Currently offering boarding for Rabbits, Guinea Pigs and other small furry friends in my climate controlled home located in Cardiff, NSW.
29/04/2025
Last week, I was a little shocked when we visited a nearby petting zoo (I'm not going to mention names) and found that during the day, they housed their rabbits and guinea pigs together.
knowing that this is a big no no, i questioned the keeper if this was a common practice for them.
You can probably guess his response based on why I am doing this post, because I am all about education.
WHY SHOULD RABBITS AND GUINEA PIGS BE HOUSED SEPARATELY?
There are three good reasons to keep them separately – dietary needs, disease and behaviour.
DIETARY:
Although both rabbits and guinea pigs are herbivores (plant eaters), there are significant differences.
The most important is that rabbits can make their own Vitamin C – guinea pigs cannot. Without the vitamin in their diet, guinea pigs will get their version of scurvy, becoming listless, getting diarrhoea, losing their hair and ultimately even bleeding to death internally.
DISEASE:
Both species can carry the same diseases, and transmit them to each other. However, while conditions such as Pasteurella affect both equally, some conditions like Bordetella bronchiseptica – (found in rabbit urine) are potentially fatal in guinea pigs.
BEHAVIOUR:
This is the most important factor.
Guinea pigs and rabbits may look superficially similar to us, but their behaviour and body language is very, very different.
To make matters worse, rabbits are much bigger and stronger than guinea pigs, and can cause severe injury to them.
How would you like to live in the same house with a bad tempered gorilla? That’s what it feels like to a guinea pig living with a rabbit!
Because the body language is different, they don’t communicate effectively; this can lead to the rabbit becoming frustrated, and they may attack or bully the guinea pig.
Rabbits like to groom each other and enjoy close company; guinea pigs generally prefer to keep themselves to themselves – even if the rabbit’s being friendly, the guinea pig may feel harassed.
This confusion can also lead to other mistakes – it is very common for male rabbits to try to mate with female and male guinea pigs, to the injury of the poor guinea pig (who was happily pottering about his normal life when suddenly jumped and mounted by a large, heavy, randy buck).
This isn’t just unpleasant for the guinea pig but potentially dangerous – it is sadly quite possible for a guinea pig’s back to be broken during the attempted mating.
Bottom line – rabbits and guinea pigs aren’t really compatible!
