Rabbits & Other Small Animals

We had a sweet male housebunny for 2.5 yrs. He died last Feb. It was horrific for me, DH and DD (who is our only). We've not been able to make a decision about getting another pet b/c it's been a tough yr-DH also lost his dad-- and we just don't know what we're able to handle right now. But we do miss having a furry friend in our family.

We thought we would get another bun, but have been considering other critters. We went back and forth about a cat, but have decided that won't work for us right now.

We've also been thinking about a pair of guinea pigs so we've been reading up on that as well (we actually learned a fair amount of stuff before we got a bun b/c we were considering GP at that time too so we have a book on GPs). We're aware of the work a caged critter takes and the exercise time they require outside of a cage. Our large bunny cage would work well for guinea pigs. 2 things I worry about: parasites, fleas, etc. and having someone look after them when we go away. We never had flea issues when we had cats yrs ago, but they were indoor only and we lived in an arid climate then. Now we're in a flea-friendly climate and, TBH that's one reason we will never get a dog here...I hear that the fleas are horrible. We never had fleas w/our housebun...never even thought it could be an issue. But when we were doing our cat research, learned a lot about this area. Anyhoooo.... do you think that guinea pigs that are kept indoors still have a chance of getting fleas, lice, mites, etc.? I don't want to sound like a clean freak, but it just makes me itchy thinking about it and I don't want to end up w/my house infested w/something that needs to be treated w/chemicals and such. (I won't do that for the sake of my DDs health--long story.)

Thanks for any words of wisdom about guinea pigs.

I think I remember you! You posted a while ago in the bunny section? I'm sorry about the loss of your bunny. Any loss of a pet is always hard.

Others will probably have better advice, but I believe that if you don't have other pets which are allowed to be outside and indoors, the chances of a small animal getting fleas, mites, etc. is very low. There's always the small chance that they could be brought in by humans, but again, the risk is low.

Eddie and Lollipop!  

I remember you too, you were going through a tough time.

I think fleas and the other larger types of annoying bugs like those can be given to GP's even if they are indoors.  Probably the chances of it happening are very slim.

But I thought that GP's etc naturally have mites on them?  If they are healthy and fine, they keep them at bay.  But sometimes they can overtake.  I am not too sure, but I thought I saw something about this once on one of those animal shows.  So don't take what I say too seriously LOL.

I seriously think any indoor animal that doesn't have contact with outside animals or spends alot of time outside won't be contacting these kinds of bugs.  I've had two rabbits for over 6 years and they use to go outside and even then they never contacted fleas or mites or any other little creatures.  My 1 year old bun has only ever been out on our balcony and my other 5 year old bun who was put down earlier this year spent alot of time outside and never caught anything.

I use to just worm them because they'd go outside and I knew there were other animals that would come into our yard.  They never had worms either.  It was just a precaution.

Thank you all for your kind words. We still haven't figured out what we're going to do. DD and I were on the web looking at buns from a local bunny shelter and then the 3 of us drove to the pet store and tortured ourselves looking at the sweet bunnies there. Still I haven't been able to make a committment and I think it's hard on DD. A few wks ago I told her that we were going to put the idea of getting a pet to rest. I'm just so confused for so many reasons and can't seem to make the commitment. One day I feel like we should just go for it; another day I drive myself crazy thinking about all the logistics involved. Who knows what we'll end up doing. I figured we would get another bun not long after our other bun died but here it's been almost 9 mos...