Rabbits N'Rodents

Why Rabbits Can't Live with a Guinea Pig

Many people believe that it is pefectly fine for a rabbit and guinea pig to live together, however it is extremely unsafe for both the rabbit, and especially the guinea pig.

For a start, guinea pigs require extra vitamin C in their diet but rabbits do not as they make their own like most mammals, therefore do you feed rabbit or guinea pig food or a mix of both? Not only does rabbit food lack essentiual Vitamin C but it often contains antibiotics that are harmful to guinea pigs. A rabbit on the other hand cannot eat guinea pig food as it doesn't have the right requirements for their diet.

Rabbits have very powerful hind legs, and if something startles the rabbit or it even just hops off and the guinea pig is in the wrong place the guinea pig will most likely suffer badly, broken ribs are a possibility, as guineas are too delicate and will have to be euthanised, this has happened too many times already! You could argue the same could happen with two rabbits, but rabbits are hardier than guinea pigs and an accidental kick is not going to damage the rabbit. If you come home to a pig squealing in pain after suffering a kick, it will be purely your own fault, you've been warned!

Also rabbits tend to be the boss and often bully the guinea pig resulting in an unhappy and sometimes skinny pig as it isn't allowed to eat enough, that is no life for a guinea pig is it? Don't be fooled though, sometimes the guinea pig can be the boss of the rabbit resulting in a depressed and underweight rabbit, I have known of one case where a guinea pig blinded a rabbit in one eye.

Finally who wants to live with someone you can't even communicate with? Rabbits and guinea pigs come from totally different parts of the world and would never meet naturally in the wild. Therefore they cannot fully enjoy each others company. Both rabbits and guinea pigs have a complicated communication structure and they miss out on this as its like you trying to constantly live with someone from a totally different culture and with a different language, it just doesn't work.  

Therefore when you look at it like this, it is cruel to keep a guinea pig and rabbit together, as both of these animals would never live naturally together, they enjoy the company of their OWN species and have different needs, plus there is always risk. Why put a rabbit in with a guinea pig when the rabbit would much rather have a rabbit friend and vice versa? There is absoultly no reason to keep these animals together, it is only ever done for the owners benefit, never for the animals.

If you have a guinea pig and rabbit that live together, and have done for years you have been lucky, however I urge you to split them immediately and get them a friend of their own species. They may appear to miss each other and first when you seperate them, but thats because they feel confused and do have some sort of a loose bond with the other, however I can guarantee you are doing them a big favour by getting them each their own new friend.

Even the RSPCA strongly recommends rabbits and guinea pigs are not housed together!

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