Some people keep rabbits and guinea pigs together: From what I’ve read this isn’t exactly ideal as they don’t speak the same language, and it can be very frustrating for both animals. Also, rabbits can easily kill guinea pigs by kicking them (? from what I’ve read) and oh, and also what i read, guinea pigs always have mites but only show signs of them if their immune system is down (don’t know if thats true, but something to think about when putting them together).
That being said I’ve heard of a lot of people who keep them together (particularly in the UK) and have success. I’ve even heard of one rabbit who thought the guinea pig was his pet. Also, at the zoo, the rabbits’ are kept with the capybarus and wallabies…so you never know?!?!

I have 3 guinea pigs but they are housed separately from the buns…when the buns are out on their romps sometimes they sniff the GP’s cages and meet nose to nose but the rabbits often have absolutely no care in the world for the piggers!

Rabbits carry bortadella and if they bit a piggy they can give it to the piggy – yes, that’s not likely to happen but it could. Also rabbits can kick and hurt a piggy. So no, you don’t want to keep them together.

I’ve had hamsters too and one of them got out a few times and the rabbits were not happy about having this tiny little furball hanging out with them and kept thumping up a storm.

i think another reason why pigs and buns can’t be kept together is b/c of the differences in their diets.

just b/c two animals are small, does not mean they’ll get along together. when i had Stephen my first bun, we also had Jimmy the Siberian Dwarf hamster (and when Jimmy died) Molly the Male Hamster. i never had them out at the same time. i don’t think i ever even considered it.

I have the chinchilla, and when Humphrey’s out he gets all excited at pushes his little nosie out the bars, and Humphrey says “Yay, friend!” and runs over to him and Baxter gives him a nice friendly chomp on the nose (he seems to think that gentle biting is an acceptable social behavior– he’s stopped doing it with me, but… Humphrey can’t tell him no) and Humphrey runs away and then in about 20 minutes they repeat this behavior, because they both want to be friends but don’t know how to do it. We tried to let them out together, and again, Baxter said hello by nibbling Humphrey, which Humphrey didn’t like, so he gave Baxter a swift bop on the head. They have not been out together since. I agree with Kokanee and Kahlua; because different animals posture themselves differently and/or perform different behaviors to indicated certain feelings, a rabbit can’t “read” a chinchilla and vice-versa. Chinchillas nibble eachother to express affection; rabbits want to know why the small furry thing is biting them. I have heard sucess with rabbit and piggies, but they have to be suitable tempermants for eachother and they have to be fed seperately. I have also heard that piggies can live with chillas, but that doesn’t sound right to me considering chillas are very “up” animals and piggies enjoy being flat on the ground. I would be cautious concerning interspecies friendships, particularly with bunnies + rodents/cavies, because rabbits are much sturdier than your average small rodenty thing, and could easily harm them, even if just accidentally.

I have 2 piggies in their own condo in the bunny room, but I don’t intentionally put them together. Until this weekend, their NIC condo was 2 grids high, with their floor at the one grid level (i’m old and find it easier to care for them when it’s off the floor by that 14 or so inches).

Only one rabbit, Pringles of course, takes more than a glancing interest in them. If the top is off, she will hop into the condo and use her front feet to bop their house until they run out and make a few laps and run back in while Pringles just sits and watches. Then she’ll sit and sniff at their door and repeat the bopping until I shoo her out. The piggies don’t act upset, seems like a game to both of them but I try to remember to keep the lid on when the rabbits are out and about.

Kathy

We have a hamster named Boo. We often let him run in his ball for exercise with the bunnies. Little Ella hates him and will box at the ball and take out her aggression on her boyfriend Scooter so we keep him out of their room. Binky will tolerate him but Boo really does have a bond with our bunn Fluffy. I think he sees Fluffy as a giant hamster. Many times, Boo has parked his ball right up against Fluffy and he grooms Fluffy through the air vents of the ball! Seriously, Fluffy will put his head down, Boo will roll up to his head, stop and start to pull fur throught the air vents like a little groomer!

I would let Boo and Fluffy out together, but other than that, I keep them apart, or him safley in his ball. Binky cornered him once and grunted while Boo stood up on is hind legs and screeched at her so THAT’S a relationship that will never work. And since Ella tries to kill him when he is IN his ball, I’m not chancing him with her OUT of the ball.

We have 19 rats in the house. Vasco, our couch boy, is very protective of his humans, so we cannot have him and our rabbit Velvet out at the same time because she has figured out how to get onto the couch and that’s just an accident waiting to happen. Almost all our rats (all rescues) are very, very sweet, but Vasco simply doesn’t tolerate anybody close to HIS people, so I strongly assume he would hurt Velvet. His gigantic cage is in the dining room but Velvet leaves him alone. Luckily, she doesn’t care all too much about the rats. There are two other gigantic cages in the dining room but she leaves all those rats alone, too. One of my rat boys is cage-aggressive; that’s why I put up a babygate so that Velvet cannot get to him. I don’t believe in letting interact different species unless it’s a very rare case, nature tells them to peacefully live together (birds and elephants… haha! One cleans the other.) or domesticated animals who are used to living together (dog and cat, for instance). With rodents, ‘accidents’ can occur way too easily.