guineas and rabbits as friends?

I know that guineas and rabbits should be housed seperate but how would i go about letting them play together?
I once put my less shy guinea girl in with my bunny. She immediately ran for the nearest cover which happened to be the giant (compared to her!) bunny in the corner! He then s**t himself and tried to get away, at which point i seperated them.
This all happened in the rub on grass.
I once saw a guinea pig 'hump' a sleeping rabbits head at pets at home...i would hope that no 'humping' would occur!
They are all unneutered.

I would not recomend any one allow a rabbit and piggie to live or run together. All the reasons for not letting them live together also apply to them being put together even for a short while.

Some of the reasons are included on this thread http://forums.rabbitrehome.org.uk/viewtopic.php?t=38285&highlight=piggies+rabbits

Letting them play together is asking for the guinea pig to get injured. A rabbit's hindlegs are very strong and can easliy injure a guinea pig, even if the rabbit does not delierately attack the guinea pig, which can also happen.

NO they can not be friends for all sorts of different reasons they are completey different speices of animals, they eat and need different foods, Guineas are very vocal animals and need their own kind to talk to Rabbits belong with Rabbits.

best off sperating them now especially as they are both unneutered they will become very hormonal partically the rabbit

Ok there is no need to jump on my back! They are housed seperately (if i didnt make that obvious from my first post) and the one occasion mentioned is the only time they have ever met. I fully understand why they should not be housed togther and now know that they shouldn't play together so thanks for your help!

JellyBelly said:

Ok there is no need to jump on my back! They are housed seperately (if i didnt make that obvious from my first post) and the one occasion mentioned is the only time they have ever met. I fully understand why they should not be housed togther and now know that they shouldn't play together so thanks for your help!

Click to expand...

i think they were just trying to stress the improtance of not doing ;-)

lets face it, when we all grew up we saw guinea pigs and bunnie stogetehr in shops, which made us think taht theyw ould eb fine, it's only as you become a responsible owner (As you have shown you have by asking, rather than just assuming they would be fine) that you learn taht they shouldn't even be allowed to run together.

alot of people dont realise just how much strength a bunny has in them back legs of theirs, it only takes an unintentional kick, and poor little guinea could be a gonna. sam in excitement will jump and turn round in teh air, and im sure she aint teh only bunny does it: i wouldnt like to get one of her legs hit me when she does, and im much bigger and sturdier than our littkle furry friends.

also, which you probably know, but better to be safe than sorry: guinea pigs need more vitamin c than their fellow bunny friends.

I used to allow my guinea pig to run free in the garden with my bunnies and the bunnies didnt even notice he was there! This was supervised at all times and in a large garden. The only problem I had was catching the little piggie - theyre not as easy to heard as bunnies! :lol:

In a restricted area I can understand the above comments and concerns.

Hiya! I agree with the opinion that piggies and bunnies should not be exercised together at all. Basically, they shouldn't come into contact. A bunny's kick hurts a human when it happens, and bunnies often do it playfully as I'm sure you have seen, so they could badly injure a piggie even if they don't mean to. Plus, if your bunnies aren't neutered (whether they're male or female), they are likely to hump the poor piggies which could also injure them.

I don't think anyone meant to jump down your throat, please don't take it the wrong way. I think some people on here have had instances of piggies being seriously hurt or even killed as a result of exercising piggies and bunnies together, and they just wanted to stress the importance of not letting them play together.

Welcome to the forum, and can we please see some pictures of your bunnies and piggies?

AMETHYST

Hi

I used to keep my buns and pigs together (long time ago) before I knew the reasons not too and there's no way I'd put the ickle piggies in with my Giants at bedtime for fear of them being squashed.

However, we have the two giant buns in the house a lot and they adore it when we bring the piggies in too, licking them and snuggling up with them. They also always stop and give them a lick when they are in the garden too. However, there is always a big space and somewhere for pigs to escape to.

On the pther hand our little buns hate the piggies and will go for them as soon as they are anywhere near them (I have never seen a rabbit actually go for a pig before!) Needless to say they don't go anywhere near each other now.

So in my experience it depends on the buns, it may also have helped that we got the Giants and the pigs around the same time when they were all young and the buns are both neutered now. I don't agree that buns and pigs can't be friends as rabbits get on with other animals e.g. cats, dogs etc. As long as they are supervised I don't see a problem.

I did post some pics when i joined but they may have fallen off the first page by now.

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e236/FroggFrogg/DSC01209.jpg

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e236/FroggFrogg/DSC01212.jpg

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e236/FroggFrogg/Louise3.jpg

http://i40.photobucket.com/albums/e236/FroggFrogg/Thelma3.jpg

Ok just to sum up, i house them seprately and they have different (suitable) foods. They do not play together after they met once and Bert (rabbit) was petrified of Louise (guinea).[/url]

I don't know how to post just pics only links...

Those pics are fab!

JellyBelly said:

I don't know how to post just pics only links...

Click to expand...

If you surround them with image tags then that will work. If you put " " (again without quotation marks) after the link, it should work.

Hope that helps!

AMETHYST