabbits, and definitely not the breed of the rabbits you mention. A pair of rabbits require a minimum of 60 square feet - that is an enclosure of a minimum of 10ft x 6ft but given the rabbits you are considering are a large breed, the enclosure needs to be considerably bigger than that.
Bored rabbits are very destructive so giving them huge amounts of enrichment including digging pits is important to keep them happy.
Rabbits should never be locked into a hutch - having a 6ft hutch is fine as a bedroom space but the hutch door needs to be left open giving them 24/7 access into a secure enclosure measuring in excess of 60 square feet.

 

[My Piggies]

Thanks for correcting me @Piggies&buns

 

[Pawz]

My rabbits have always been dwarf breeds and they get a LOT of space. They have a large c&c enclosure (structured like a large lidless pen so the is ample jumping room) but are only locked in there when I am in bed/out the house. I work mostly from home regardless of the pandemic situation and when I am home the pen is always open. They have free range of my bunnyproofed home and when the weather is nice I even take them into the garden in a pen for safety and never left unsupervised outside as we have curious wildlife including wild rabbits.

I could not imagine taking on a giant breed as a first rabbit. I have a friend who has a giant and we are talking (17lbs) 8kg as the weight of his adult rabbit. In comparison most dwarf breeds are considered large if they reach (4lbs) 2kg!

Each to their own but I prefer mini buns to giants. Two giants would take over my home

Also as the other members have mentioned. Bordetella is a very real risk if You have the rabbit in the same environment as the guinies.

 

[Pawz]

Some more information on Bordetella here
Bordetella in Rabbits and Guinea Pigs | Small Pet Select

 

[Tigermoth]

How old is your daughter? At the risk of saying something you don’t want to hear, guinea pigs and rabbits are both hard work in terms of socialising. In order to get the best chance of a social with humans piggy they need a lot of time spent on their terms trying to build trust. It sounds like the pigs might have become a bit boring because they haven’t given the results that she hoped for. You might run into the same problem with rabbits tbh. Where is the hutch? Can you look at the living space to make it easier to interact (like a C&C) and so build up the relationships with the piggies?

 

[Piggies&buns]

@Tigermoth makes some very good points.
As prey animals, rabbits will be exactly the same as piggies in terms of gaining their trust. I have had some very friendly rabbits but I have also had some which did not like human contact - I put in a lot of time with them and for some it has made all the difference, even if it it took a long time (a year and a half with one of my piggies) but for others their characters were always going to be that they prefer the company of their own kind rather than human interaction. Two of my current rabbits are even more ‘look Dont touch’, than my piggies are and my piggies don’t particularly like being handled (the piggies have been with me for three years)

 

[Pawz]

The rabbit in my avatar was the most human loving bunny out of all the buns I have had. Right from the start he’d just jump in my lap and groom my hands until I would pet him, he liked nothing more than curling up on the sofa to watch tv together. He was the only rabbit I had that refused to have a rabbit friend, I tried many bondings for him over the years but he hated them all. He had come from an environment where he was bullied and abused by other rabbits to the point of being all scabby and battered, perhaps that’s why he hated all other rabbits and it’s very very uncommon to have a rabbit that doesn’t want company from it’s own species but he lived a happy solo life with a LOT of human interaction before he passed from illness (I basically had to make extra effort to be his “partner bun” and make sure he never felt lonely or depressed and had plenty of attention and enrichment). He was the best rabbit of my life but comitting to him was like having a permanent small furry toddler in the level of needs. Rabbits generally thrive in pairs or more because they are by nature such a social animal due to the safety in numbers prey aspect.

Most of my buns have been “yeah ok you can pet me if you want”, a few have been SUPER TIMID on arrival including my current female who is slowly becoming a lot more tame but it has taken considerable effort and she will even nip for attention now which isn’t so nice . My new boy who is incoming is I am told super tame so that’s a relief .

Personality differs from bun to bun the same as any other animal or even person. If you really want to have rabbits do some research into different breeds as some are more suited to being a family pet than others.

 

[Cod78]

Rabbits and guinea pigs should not be kept in the same room or share an air space. Rabbits carry diseases harmlessly to them but those diseases can be fatal to guinea pigs.
If you want rabbits, then they need to be kept in an entirely separate area, well away from the piggies.
As a 30 year rabbit owner myself as well as having piggies , I work incredibly hard to make sure there is never any risk of cross contamination between the two species (no sharing of equipment, always dealing with piggies first and then washing hands etc).

Please also note that rabbits must kept in pairs so you cannot get just one.
They also cannot be together if they are not neutered, and given a spayed doe and neutered buck are the best pairing, you would need to keep the two rabbits separately but next to each other for months until they were both old enough to be neutered and safe to live together and then carry out a bonding (which is done differently to a piggy bonding so is a much slower process, sometimes taking weeks for them to bond).
A buck/buck pairing can work but are less likely to. You definitely don’t want to put two unneutered bucks together as soon as they become sexually mature, fights will occur. Even after neutering, two bucks may not accept each other.
A doe/doe pairing can work (I’ve had several doe pairs) if they are siblings or introduced at a very young age. Again though, once they hit sexual maturity issues can occur as they become hormonal and territorial but they aren’t old enough to be spayed until closer to 6 months (no earlier than 4 months of age) So if can be a tense few weeks.
You will find it hard to bond two unrelated, sexually mature but as yet unspayed does. Not only for bonding, its essential does are spayed to remove the risk of uterine cancer occurring.
The best and most stable pairing is a neutered buck/spayed doe.
Unlike with piggies, neutering and spaying rabbits does calm their behaviour, stops urine spraying, makes it easier to litter train them as well as being essential to stop pregnancy in a mixed sex pairing and cancer in a doe.

If you really want rabbits, it’s best to rescue an already bonded already spayed/neutered pair, particularly if this is your first time rabbit keeping.

Space is a major issue with keeping rabbits though - they need a huge area and a hutch alone is not enough. A 5ft hutch is not big enough for rabbits, and definitely not the breed of the rabbits you mention. A pair of rabbits require a minimum of 60 square feet - that is an enclosure of a minimum of 10ft x 6ft but given the rabbits you are considering are a large breed, the enclosure needs to be considerably bigger than that.
Bored rabbits are very destructive so giving them huge amounts of enrichment including digging pits is important to keep them happy.
Rabbits should never be locked into a hutch - having a 6ft hutch is fine as a bedroom space but the hutch door needs to be left open giving them 24/7 access into a secure enclosure measuring in excess of 60 square feet.

Their my friend's litter so I would get 2 sisters

 

[Swissgreys]

Their my friend's litter so I would get 2 sisters

Please remember that females still need spaying (even if kept in a single sex pair) and they tend to be more feisty and a little difficult compared to males overall.
And really don't get me started on the urine spraying.
@Pawz is going through this right now with her female and has a thread about the whole process, which is not for the faint hearted!

You need to be honest about the time and space you have to offer these rabbits as I find my bunnies are far more of a commitment and time consuming that guinea pigs.

 

[Piggies&buns]

with @Swissgreys. Rabbits are lovely pets to keep, but they are not easy - do be absolutely sure before you to commit to them - the space requirements alone are enormous, plus the veterinary costs with their spays, annual vaccinations plus the specific set of health issues more common to giant rabbits. The daily hay consumption is considerably more particularly for a giant breed with them needing to eat a bundle of hay at least their own body size each day. For my two guinea pigs and three rabbits (which aren’t giant breeds so don’t eat as much as a giant breed would), I get through 20kg of hay every three weeks.

Its good you can get two sisters as they will already know each other but they do both need spaying as soon as they are old enough so they don’t get cancer, but also so they can remain living together, unspayed females will fall out

And that you will definitely need a huge space for two giant rabbits. The Rabbit Welfare Associstion recommends that for giant rabbits, their sleeping space alone measures 12 feet long (so the 5ft hutch you have is not going to work at all) as they need to be able to take three hops consecutively through their sleeping space. Stretched out flat a giant rabbit can reach 4ft long. They then need an attached play area which is considerably larger - probably looking at a space more like 12ft x a lot more than 12ft minimum (144 square feet at least rather than the 60 sq ft minimum for smaller breeds).
Do also bear in mind that they need to be able to stand up on their back legs without touching a roof (if a rabbit cannot fully stretch out or straight upwards, then their spines become damaged), so a hutch is never going to work as you need something with a minimum of 4ft height for a giant breed, they need a entire room in the house or purpose built shed for themselves (with an additional play/running space).
They are certainly a lot harder to handle (their weight alone!) than smaller breeds of rabbit and guinea pigs so if your daughter is fed up with the piggies not being social, then it’s unlikely giant rabbits are going to be much different, just something to be sure you are prepared for.

 

[Pawz]

2 girls together will need spaying. Even if they get along as tiny babies there WILL be an epic hormonal fallout when they reach adulthood if they are unspayed. The ladies also tend to be more feisty in general, particularly if unspayed.

2 boys together both need to be neutered for the same reason as the girls.

1 girl and 1 boy, obviously need to be neutered to prevent unwanted litters, the female should also be spayed to reduce false pregnancy (those are NOT fun), territorial spraying and general hormonal behavior.

Main benefits of neutering a male : Litter training is easier and more consistent, no unwanted babies, removes the urge to territory fight with another male, reduces territorial marking (pee spraying)

Main benefits of spaying a female: Removes the risk of reproductive cancers, some breed have a 60-80% chance of developing this between the ages of 4-6. I’ve heard giants have a lower risk of cancer but I’d still spay because no risk > low risk. Litter training is easier and more consistent, no unwanted litters, removes territorial squabbles in adulthood as the hormones are reduced, reduces territorial behavior such as pee spraying.

In my area the costs range as follows.
Female rabbit spay: 160-260€!
Male rabbit neuter: 80-95€

My girlie literally bounced back from her spay and within 24hours you’d never guess she has stitches under her. Since her spay the pee spraying is non existent which is a huge relief.

Yearly vaccinations need to also be taken into account in the base care costs. Some Chloe not to vaccinate depending on their area risk. For me I always vaccinate because we have a large wild rabbit population in the area and although my buns are mostly indoor….mosquitoes are the disease spreaders too.

 

[Pawz]

Chloe =choose… silly auto incorrect.
Also I wouldn’t skimp on vaccines even if your vet considers you to be in a low risk area. But that’s my personal choice, better safe than sorry.