Neutered and Marking - New Pet - Please help!

[ShreddersMom]

I have a neutered two year old lop who has been absolutely PERFECT with his litter box skills. I've had him since November and he got neutered in January. It's awesome since he is a free range bunny.
Recently, I got a guinea pig and now we have some problems...

The rabbit doesn't like the guinea pig which I guess is expected because I know they shouldn't live together. So the rabbit is free range and the guinea pig is caged. I tried to see if they would tolerate eachother but the rabbit just tries to chase her all the time. For now, since they are in one room (I'm a student) the rabbit has free roam and sometimes I X pen him and let the guinea pig run around to play.

Now, what has been happening is the rabbit poops and pees ALL AROUND the guinea pigs's cage. Unless I keep it not on the floor, when I wake up there is poo EVERYWHERE surrounding the cage. Last night, he hopped on top of the bars and even pooped inside the guinea pigs cage though the bars on the roof... (He's quite the sassy one that boy.)

I know these two can't live together but I was atleast hoping that eventually he'd get used to the guinea pig. What can I do to have him atleast accept her scent and potentially get along? I thought since he a lone bunny he would appreciate the company but he wants nothing to do with any other pets and any other scents...
Also, would this mean that if I ever wanted to bond him he would be difficult to bond or is this simply a misunderstanding of body language between species...?
Any help is appreciated!

:bunny5

 

[Blue eyes]

First off, how your boy bunny behaves with another species will be no indication whatsoever on how he would do with another bunny. In fact, how he behaves toward one bunny will be no indication of how he will behave with another bunny. So if you are thinking about a potential future bondmate for him, that will just depend on the individual rabbit he 'dates.'

As far as him being around the piggy cage, well, he is just a stinker, eh? I would suggest keeping the piggy cage off the floor. The piggy and rabbit really should not be able to touch noses or be that close to each other. Each species can be a carrier of a disease that shows no symptoms to themselves but can be fatal to the other species.

I would even suggest that whenever you let your piggy out of his cage, that you have a designated blanket or sheet to put down to keep his scent off of the floor where your rabbit usually roams. Hopefully that will minimize or eliminate your bunny's need to mark his territory.

On a side note, you may want to consider getting a mate for your piggy. While rabbits can do fine single, piggies really need the socialization of another piggy.

Here were my rabbits being curious when I got my piggies...