[Gpdd] [CARE] Rabbits and guinea pigs housed together

[DebJonSara at aol.com]

Hopefully, Judi, you will have received posts off-list on this subject, but I 
thought I'd post to the digest so other people could read my reply. I, like 
you, was under the impression that rabbits made perfect partners for guinea 
pigs - I had read as much in a French book on guinea pig care, and to me it 
seemed the perfect solution to having a lone guinea pig. I didn't want a breeding 
pair because I didn't want loads and loads of guinea pigs (OK, so I now have 
13, but that's another story!) so I bought a male dwarf bunny to share a cage 
with my lone male, Bâfreur. 

I was lucky, in that they didn't fight and seemed to get on well together - 
the guinea pig was fully grown and the rabbit just a youngster when they were 
first introduced. But then when I started researching rabbits on the Internet, 
I read time and time again that one should NEVER house rabbits and guinea pigs 
together. From what I understand, the reasons are threefold:

1/ They have different food requirements, in that the guinea pig needs a lot 
more extra Vitamin C, therefore they cannot really share the same food dish

2/ There are diseases which can be carried virtually symptomless by one 
species yet prove fatal to the other; for instance, I believe Bordatella bacteria 
can live in rabbit nasal passages and cause very little trouble, but if 
transmitted to guinea pigs they cause pneumonia, which is often fatal

3/ Rabbits can kill guinea pigs with one kick of their very strong back legs. 
I now have an unspayed female rabbit living with the male one that used to 
live with the guinea pig, and she is definately the "boss" rabbit; she will 
mount the head of the male (who has been castrated) and will sometimes pull fur 
from his neck - although I have to say, they are friends most of the time and 
snuggle together to sleep and so on; she just likes to remind him from time to 
time who is boss! Rabbits are far more pugnacious creatures than our dear, 
gentle piggies, and I really don't feel it is fair to subject the piggies to this 
kind of abuse - let alone safe. You don't mention the age of the female bunny, 
but if she is around 6 months, her hormones will be "kicking in" and she will 
become more aggressive from now on!

So if I were you, I would get the rabbit spayed, then go along to your local 
rabbit rescue and let her choose herself a mate; and maybe you could have the 
guinea pig castrated, so he could have a guinea pig mate? Please don't put 
them back in together!

Good luck - let us know how you get on!

Debbie and the Dolly Mixtures