My rats and guinea pig were able to live Together?

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gn3ranger

Member
Joined
May 22, 2012
Messages
24
Location
Texas
I had 2 white rats with red eyes(from PETCO) and a guinea pig i bought at a garage sale. the guinea pig was very huge and did not like attention all he did was go to sleep or not even move at all. he wasnt sick since he ate like everyday and finished his huge water bottle in like 4-5 days. Anyways when i was changing my rats litter near him he showed interest in the rats they were sniffing eachother through the cages and simon was making such happy noises running about his cage and what not. I decided to let them have play time together outside of their cages. Simon immediately walked towards the 2 rats sniffing them and making noises the rats would lick him and play with his fur simon did not seem to mind it at all. Long story short my 2 white rats and my Guinea pig lived together in the same cage for about 1 year and 4 months before old simon finally passed. There was never a situation where simon acted violent towards the rats did not hear my 2 girls squeak once during their stay together I was really surprised simon was very sad and depressed before i got him But with the rats he moved around alot sniffing them and licking them. On the colder days they all slept together in a big furball in a corner sometimes. Long story short Its amazing how some animals can socialize even during feeding time they would sometimes eat out of the same bowl without any trouble at all. My rats would store some food in a corner and fat old simon would just eat it lol so funny. I'd liked to beleive simon lived his last years happy with his friends he certainly seemed to enjoy himself. And the rats seemed to enjoy having something big to sleep on at night. Ofcourse simon always got more veggies than the rats and they had 3 water bottles to chose from and 2 food bowls 1 with rats food and 1 with pellets and hay but of-course they would sometimes sneak to the other food bowls to eat from there too.

I know these animals are not meant to live together but in this situation it worked out Super good simon went from lazy and scared to happy and active in like 2 days i saw a complete difference in him when he had cage mates. I did not buy another guinea pig because I only bought simon because he was out in the sun and his litter was so brown and smelled really bad i felt like i had to take him home from that garage sale.I never expected him to bond so well with my rats I was very surprised still to this day no aggressiveness at all.
 
Yes i know it isn't a good idea which is why It took me about 1 month of playtime together to actually let them live together wanted to be 100% sure it wasn't a 1 time thing. When ever i put simon back in the cage he would walk up to the cage scratching and squeaking i guess you could call it idk guinea pigs make very strange noises So i had to put both of their cages very close to each other so simon could calm down
 
Wow you're brave! I would never try that with my rats and guinea pigs! I did let the rat visit the piggies cage when I was spot cleaning cages at night, but that never triggered the same interest you're mentioning in your post. Simon definitely was one of a kind!
 
Yeah, I only repeated that it wasn't a good idea so no one would read this and think putting different species together was a good idea ....
Rats tend to see other animals as prey or predators. :shock:
 
gn3ranger said:
I had 2 white rats with red eyes(from PETCO) and a guinea pig i bought at a garage sale. the guinea pig was very huge and did not like attention all he did was go to sleep or not even move at all. he wasnt sick since he ate like everyday and finished his huge water bottle in like 4-5 days. Anyways when i was changing my rats litter near him he showed interest in the rats they were sniffing eachother through the cages and simon was making such happy noises running about his cage and what not. I decided to let them have play time together outside of their cages. Simon immediately walked towards the 2 rats sniffing them and making noises the rats would lick him and play with his fur simon did not seem to mind it at all. Long story short my 2 white rats and my Guinea pig lived together in the same cage for about 1 year and 4 months before old simon finally passed. There was never a situation where simon acted violent towards the rats did not hear my 2 girls squeak once during their stay together I was really surprised simon was very sad and depressed before i got him But with the rats he moved around alot sniffing them and licking them. On the colder days they all slept together in a big furball in a corner sometimes. Long story short Its amazing how some animals can socialize even during feeding time they would sometimes eat out of the same bowl without any trouble at all. My rats would store some food in a corner and fat old simon would just eat it lol so funny. I'd liked to beleive simon lived his last years happy with his friends he certainly seemed to enjoy himself. And the rats seemed to enjoy having something big to sleep on at night. Ofcourse simon always got more veggies than the rats and they had 3 water bottles to chose from and 2 food bowls 1 with rats food and 1 with pellets and hay but of-course they would sometimes sneak to the other food bowls to eat from there too.

I know these animals are not meant to live together but in this situation it worked out Super good simon went from lazy and scared to happy and active in like 2 days i saw a complete difference in him when he had cage mates. I did not buy another guinea pig because I only bought simon because he was out in the sun and his litter was so brown and smelled really bad i felt like i had to take him home from that garage sale.I never expected him to bond so well with my rats I was very surprised still to this day no aggressiveness at all.
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Beyond the obvious risks of fights and resulting injuries/fatalities, you also have to keep in mind how different the two species' diets are (and how unsuitable it would be for one to eat the others) and the risk to their health. Eating an inappropriate diet can lead to serious, life threatening health issues in guinea pigs and a GP diet would be very unsuitable for rats and each species could carry pathogens that are relatively benign to them but very dangerous to the other. Not to mention their different habitat needs and how dangerous their habitats could be to each other. Even if they got along, I don't think I would let them live together if they were mine because it would just be too much of a risk.
 
Aww, that's such a sweet story!

Rats, in the wild, actually will sometimes house with mice. However, if food is low, they'll eat them. The mice still accept them as roommates, because, in the long run, one or two mousies die but the main pack survives- protection n' all. Just thought that would be an interesting fact. :)
 
O yes I will never attempt this again yes their food diets were different simon would eat out of the rats food bowl from time to time but the rats Didn't really show any interest in simons pellets or hay. The only problem was when i fed simon like a carrot the rats would take it away from him so when ever i fed simon a certain veggie i would take the rats out. of-course when i fed the rats like turkey or something simon should no interest at all since he doesnt eat meat. so I kept him in the cage when they got their treats.
 
gn3ranger said:
O yes I will never attempt this again yes their food diets were different simon would eat out of the rats food bowl from time to time but the rats Didn't really show any interest in simons pellets or hay. The only problem was when i fed simon like a carrot the rats would take it away from him so when ever i fed simon a certain veggie i would take the rats out. of-course when i fed the rats like turkey or something simon should no interest at all since he doesnt eat meat. so I kept him in the cage when they got their treats.
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That's my point. Good rat food would be awful for guinea pigs. Really high in fat, carbs, and minerals and low in long strand fibre - that alone could cause life threatening health conditions (obesity, GI stasis, bladder/kidney stones, etc). (Also, if you look at the ingredients, most rat blocks have some type of animal product, so it's likely Simon ate some meat because he ate the blocks.) Hay is not unhealthy for rats but having large quantities in the cage could be dangerous because they could scratch their corneas or they could develop respiratory issues because hay is so dusty.
 
Oh no you misunderstood me I meant When i baked turkey or chicken i would on occasion give my rats a treat of it Like hand feed them a little bit and that's it. I meant simon wouldn't bother the rats when they ate their piece of chicken,but the rats would bother him when it was his turn for treats such as a slice of apple,pear,carrots, etc. The rat food i give my rats are the ones with alot of seeds and whatnot.
 
gn3ranger said:
The rat food i give my rats are the ones with alot of seeds and whatnot.
Click to expand...

Sorry, but mixes are not good for rats :(
They will eat only what they like, not everything in mixes is good for rats, and they will not get proper nutrition..

80% of a rat's diet needs to be a good quality block (Harlan Tech 2014, Oxbow Regal Rat, or Hagen/Living World hamster extrusian block)
The other 20% of the diet is daily veg (fresh or frozen/thawed) and occassional healthy treats such as a small piece of fruit, cooked oatmeal, cheerio, piece of boiled egg, cooked grain, etc
 
gn3ranger said:
Oh no you misunderstood me I meant When i baked turkey or chicken i would on occasion give my rats a treat of it Like hand feed them a little bit and that's it. I meant simon wouldn't bother the rats when they ate their piece of chicken,but the rats would bother him when it was his turn for treats such as a slice of apple,pear,carrots, etc. The rat food i give my rats are the ones with alot of seeds and whatnot.
Click to expand...

Seed mixes are not good for neither rats nor guinea pigs. Again, for guinea pigs they are way to high in fat, carbs, calories, and lacking in fibre... you're really lucky you didn't end up with a very ill guinea pig with expensive vet bills to treat him. I volunteer for the local shelter where I live and I often explain to people that you actually save a lot of money in the long run and enjoy your companion animal much more if you invest in a healthy diet and habitat.
 
oh :( I guess I'll try to give my rat more varieties in food yes ur right she takes and stores what she likes. Yes luckily simon was never sick at any point. I feed my rat vegetables every day, but I'm gonna start to buy her some Lab block then. Thanks for the advice
 
Naturalraes said:
Wow, guys, I'm really disappointed in you. Someone posts a heartwarming story about rescuing a guinea pig, and making its last few years happy, and all you can do is spiel out a bunch of bossy know-it-all unsolicited advice. Unkind.

gr3ranger, I liked your story. Thanks for posting.
Click to expand...
That's because we've helped out others with stories of their rats killing and eating their degus/rabbits/mice/hamsters or the other way around, rats being killed by them. We know the dangers. It's called warning, alerting, helping. We need to be very upfront with this post, in case some other person decides to give it a try and it ends in tragedy and not a happy lovely story like this one.
You have a lot of nerve calling us bossy-know it all. Until you've comforted and consoled those with huge broken hearts because of this mistake, then you can call us such awful names.
 

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