Can a chipmunk and a rabbit coexist?

September 5, 2007 2:45 PM

I've got a domesticated rabbit in a fairly large cage in our home. She's very easygoing. A friend is moving and looking to give away a domesticated chipmunk. Do you think the two of them could live together in one place, or are the species incompatible?
posted by ktoad to Pets & Animals (3 answers total)

Best answer: I doubt it. Rabbits are very set in their ways and they don't like change. They don't even enjoy sharing a cage with other rabbits once they reach adulthood (I have three domestic rabbits and they each have their own cage, although they're lined up side by side so they can "talk" to each other). I wouldn't take a chance on a rabbit and chipmunk in the same cage (although I'm sure people have probably had success with stranger combinations). If you want to give the chipmunk a home, buy it its own cage.
posted by amyms at 2:55 PM on September 5, 2007

I was just looking into chipmunks as pets the other day (from the position of "Why don't people regularly have chipmunks as pets?", thanks to a chipper which greets me regularly on my way to the bus in the morning.)

It turns out that one reason people don't have chipmunks as pets is that they don't thrive in a cage at all -- they really need a big space with lots of room to run and the ability to burrow. The suggestions I read mostly involved an outdoor run with fencing sunk at least 2' into the ground. The indoor equivalents were pretty much what you see at jamaro's link: an entire wall or even an entire room.

(They also pointed out that chipmunks are quite a bit faster than humans when they want to be.)
posted by mendel at 3:32 PM on September 5, 2007

Another thing, if you haven't thought of it: Chipmunks are LOUD. Some of your more terrifying "WTF is that!?" forest sounds come from the little guys. I'm not sure how a rabbit would cope with that, but I know I wouldn't be able to.
posted by Reggie Digest at 8:49 AM on September 6, 2007