just had this email :(

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clairelove

clairelove

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ive just had this email from some one let me know what you thinkgrrrr:(

Hi. I would like to offer a home to a pair of guinea pigs (prefereably boars that have been brought up together)they would be housed outside in a large area which is also occuplied by 8 rabbits and 3 ex battery hens all of which get on remakably well. I did have a guinea pig in with them up until last week but sadly he has died from old age. I love guineas as they are such lovely little characters and I do not want to leave it too long before getting some more so that the other animals accept them. I have contacted the other site re: Mitch and Moo but it depends on their location . If you have any pairs in need of a home please let me know. Thank you

my reply

hi thanks for your email i dont have any paired up boars in at the mo.
could i say that any guinea pig rescue including the RSPCA would only rehome guinea pigs housed in separate accomadation away from your other animals,from owning ex-batts myself i have seen the damage they can do to each other via pecking,if any other animal had a cut which was bleeding, chickens are drawn to it and peck at it this is from experiance on myself...
also the damage from a rabbits kick towards a guinea pig which in many cases the guinea pig will be found dead with no outside injuries, as a rabbits kick is deadly to a poor guinea pig standing behind at the time..
if the guinea pigs were to be housed away from the other animals then a rescue would be happy to rehome to yourself after a home check is carried out,and subject to follow up visits..
hope you get sorted soon..
love clairexx
i didnt want to seem nasty but theres know way i would rehome any guinea pig being kept with all these animalsgrrrrgrrrr
 
omg thats shocking, I'm supprised they havent been told this before or maybe they just chose to not listen :(
 
Good reply I think. :)
I can understand people thinking it's ok to house guinea pigs with rabbits but I just can't imagine why anyone would want to put them in with chickens. Beggars belief.
 
Well sorry to say but I had a hen,2rabbits and 3 guinea pigs that lived together...The guinea pigs had their hutch,the hen shared with the rabbits who didn't seem to mind! The rabbit hutch is hugh!

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this is what it use to look like,but Spangle the hen didn't like her hutch so stayed in with the rabbits!

09-09-07_1931.jpg

the view of the 'pen' and garden

my favourite photo- Spangle also shared her food!
11-06-07_0905.jpg


Maybe I was just lucky.....Spangle the hen use to be like an alarm for the rabbits and guinea pigs...if she 'clucked' the guinea pigs ran for cover,the rabbits would sit up!
I no longer have any of this pets as they have died off from illness and old age!
 
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this was Spangle...a Speckled Sussex.....with Angus, who I have now. Sadly Spangle had to pts in october due to a tumour and was 6 1/2yrs old!
 
Llewelyn was rescued from a run he had to share with other guinea pigs, rabbits and chickens in a wildlife place in Midwales. It was major action. A couple of dead rabbit babies were found, others had their eyes picked out by the chickens.

It took me months to work past Llewelyn's survival instincts and get him out in the open; and even today after more than two years, he still freezes and makes a dash for cover whenever he hears a chicken on tv!
 
The rabbits arent necessarily cruel to the guinea pigs, a lot of the time there may even be no aggression at all. But rabbits still kick out their back legs when moving quickly or becoming excited, which can cause fatal, if not serious, injuries to guinea pigs. plus they require different nutritional diets.

I think a lot of people seem to think "well my rabbits and guinea pigs get on fine", and don't actually seem to realise that a lot of the damage is accidental.

I'm interested in keeping rabbits myself but theres no way they'd come close to my piggles. Theyd be in the shed while my piggies are in side.

Ive said it before, and I will say it again. We wouldnt keep a gerbil or a mouse or a rat in the same cage. So why's it different for guinea pigs? Two entirely different species.
 
well you could say the same for cats & dogs!

My rabbits are both neutered which makes alot of difference (I think)
At the moment they have separated grassed areas, but only because my rabbits are dwarf and so can get into the small entrance to the guinea pig hutch!
 
i had ex bat hens myself for over a year and they were very friendly but they didnt half pick on the lower peck member that much that i had to rehome her on to a free range retirment farm for ex bats,they drew blood on her and once they saw the blood they were very intrested in pecking at it after all ex bats and other chickens can turn on each other and eat each other if they have an open sore they keep pecking until the poor hen dies and they hang on to the cone and can be very naughty if they want to,one thing i was thinking how would the guinea get the food after all the rabbits would push the guineas out of the way and the hens would push the rabbits out of the way as i know hens like guinea and rabbit foodrolleyes:)) and who has what food?from her email it sounds to me that they all slept together and didnt have diff sleeping hutchesmallethead also what if red mite got into the chicken-rabbit-guinea pig shed?
theres no way i would put my poor rescues through some thing like this or even take that risk nevergrrrr
 
another problems is this person has 3 hens not 1 hen so there will be competition with in the pecking order of who eats first until the head of the pecking order is sorted this could cause a problem if they share with guineas and rabbits as the head of the pecking order can change...


Gaile said:
Well sorry to say but I had a hen,2rabbits and 3 guinea pigs that lived together...The guinea pigs had their hutch,the hen shared with the rabbits who didn't seem to mind! The rabbit hutch is hugh!

09-09-07_1930.jpg

this is what it use to look like,but Spangle the hen didn't like her hutch so stayed in with the rabbits!

09-09-07_1931.jpg

the view of the 'pen' and garden

my favourite photo- Spangle also shared her food!
11-06-07_0905.jpg


Maybe I was just lucky.....Spangle the hen use to be like an alarm for the rabbits and guinea pigs...if she 'clucked' the guinea pigs ran for cover,the rabbits would sit up!
I no longer have any of this pets as they have died off from illness and old age!
Click to expand...
 
Personally, I don't see anything wrong with that, as long as the person has experience in feeding all the different animals!
 
You could indeed say the same about cats and dogs, although they are not quite as vulnerable as a delicate little guinea pig. I don't think it is right in every case to have a cat and a dog housed together as injuries can still be caused especially if there is a significant size difference. My partner has a cat and a dog and they get on fine, apart from the missing inch of ear the cat now has after a fight.

Its not a risk I would take.
 
this is the email ive just had back

Whilst I appreciate your concerns re keeping them all together, I have managed okay for the last four years with relative harmony, the area they are in is probably the size of a small back garden, it is fenced all around to keep anything out. The animals have hutches and plenty of hiding places and to date I have had no problem.



My rabbits were rescued from hutches no bigger than a dolls house and had no muscles to speak of in their back legs, now they are very healthy fit animals who spend a very chilled out day digging holes and sunbathing.



My guinea pigs came from a friend who had bought them for children, once the novelty had worn off they had been stuck in a cage in their dark utility room - what a life!.



I apologise if I seem defensive but I am 47 years old and have kept these type of animals all my life. I abhor the fact that these animals are left in peoples garages, sheds and pokey cages whilst mine are out in the fresh air doing what they should be doing and I did think after reading some of the animals history it would be nice to give them a fresh start

.

I am not inexperienced and understand the risks of keeping them together - If I had a problem with any of them then I would simply divide the pen. I find it hard to believe that the RSPCA would rather keep them locked up in cages than dismiss a potential home just because it is slighty different to the norm.

she knows the risks of keeping them togetherrolleyes thats why i wont rehome to her even if she can give them a great home..
what do other rescues think would you rehome to her?[/COLOR]
 
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I myself would not rehome any guinea pig to a home where they where going to be living in the same hutches and free range area as chickens and rabbits.
There is too much of a risk of injury for the pigs plus mites and other diesease that can be passed from rabbits and chickens to pigs.

Also free range pigs are more prone to haveing a lot more illness and less likly to want to be handled.

I dont run a shelter but i have a lot of experince with one and can say that there is no way I would allow this women to have a rescue pig.

I am not saying that she is a bad person, becouse she thinks she is doing the right thing, but if she did a bit of looking around on the net and a bit of reserch she might change her mind on how to home these beautiful little animals.
 
I would go and do a homecheck if it were me, as at least you can give friendly advice for the animals already there even if you would rather not rehome to her.



Sophie
x
 
Super Claire

There is no reproach about this subject at all its in the best animals interests that they all live in the right environment with the right friend.
Guineas with guineas, rabbits with rabbits chickens with chickens.I know many farms had lots of animals wondering around together but guineas need safe environments with their own kind thats just commen sense.
You did right thing Claire xx>>>xx>>>
 
I used to keep my old rabbit and two guinea pigs together, but I wouldn't now. There were never any problems, they got along great, and she never accidentally hurt them, thank God.

It's not that I don't know the risks, I just don't know if there is a high risk a rabbit would hurt guinea pigs. Is it very common?

I must admit that sometimes I let my male Lionhead rabbit have supervised playtime with the guinea pigs, since he is only tiny, and I'm worried he gets lonely (he isn't neutered so lives alone). He really loves it, and they love it. He greatly benefits from it. So I think that outweighs the risk of the guinea pigs getting hurt . . . since I had a much larger rabbit with two guinea pigs for 5 years with no problems, so I don't know if the risk is high? I'd be interested in people's experiences with guinea pigs being hurt accidentally by rabbits though to see if it's common?

I think it's similar to my dogs and cats sleeping together in a big pile in the shed! Or giraffes and zebras grazing together, or different types of birds living together.
 
And I think that the space this guy is giving his guinea pigs sounds great. I wonder how much human contact he gives them and if they are tame or have reverted to the wild a little?

I know nothing about chickens though, so it sounds a bit dodgy keeping them together. At least the guinea pigs have lots of places to go hide . . .
 
threelittlepigs said:
I am wondering whether Spangle was a lower ranking hen and therefore didn't bully the others?
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Due to Spangles breed, she was very friendly,but she was 'hen pecked' very badly,hence why I rehomed her! But I bet the poor battary hens are badly scarred mentally!
 
As I am not a rescue, I can not really comment on if I would or would not re home to her. However, what I can say is that I believe small, delicate animals should live with their own kind.
I think the lady who wishes to re home from you has good intentions and would look after the guinea's well but she is obviously prepared to take a risk. If you are not comfortable with that, then no, you shouldn't re home to her. I know that if I was a rescue, I would only want to re home to someone I trust 110% to look after the animals the way I would expect them to be looked after.

My cat is a rescue cat. We adopted him at 4 months old and he came from a home where 3 young children pulled him around and he was attacked by the family dogs. My cat is now terrified of dogs so whilst we have him, we could never own a dog.

An animals needs must come first for each individual case :)
 
another email ive just hadrolleyes
I'm glad i said no what if the guineas fell into the pond:(

Thank you for your reply.

It is both yours and the RSPCAs loss, how exactly can you tell if an animal is not happy if they look happy!

All know is that I have watched mine lie together contentedly in the sun, I have watched them share a dandelion and I have watched as the rabbit has gently washed the guinea pigs ears, I know about sawdust and I know that I cannot feed guinea pigs rabbit food but I can feed rabbits guinea food which I do plus loads of greens and hay. Forgot to mention I had fish in the enclosure as well, that must really be against the rules!

Think we had better leave it at that, as I said this is yours and even more sadly the unwanted animals loss.
 
I wouldn't even bother replying to her again and get in to a debate. The sad thing is, she could just go to a pet shop and buy a couple of pigs to put in her set up :( I imagine that the pond could have been covered with netting but if not mallethead
 
Quite right too Claire, I was just browsing at freeads and saw someone wanting guinea pigs to put in an avairy with birds.mallethead
 
clairelove said:
another email ive just hadrolleyes
I'm glad i said no what if the guineas fell into the pond:(

Thank you for your reply.

It is both yours and the RSPCAs loss, how exactly can you tell if an animal is not happy if they look happy!

All know is that I have watched mine lie together contentedly in the sun, I have watched them share a dandelion and I have watched as the rabbit has gently washed the guinea pigs ears, I know about sawdust and I know that I cannot feed guinea pigs rabbit food but I can feed rabbits guinea food which I do plus loads of greens and hay. Forgot to mention I had fish in the enclosure as well, that must really be against the rules!

Think we had better leave it at that, as I said this is yours and even more sadly the unwanted animals loss.
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POND.......now she/he IS mad!
I wouldn't have a pond in the enclosure,you really asking for trouble!
 
I just hope that if he/she gets guinea pigs then they will hopefully be safe and have a happy life. They probably will have a better life than alot of guinea pigs . . . let's just hope they'll be safe.
 
Also someone said that the rabbits would push the guinea pigs out of the way of the food and eat it all. I had to laugh! Guinea pigs are way greedier than rabbits (in my experience). When I kept them together the guinea pigs used to bite the rabbit's dewlap if she had food and take the food off of her! She'd have to wait til they finished eating. Guinea pigs are bullies really :)
 
I think you did the right thing Claire. As we were saying before, years ago it was common place to keep rabbits and guinea pigs together. However we now know there is a big risk to the guinea pigs.

You have a policy of not rehoming them together and you should stick to it.

I think she has got the animals interests at heart and would not knowingly neglect them but if she is not going to listen to good advice how could be sure they were being treated properly?

Also if they are 'free range' day and night how can she be sure foxes and cats can't get to them? Guinea pigs and rabbits can die of shock even if the fox can not get into the hutch. I don't know a lot about chickens but I would imagine it would be the same for them too.

You are right to be concerned.
 
Gaile said:
Due to Spangles breed, she was very friendly,but she was 'hen pecked' very badly,hence why I rehomed her! But I bet the poor battery hens are badly scarred mentally!
Click to expand...

when i first had my ex-bats they stood there staring at the sky for 3 days in amazement i had to but them in the hen cope at night,it was so great watching them dust bathe,and scratching for worms,and when i shouted them they would come flying-running down the garden to greet me-and seeing if i had foodrolleyes:))
when they come they have open sores,NO feathers or very little,they are also debeaked even when they went through there molt they still layed eggs..
they really are wonderful loving animals but they can be casing birds and if a cat walked passed they would case them off:(|)but it was so great seeing them casing butterflies and flies around,its a great diff from been 5 to a a5 size cage to a whole garden to run in..
I got a lot of rolleyes from the neighbours because they were at times very noisy i lost 1 hen after 1yr to egg yoke peritonitis she was name buttercup my other 3 girls went to my friend who owns a farm she has many ex bats and cockerels all free ranging so she had them off me and they will live there until there time to rainbow bridge xx

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