rabbits and guinea pigs together?

[Alicia Conklin]

I have read some conflicting information on this…and I was just wondering if anyone has had any experience with rabbits and guinea pigs together as a bonded pair?

 

I want to get tucker a playmate, but my husband is weary of another rabbit now (even though a month ago he was fine with the idea..) because we haven’t seen many rescueable dwarf rabbits and the bigger rabbits that he’s seen are large and he’s worried about space for them.   My daughter (7) has also been wanting a guinea pig for as long as I can remember and I don’t think she’d be able to take care of one on her own so it would be primarily my responsibility.  Therefore, I think it’d be great if I could pair the two together and only have one cage. 

I have alot of research to do before making any decision..such as what kind of changes would need to be made to the cage to accomodate a guinea pig as well as Tucker…

 

Does a guinea pig have to be neutered/spayed?  Also, does the rabbit have to be neutered before meeting with a guinea pig?  I’ve read some things that say since they are not the same species there is no dominance issues but then another that said that a rabbit will try to mate with a guinea pig and hurt it… so I am confused on what information is correct and whether this is only something that is semi possible or something that is most likely going to work out. 

 

Thanks for any input you can give me.

[Sarita]

I do not recommend this at all. They can play together outside the cage but should not be housed together.

Rabbits carry bortadella and if they bite the guinea pig the guinea pig could get bortadella (it could happen). Also rabbits can kick and injure the piggy. Also guinea pigs require different pellets and vegetables high in Vitamin C as guinea pigs cannot produce Vitamin C.

Yes, I’ve seen this done alot but I would not recommend this and neither would my friend who runs a guinea pig rescue – she has a pair of rabbits as well, but they are not housed in the same place as the guinea pig. If you email me I would be happy to give you her email address – she runs Texas Rustlers Guinea Pig Rescue and has rescued over 1000 guinea pigs and knows them well.

Also guinea pigs cannot be litter trained and should be housed on either carefresh or aspen shavings which are fine for rabbits but this will most likely keep your rabbit from using his litter box as he will be confused.

Guinea pigs can be neutered – most vets will not spay a female though as it is too risky. But a vet who has alot of experience with guinea pigs can neuter a piggy no problem. Also you will need to find a vet who knows alot about guinea pigs and not many know alot about them – they may know rabbits, but piggies are a totally different story. My vet works with both a guinea pig and a rabbit rescue so she’s the exception.

[Sarita]

http://www.theguineapigrescue.com/

Here’s the website – the lady who runs it is Julia Hinrichs and her email address is theguineapigrescue@yahoo.com – she can give you the scoop on this too.

[Beka27]

from what i understand this is not a good idea. why is he not wanting to get a bunny now? i’m thinking there’s still going to be a large influx of abandoned rabbits coming up pretty soon. you still need to wait until a month after his neuter, so you’ve got time.

[Alicia Conklin]

Ok thanks so much, I was thinking by my gut instinct that this was not ok..but then I was reading http://www.rabbitnetwork.org/articles/gpfriends.shtml there about it being a good choice…so I was confused. It does make sense though after reading what you wrote.

[Alicia Conklin]

I’m not exactly sure on his reasoning why…he’s mentioned the space..but I think that Tucker’s cage is more then big enough..he’s worried about extra cleaning..but well..I do that, he’s never once cleaned the cage so I don’t see why that should bother him, and I don’t know if there is some other reason that he’s not telling me about.

I think I could get him to come around if I found a dwarf. The thing is though, that if we take Tucker to the rescue and let him choose he might very well choose a larger bunny. And I personally don’t have a problem with that but I know that he thinks that Tucker’s cage is not big enough for him and a larger bunny. His cage is 2 squares high by 2 squares deep and 4 squares long. Then his exercise pen is currently 4×2 but Mike has already mentioned that he wants to make a larger one for Tucker for parts of the day so…I don’t see why that should be an issue about a larger rabbit either, I think the smaller exercise area would be fine for the most part with the larger pen during low traffic area times (while I am working 7am-3pm and then after the kids go to bed so like 7pm-10pm). Does that sound big enough for my Tucker (dwarf) and a larger bunny?

I’m sure I could convince Mike of another rabbit…he is easily swayed by me hehe but I want to make sure that I am correct because if I end up having to make a larger condo in our already smallish living room he’s not gonna be so happy LOL.

I also thought that IF a guinea pig was a good match for a rabbit that I could make my daughter happy as well as Tucker. But, with three kids and 2 dogs, two cats, two hamsters, a bird, a beta fish and a rabbit..I don’t need another cage to clean. I could deal with another cage to clean during the bonding process..but for a permanent housing situation..no thanks I think she’ll just have to wait a few more years for a guinea pig until she’s mature enough to handle the cage cleaning herself, atleast for the most part.

[Sarita]

I find cleaning a guinea pig cage much much more work than a rabbit. I’ve helped one time at the guinea pig rescue and she has enormous cages and I thought I was going to die form exhaustion – I figured I was just too old for that.

A big cage is better for a guinea pig too – the cages they sell at the pet stores are ridiculous as with rabbits. The cages at the guinea pig rescue are all made of the neat idea cubes and they are a minimum of 7 square feet with the chloropast bottoms and I could not easily lift those. But I guess guinea pigs like to run and popcorn even though they run and hide from me.

After having hamsters and mice and stuff too – I decided I hated cleaning those cages too.

[kralspace]

I have 3 condos in my spare room, a large one with buns Pringles and Toby, a smaller one with bun Simba and then another 2×4 grid condo for 2 piggies.

Until I put a top on it, Pringles would jump in the piggie condo and box their house to make the piggies run out and make a few laps while she sat and watched. Even now Pringles will stretch way up to look in their condo, sometimes very friendly and interested and sometimes you can tell she wants to start a fight or something. She gets annoyed when the piggies weep and squeal sometimes so I’d never trust her with them.

The piggies are a lot messier, but I use a large towel on their floor and just roll it up and shake it out each night. They have learned to pee only in one corner and I can just change out the paper towels I keep there for them.

It is very interesting when I come home after work and go in that room. There’s thumps, whistles and all kinds of rustling going on to see who gets attention first.

Kathy

[Beka27]

yes, like Sarita said, pigs need a huge cage, b/c it has to be all one level, they’re not jumpers like buns. you are going to need another cage for the bonding process with a bun, as you’re aware… and if the bonding does not work out, the second cage will be permanent. did you see the pic of what i did? i have two separate side by side xpens. i have space for them (they’re in their own room that is off of the living room) so if they are permanent, it’s not an issue. i think as long as you have good size cages plus runtime, i wouldn’t worry about the bunny being a dwarf, altho i probably wouldn’t look at a very large rabbit (8+ pounds). a medium size would be fine tho…

edited:  to prove your point, you might want to move things around so you have a large empty space.  if your husband is like mine, you have to SHOW him that it is possible.  if you just tell him, he “can’t hear you”.

[Alicia Conklin]

I’m actually considering “vacation bonding” as I know the rescue that’s an hour away has mentioned that she does that to ensure a proper bonding..so I might have her do that for me, although I’d miss Tucker like crazy so I am not sure. Otherwise I am sure that she would work with me to make sure that we got a bonded pair in case one matching did not work out. I wouldn’t mind the other condo cleaning wise, it doesn’t take that long to clean Tucker’s cage..but I worry about space if I had to have two permanent condos up. The only thing that I could really do would be to add another level on Tucker’s cage and then divide the space up more so that they each had like three levels high and a 2×2 square..but that doesn’t sound very big. I’m kind of worried about attempting a bonding with another bun because I am afraid of them never bonding, but at the same time tucker is very friendly and really seems to want a playmate and so I would like to get another bun for him.

[Alicia Conklin]

OMG I hate the hamster cages…because my hamsters are not friendly…I don’t know why..when I was growing up my hamsters were so cuddly..but these are nasty..one of them has bit my son when he got near one, so I have to keep their cages high up away from the kids and so it kind of defeats the purpose of even having them.  But anyway, yea so I hate cleaning their cages because since they’re not friendly I have to somehow get them out of the cage without getting bit and then keep them somewhere where I clean their cage.  And the girl hamster I have..she’s very messy and she makes a huge mess so her cage needs cleaning much more often then our boy hamster.  He’s not as bad, he’s very tidy and has a corner where he does all his bathroom stuff and he keeps his food nice and neat too, but still he is not friendly and so its hard to get him out so that I can clean his cage.

I was looking at guinea pig set ups online…and they do look like a pain to clean up.  Tucker’s cage I just vacuum out, and then clean his litter boxes, which are alot easier to clean out then a whole condo full of litter I’d expect!  I guess I assumed that guinea pigs could be litter trained too since I see litter boxes geared towards them but from what I am reading it seems not…

[Beka27]

it is said that any two buns can be bonded, but you just HAVE to work at it, possibly for months. most people will give up long before that. i like the idea of a bonding vacation. it takes the stress off of you, and provides a neutral location, but there is a possibility things would not be perfect once Tucker was back on his home turf. it is supposedly easier to bring a spayed female home to a neutered male, rather than a male to a female.

as far as the guinea pig, i would wait until your daughter was a mature teenager, if she still wanted one then. she’d have to responsible for the cleaning, with you as the “supervisor”.

[Alicia Conklin]

Well we have that going in our favor atleast! And Tucker isn’t too dominant about his cage, atleast not with the cat that goes and visits and with me going in to clean…so hopefully he’ll be fairly easy to bond.  Most likely I will be having him go for “vacation bonding” since I just thought about it and by the time I am ready to get him a friend I’ll be going to college part time.  So, I won’t have a whole lot of time for bonding him.  I work during the day right next to his condo/pen but I’m not really focused on him all the day, so I think it’d probably be beneficial for everyone to do the vcacation bonding.

[(dig)x(me)x(now)]

So I think you’re going to hear some repeat info right here, but I can offer a view from experience…

Guinea pigs and rabbits CAN get along, often without a bonding process, but should not be caged together for health and dietary reasons. I have two female guinea pigs and a neutured male rabbit which have no problems getting along together (even when there’s food involved). If your rabbit isn’t fixed it does present the risk of the rabbit mounting the piggy and possibly injuring it, like was mentioned earlier.

I recently added my second guinea pig to the family, but even before I had two, the g-pig and rabbit cages were directly next to each other so that the rabbit and pig could still interact together even if not out playing together.

 

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