INTRODUCTION

Many guinea pigs are seen living with rabbits; however, this forced cohabitation is far from safe. Unfortunately, this practice is far from disappearing.

A guinea pig can only live with a guinea pig and a rabbit can only live with a rabbit!

We have all seen people who have their guinea pig and rabbit live together, saying that all is well and that the two animals are ‘very friendly’; this type of cohabitation is widespread. However, you should never have several species coexist, for a number of reasons.

THE GUINEA PIG IS MORE FRAGILE AND WEAKER

Rabbits and guinea pigs are similar but totally different in many ways. To begin with, the strength of the rabbit is much greater than that of the guinea pig, whether the rabbit weighs 900 grams as an adult or 5 kilos, the force of its kicks can do a lot of damage to the guinea pig. Guinea pigs are fragile animals (especially their back is fragile) and can easily suffer fractures, they cannot escape as quickly as they should from a rabbit that wants to attack them and in case of a fight the disadvantage is enormous.

RABBITS AND GUINEA PIGS COMMUNICATE IN A DIFFERENT WAY

Rabbits and guinea pigs communicate with humans and with each other in very different ways, while the rabbit's communication is mainly non-verbal, the guinea pig is a very vocal animal, the noises they make are very varied and the rabbit does not understand their meaning, so when the guinea pig makes noises of discomfort, fear or heat they mean nothing to the rabbit. The rutting season can be very dangerous for the guinea pig, because if one guinea pig shows signs of it (purring and moving her hips) and the other guinea pig does not want to, she will let you know either by leaving or protesting; the rabbit will directly mount her and bite her on the back, which can cause a lot of stress to the guinea pig, injuries and even fractures.

This does not only happen during the rutting season, but also because of the rabbit's own territoriality and the mounting is done by both males and females.

VITAMIN C

On several occasions we have mentioned the great importance of vitamin C in the diet of guinea pigs, they cannot synthesise it as it is, so we have to administer it to them with supplements and a varied diet, as a lack of vitamin C in guinea pigs produces scurvy, a disease which, if not treated in time, can be fatal.

In the case of rabbits, an overdose of vitamin C can cause decompensation, so they cannot be fed the same as guinea pigs (and guinea pigs cannot be fed the same as rabbits).

BORDETELLA BRONCHISEPTICA

Bordetella bronchiseptica is recognised as an early primary pathogen of the respiratory tract in domestic animals, it can cause kennel cough (dog), noisy breathing (in rabbits) and atrophic rhinitis (in pigs). As with E.Cuni, 80% of domestic rabbits carry this bacterium but are unlikely to be affected or show symptoms of it; guinea pigs, on the other hand, are very susceptible to acquire and die from lung infections caused by Bordetella bronchiseptica.

CONCLUSION

As we have seen we can keep both species (rabbits and guinea pigs) as pets, they can even live in the same room as long as their habitats are different and they do not come into contact with each other. Keeping them together freely can cause us quite a few problems, especially for our guinea pig, which can suffer different injuries or even death in the worst case scenario.

As owners of living beings we have to ensure their welfare in a responsible way, and that includes not romanticising certain things such as inter-species coexistence without further ado.