squirrel and rabbit?

[Cejemere]

I put my new rabbit, Thumpy in the same room as Angel as Angel gets natural sunlight all day and I figured it might be nice for the two of them to have company. Although in seperate cages and he was in my room for a few weeks before to make sure he was okay. Is there anything I should worry about though as far as sicknesses, diseases, things like that? I've seen tons of pics of babys together but I'd rather avoid a problem than create one. I wont let them interact, but they get to see each other from across the room. Both dont seem aggitated, Thumpy seems more relaxed and Angel could careless (she can careless about the dogs snooping in every now and then too)

[gs1]

i don't think there's anything to worry about.

the rabbit is the european domestic and not the american hare ... i'm assuming.

rabbits are very delicate... in nature they're not meant to live longer than a few months, they can get sick and die very easily. (not meaning to alarm... i had one lived to 12 ((with heavy duty/super fast cancer that was taken out when she was 4 ...).... and i've had 2 males die at 5.... (water on heart/stomach operation/bloat)

many people keep rabbits and squirrels together ...(not caged together ofcourse) .... jackie & Lynnin and i know pappy has both too.

the most important thing i think is that the rabbit does not eat the squirrels leftovers such as nuts/hhbs/rodent blocks etc...

rabbits are herbivores and so should be eating... the most important ...timothy hay followed by a small amount of best quality pellets(no mycotoxins or large amounts of sugars etc) ((some people elect to not feed pellets at all and the rabbits do fine- probably better than fine - cause then they eat more hay)

rabbits make their own vitamins in the form of cecal pellets ((they redigest their food and eat it again ... yuk .. but for them essential ..they'll die without eating those poops ((they look like bunches of grapes and smell strong)).

rabbits also love and should eat a lot of greens such as dandelion ((ofcourse not sprayed etc)), grass, carrot tops((better organic)) parsley, fennel greens etc...

the thing rabbits should not have except as small treats are the starches such as carrots, apples, bananas.

giving any kind of human food like cookies is just dangerous and anything like candy, chips, chocolate is just toxic.

(:) sorry for the lecture on rabbits ... i find it hard to stop myself....:) )


ps: also because rabbit stomachs are really fermentation vats any new food needs to be introduced slowly as they build up bacteria to digest them....their stomachs are always a balance of good bacteria to bad....

some people who have rabbits that do eat lots of carrot etc... have stomachs that have built up the bacteria to digest the starches and keep the bad starch under control...

but i still wouldn't promote it because sugars are just a bad idea for rabbits....

:) although once our rabbits got an idea of banannas, carrots and apples we had to eat those outside of the house and wash our hands and not breathe anywhere near the rabbit otherwise they'd be trying to get inside our mouths to find where that delicious smell was coming from .....:rotfl

[DipityDane]

I'm not sure about about cross contamination of any kind between the two but I just wanted to say, we had a rabbit for many years named "BilJack" who "mothered" several orphan animals....during the 9 years he was alive he took care of baby squirrels, ducks, kittens, etc....Ricky the foxer we have now has spent a lot of time with Elton our angora....tho they are now mostly separated, even weeks can pass by, and still when Ricky see's Elton he runs as fas as he can and grabs ahold of Elton's puffball coat and snuggles in.:)

[momma2boo]

I put my new rabbit, Thumpy in the same room as Angel as Angel gets natural sunlight all day and I figured it might be nice for the two of them to have company. Although in seperate cages and he was in my room for a few weeks before to make sure he was okay. Is there anything I should worry about though as far as sicknesses, diseases, things like that? I've seen tons of pics of babys together but I'd rather avoid a problem than create one. I wont let them interact, but they get to see each other from across the room. Both dont seem aggitated, Thumpy seems more relaxed and Angel could careless (she can careless about the dogs snooping in every now and then too)

When Meggie (my grey) used to run free in the house she would play with the bunny. I guess each squirrel is different though.

[Cejemere]

Hmm...good to know there is no risk. Angel and Thumpy I think are too old to play or anything else. Angel is more interested in climbing in my shirt and going to sleep then even investigating Thumpy or his cage,lol. He's just a reg black and white rabbit, I dont know his age as he was a rescue but I would guess over a year. He gets pellets everyday and then hay added in every other day. Maybe it's the litter I'm using but omg does his pee freaking stink!!! His cage smells so much worse than Angels, anyone know anything good to use? Angel only pees on one side of her cage so I use a small amount of cat litter, she cant reach it or anything. Thumpy has the same crate over the litter too but I use this cardboard stuff, uhm..carefree or something like that, its blue....but it does nothing for smell, he stinks! lol

[DipityDane]

Hmm...good to know there is no risk. Angel and Thumpy I think are too old to play or anything else. Angel is more interested in climbing in my shirt and going to sleep then even investigating Thumpy or his cage,lol. He's just a reg black and white rabbit, I dont know his age as he was a rescue but I would guess over a year. He gets pellets everyday and then hay added in every other day. Maybe it's the litter I'm using but omg does his pee freaking stink!!! His cage smells so much worse than Angels, anyone know anything good to use? Angel only pees on one side of her cage so I use a small amount of cat litter, she cant reach it or anything. Thumpy has the same crate over the litter too but I use this cardboard stuff, uhm..carefree or something like that, its blue....but it does nothing for smell, he stinks! lol

Rabbit pee does stink...to me it kinda smells grassy...what we use for our buns is papertowl lining the litterbox before adding hay...the papertowl soaks up the pee and keeps it cleaner...we change out the boxes daily or twice daily depending because they will eat the hay and there is practically no odor...but we HAVE to dump litter pans daily or yes, they will smell....carefresh is a a safe litter...we only use hay as a lot of buns like to poop on hay lol...we hang their hay rack above the litter box so they can eat while they poop which buns also like to do....and on the subject of hay...you mention every other day hay but it's seriously important that buns have constant access to a good quality timothy hay(no alfalfa except for babies). Pellets should not be the primary food source for rabbits, the hay should be...hay helps to keep the GI tract in working order and a bun without it could very end up in stasis which is never a good thing....on the litter maybe try experimenting with different ones....I did find with my rats that the carefresh seemed to smell worse when dirty than a lot of other substrates.

[gs1]

rabbits are group animals.... and while 2 new rabbits could fight if introduced as adults, but eventually they do get along with some tweaking, ... a squirrel and a rabbit could still be friends.

rabbits do get lonely by themselves and it's not healthy for them, unlike the american cottontails (hares) which are solitary animals.

as for the pee ... a couple of things... is he fixed?

(fixing rabbits is a good idea because 85% of females get uterine cancer within their first 4 years ... and males also can get cancer, also a male entact rabbit will be humping anything that doesn't move fast):D

with my rabbits ...as i mentioned ...hay was the most important part of their diet .. it also helps to wear down their teeth. just like squirrels their teeth keep growing.

anyway ... pee ... well i actually used white towels which i changed every day and i rinsed first in the washing machine and then washed them with bleach... the reason is that i used vinegar to clean the cages with (vinegar is good for cleaning rabbit pee) but vinegar and bleach create a toxic gas. so the towels had to be rinsed first.

the reason for the towels is that i could see when there was a problem with either blood in urine or for some reason their poops were getting smaller and so predicting a stomach shutdown episode/stasis....

i think that white carefresh would be good because you can see the colour of the pee but it would have to be changed at least 2 per day ....

i know a lot of people would use wood pellets (i'm not sure which ones)....

a clumping litter is not recommended, it could kill them ....and something called sweat scoop which is a clumping litter for cats ...is actually sweet to the rabbits (it's wheat based) and they want to eat it!!!

:)

[Cejemere]

I've been using the carefresh, its blue..sucks for sucking up the pee or the smell...i had to decline another rabbit that needs a home because i cant stand the smell of this one! I've incleased his hay to every day now and cut down on his pellets...im not sure if thumpy is a he or a she or a he who has been clipped! i cant tell...i know he should be showing the parts as i was told but i dont know if those parts were clipped before i got him. i use bleach to clean his cage although it doesnt help much...Angels cage doesnt even come close to smelling as bad as him nor have to be cleaned as much! Never knew a cute fluffy thing could stink this much!

[gs1]

rabbits don't show parts. :)

it's really hard to tell.

but just by the pee smell... i'd say it's not neutered ... i'm thinking male.

i find their smell ...' earthy' ...not stinky .... and nothing like cat pee...

maybe he has an infection but i doubt it...

it would be a great idea to find a rabbit vet before you need one.... ((vets say they treat rabbits but it's as hard to find a real rabbit vet as it is to find a squirrel vet)....

the rabbit will need to be fixed... if you brought another one in the house... they could either fight to the death ... (or cause abscesses in each other - lots of vet bills etc...) or they'd get along so well you'd have babies ....

the best place to start looking at rabbit stuff is 'the house rabbit society groups' there's lots of them in the states... this one in connecticut

http://www.rabbitnetwork.org/

otherwise our beloved runestonez has a rabbit organization up here in ontario ... it's called oreo.... (ontario rabbit education organization).

http://www.ontariorabbits.org/diet/behavinfo5.html


:thumbsup

[gs1]

i wouldn't use bleach. it's very dangerous (to you...the rabbit and squirrel)....it damages their lungs and yours.... and so unnecessary ...it also requires a lot of rinsing.....

vinegar is easier to use.... just spray and wipe.... or if there's a puddle of pee ... wipe... spray vinegar and rewipe....

before using vinegar make sure 100% that there's no bleach left... vinegar and bleach together make a very poisonous gas..... :(

best of luck....:thumbsup