Chickens and Rabbits.

Hi all!

Somewhere on the forum, someone suggested that Chickens can carry Coccidiosis. It wasn't a "definite" thing, more like a suggestion but no-one confirmed whether chucks do or not. Does anyone know whether they do or not, if so, how common is it?

Reason I ask is for the past two years now I have been wanting to rescue some ex batt chooks. I've done a lot of reading and even took care of my brothers chooks for a month or so. (This was obviously before it I read the suggestion that chooks can carry coccidiosis!).

Someone suggested not letting the territory of the chooks overlap the rabbits in order to avoid this. The thing is, I don't believe in keeping intelligent animals behind bars all of their lives. That's why I like to let my buns have free range running of the garden (supervised of course) where possible. There is nothing like seeing them run full speed from one end of the garden to the other followed by a massive binky! And there is nothing like seeing chooks roaming about the garden scratching and foraging for food in all different materials like they should. Of course I have suitable runs also when this is not possible, and would have a run for the chooks, but I would also let the chooks free range when supervised. (Of course I wouldn't let the chooks come into physical contact with buns, buns have sharp teeth & chooks very pointy beaks, I'm not daft! :lol: ).

I guess what I'm trying to get at, is the suggestion of not overlapping the space between where the rabbits and chooks use would not be an option for me at all. I couldn't lock them in a run and not let them ever experience life without a bar blocking sight on a beautiful sunny day. So, does anyone actually know if chickens do actually carry it, and what sort of options I have available to me. I'll be honest I don't know an awful lot about Coccidiosis, I seen the thread on here with links but I couldn't see any information provided that actually stated what it was (parasite, bacteria etc). So if you'd like to get it out of your system feel free

I have my heart set on rescuing some ex bats, since quite possibly this year battery hens could be stopped!

If kept in clean conditions I don't think chickens will get Coccidiosis. But I don't really know much about it so I could be wrong. If it helps, I have ducks and rabbits. Izzy used to live with my ducks, but that was indoors, not outside where you cant really clean poop out of the grass...

Thanks William! It's always good to hear from people who have actually kept both species in one household. The grass/poop thing is a thing to think about, I guess it's spread by faecal matter then. How common is it actually? And I know theres difference types of Coccidiosis, most seem to think it is mostly species-specific?

Thanks for the help :wave:

Sorry I can't answer your question about chickens passing Coccidiosis to rabbits. It is my understanding that coccidiosis has numerous strains that affect different animals...but I'm not an expert

I do have both rabbits and chickens but I keep them seperate, so they can both free range at the same time I have split my garden, but I don't think this is possible for you?

They did used to take turns in the same space (not at the same time) with no health problems but I might just have been lucky. We moved the chickens free range area as Chicken poo is very messy (I have two young boys who kept walking in it :roll and when they free ranged in the main garden they scratched in the flower beds (loved watching them do it but it was killing off the grass and ruined the flower beds :lol: (far worse than rabbits :shock.

Doubt that has helped you much but I do love having chickens

Hi Angela, thanks for sharing :wave: Any help is help! And I certainly appreciate answers from peeps who keep both *nods*


I too, never had problems when I was looking after the silkie batams, and this was quite a while ago now. Of course I'm also wondering whether I could just have been lucky also!

I'm not too bothered about the damage they do to the garden lol, the garden has various holes and piles of dirt dug by my male buns, they just seem to dig them out again as I'm refilling them, so I gave up :lol: Of course I have a feeling ex bat hens would be far more destructive than some silki bantams! :lol:

Just trying to arm myself with as much info as poss before going for it :wave:

Angela lou said:

Sorry I can't answer your question about chickens passing Coccidiosis to rabbits. It is my understanding that coccidiosis has numerous strains that affect different animals...but I'm not an expert

I do have both rabbits and chickens but I keep them seperate, so they can both free range at the same time I have split my garden, but I don't think this is possible for you?

They did used to take turns in the same space (not at the same time) with no health problems but I might just have been lucky. We moved the chickens free range area as Chicken poo is very messy (I have two young boys who kept walking in it :roll and when they free ranged in the main garden they scratched in the flower beds (loved watching them do it but it was killing off the grass and ruined the flower beds :lol: (far worse than rabbits :shock.

Doubt that has helped you much but I do love having chickens

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