Rabbits and Guineas - why not?

Hi folks.

My friends are adamant that rabbits and guinea pigs can live totally happy together - and I am fed up of telling them why not - but I am not doing very well!

Does anyone keep piggies and buns together?

Can someone tell em what to tell my friends so I can prove them wrong before I scream???

they can passa abcteria between rabbit to g.pig( i dont know which one it was last time ihazzarded a gues si got it wrong)
the diet of a piggie is more veg than a rabbit and a high level of vit c.. which a rabbit doesnt need as high amounts.

run space...rabbits need more space and height as they like to jump binky and stand upright

because of size difference rabbits can injur pigs in play not intentionally(tho sometimes) but usually by jumping and accidently causing a broken spine or other injury. that is my understanding however i have never kept g.pigs so im going by info told to me by others x

How about the fact that Peppa who lived with George (pig) before coming to me has left George with an abcess in his scruff from her humping him and holding onto the scruff. That could be a good point. George was terrified by Peppa, I saw this humping with my own eyes before we could seperate them as we didn't have temp accomendation for them both. His squeeling was not a nice sound.


They are both much more happy now with their own kind.

Thank you! Many of my friends have recollections of their primary school keeping a bun and a piggie so I guess thats where they get their info from.

I shall put them in their place!

I think the g. pig has a tendency to get bullied - bear in mind they are of different species. After saying that years ago I had a bunny and 2 g. pigs and they did live happily together. I think as a norm they dont get on!

I have piggies & buns but they live separately. Pasturella can kill a guinea pig. My friend kept her rabbit with a guinea pig for almost 4 years before finding the piggy flattened, like he'd been steam-rollered. Thinking her bunny had done this AFTER he'd died & thinking bunny would be lonely she got her another piggy. All was well for a few months but one morning as my friend was looking out of her window at them in their hutch she saw her bun stamping on the piggy, she raced out of her house but it was too late, this one too was dead

Many years ago i had a nethie who i put with my piggy - the next morning my poor Pippin (gp) was bitten from the back of his neck, down his back & right under his bum, he looked like he'd been macheted, thankfully he survived but never again did i put the 2 species together.

Traditionally rabbits and guineas were said to be ok living together, but its only in recent years that people started learning more and more and realised that it wasn't ok. It sounds like they are going on the old fashioned views and not on todays knowledge.

You should tell them to research into it Save you some effort of telling them what you already know and them not listening.

yeah when iwas younger we used to keep my rabbit with guinea pigs. they always got on not a problem.

Not only piggies that get injured
We had 3 piggies handed in last week who had been temporarily kept with a bun..only when out in run not in the hutch...
this has resulted in the owners rabbit having an abcess on it's side where one of the pigs had bitten him Going to cost owner about £100 to sort out...

they have a different diet. Also a rabbit can easily kill a piggie if they kick them by accident. Some people are just so adamant, no matter what you tell them!

its basically like sticking a elephant and a hyena in a cage together 2 different species 2 different diets everything is different and shouldn't be together :lol:

Why do people think you can put them together anyway? who decided to put them together?

You think it s the pet shops, pets at home have them all together. Grr i hate pets at home. They can't even sex the animals let alone look after them.

vegan_household said:

Why do people think you can put them together anyway? who decided to put them together?

You think it s the pet shops, pets at home have them all together. Grr i hate pets at home. They can't even sex the animals let alone look after them.

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pah policy states they shouldnt be being kept together therefore if your local store has this write to head office to claim as this is a national policy.

reasons

Here are the reasons.

1. The dominant behavior of the rabbit often means the guinea pig(s) get injured and to put it bluntly they do not speak the same language and nipping ect is a rabbit method of communication.

2 They both require a different diet....get it right for the rabbit and it will be wrong for the guinea pig and visa versa.....potentially very serious for both.

3 A large number of rabbits carry a bacteria commonly called Bordatella which is nothing much more than a sniffle for the rabbit but is pathenogenic to the guinea pig and frequently the only sign is a dead guinea pig in the morning. It follows that 99.9% of such dead guinea pigs just get disposed of and no autopsy or subsequent investigation takes place so the incidence of this is probably much higher than is thought.

Having said all this I do know of rabbits living and co-existing together happily with guinea pigs but I know of far more cases of them having to be split and also of far more cases of the guinea pig ending up dead with no apparent cause known(see above)

We never have re-homed rabbits to live with guinea pigs for these reasons.

Rabbits and guinea pigs together is very much a Pet-shop thing which still goes on. Sadly rabbits do come to us having happily lived with a guinea pig mate for a number of years and then the decision is difficult to make as they both will miss each other if parted. Our decision is always to split but I do know of other rspca areas and homes that have under the circumstances decided to keep together and some of these have been highlighted on here to the shouts of "hypocracy". However as far as I am aware the rspca period do not put rabbits and guinea pigs together as new partners.

Anybody discovering such behaviour should complain.

Alan.

Years ago i kept a male guinea pig in with a male rabbit. All the guinea pig did was hump the rabbits head (which he seemed to enjoy) like a madman and then (brace yourself) "squirt" all over hiim. I had to clean that rabbit several times a day until i got them both friends of their own kind to live with!

If I had a quid for every time I've been told "Oh, you shouldn't get Frank another rabbit, they'll fight - don't bother having him neutered and just get him a guinea pig" I'd be well off to the tune of about £50. Then I have to calmly and rationally explain to them why you don't keep rabbits with guinea pigs. When they look skeptical as, after all that's what they have always been told so it must be right, I ask them would they keep a dog and a cat in a small confined area together or get a gerbil a fancy rat for company in case it's lonely.

These are the same people who think it's perfectly okay to keep a rabbit in a 3 foot by 18 inch hutch and never let them out. They are also people who have rarely actually owned either rabbits or guinea pigs for many years, if at all.

what stupid friends you must have they shouldent be together diff hutches only for reasons already stated and i havent noticed pah putyting guineas and rabbits together ever :shock:

you see it all the time though, you see it at P@H, on the tele sometimes (i think i remember seeing piggies and bunnies together on a kiddies programme) and at petting zoos. Loadsa 'pets corners' have had piggies and bunnies together and are always being handled by children.. Also in my lil' sisters school they had school pets which was 2 bunnies and a piggie together... and also my parent's favourite pub lunch place has a massive run that has 5 buns and 2 piggies together....

Only coming onto this forum has taught me the pair together is a NO NO and I thank you for that otherwise I woulda been none the wiser

animal ry said:

what stupid friends you must have they shouldent be together diff hutches only for reasons already stated and i havent noticed pah putyting guineas and rabbits together ever :shock:

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What is clear is that certain pet shop chains vary enormously in their knowledge ,standards and practices inspite of their glossy image......just like the rspca I'm affraid , the only difference between the two is that one of them does it for money and profit and the other animal welfare .

alan.

I just found out i shouldn't keep mine together i dont keep them in same hutch but when letting them out for air i just let them in the big open run i thought this would be ok as they are totally kool with each other and often i just let them in garden with no run will i now need to do this seprately and by and new or built another run