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We all know that rabbits are social creatures that are happier when they have companionship. So now you are wondering if your pet bunny can play with your hamster. I had the same thought, so I invested several months to rabbit and hamster get along. In this article, I’ll share what I found out.
Rabbits and hamsters do not get along with each other. Their natures and personalities are simply incompatible. Both have completely different ways of communication. While rabbits are social creatures, they need other ‘rabbits’ to satisfy those social cravings. On the other hand, hamsters don’t necessarily need or even want friends.
If you were planning to make a friendly relationship between rabbits and hamsters, it’s not going to happen — Ever. Being a proud parent of several hamsters and little bunnies, I can confidently say that a real friendship won’t be feasible for either of your pets.
What if you’re already a rabbit or hamster parent and want to have the other too? In that case, I can help you out.
In this article, I will be discussing if the rabbits can live with hamsters, play together, and eat the same food. Keep reading!
Can Rabbits Live With Hamsters?
Rabbits cannot live in the same cage as hamsters because of their social and feeding behaviors. Hamsters have a natural tendency to be standoffish and territorial. On the other hand, rabbits are socially active pets that like to cuddle with other animals that they trust.
Rabbits and hamsters living together will be a total disaster for everyone in your home. You should not keep rabbits and hamsters together.
Rabbits will enjoy grooming, running around, and simply owning the place. A hamster living in the same space will likely become aggressive or frightened due to constantly seeing rabbits doing rabbit things.
You have to remember that hamsters are very small as compared to the ‘giant’ size of rabbits. Seeing such a large creature zooming around is going to cause any hamster stress and if your rabbit were to hop and accidentally land on a hamster it could cause serious injury to that hamster.
Let’s shed some more light on the reasons why rabbits can’t live with hamsters.
Rabbits Are More Activity Than Hamsters
Rabbits are more active than hamsters, and because of this their zooming and binking will be stressful to a less active hamster.
No matter how much your hamster is active and exercising, it can never match the activeness levels of a rabbit. A rabbit can play all day long and won’t be tired or bored. In contrast, hamsters enjoy calmly sit and chill in the favorite place and rarely get out of it.
All rabbits should be active and energic, and if your rabbit doesn’t seem active and lively enough, then your bun needs your help. Check out this guide to transform your lazy bunny into an active one.
Rabbits Are Significantly Larger Than Hamsters
Rabbits are significantly larger than hamsters. The average-sized bunny’s weight is around 6 pounds while some giant rabbit breeds can weigh as much as 20 pounds. Hamsters weigh less than 1 pound.
This dramatic size difference makes rabbits and hamsters incompatible.
Hamsters Are More Timid Than Rabbits
Both rabbits and hamsters are prey animals, and that means that they are both pretty timid. As prey animals, both are naturally scared of any animal that seems like they could cause them harm. That means that both tend to be scared of animals that are significantly larger than themselves.
Because hamsters are so small they naturally think of themselves as in danger all the time.
Hamsters are naturally timid. It’s nothing wrong with your hammie if you walk past his cage and it shakes its body due to fear. Imagine what would happen if your hamster is continuously surrounded by a big rabbit.
Both Rabbits And Hamsters Can Be Aggressive
As I said, rabbits aren’t aggressive animals but they know how to defend themselves when they feel threatened. They will give warnings to hamsters before attacking (which a hamster would probably not get) and won’t think twice if they feel threatened by a territorial hamster.
Likewise, hamsters tend to be very territorial and are tiny which means that they often see larger rabbits as dangers. This means that they may choose to act aggressively towards a rabbit which will trigger aggressive behavior in the rabbit.
Rabbits Are Friendlier Than Hamsters
Rabbits are friendly and hamsters are not — You can’t force one to adopt the other’s traits.
Rabbits love to interact with humans, ask for attention, and spend plenty of playtime to fulfill their social hunger.
Hamsters are really not friendly pets. It is often even difficult for hamsters to live with another hamster. They may fight each other — sometimes worse enough to cause death to one of them.
Hamsters Are Rodentia And Rabbis Are Lagomorpha
Although once considered as rodents, rabbits are from the order lagomorphs. Their subfamily is Leporidae.
Hamsters are rodents, from the order Rodentia. Their subfamily with the order Rodentia is Cricetinae. They are just one of many rodents in this subfamily of rodents. However, they are one of the minorities of rodents that have become popular pets.
Unlike hamsters, rabbits have four upper incisors which make them different from rodents.
Even though rabbits bite and chew food as well as burrows in the same way as rodents do, they are not rodents. Instead, they have their separate classification as lagomorphs.
Rabbits Are Herbivores & Hamsters Are Omnivores
Rabbits only eat vegetation because the are herbivores. Even the pellets we feed them are made of vegetation.
Hamsters are omnivores which means that they eat both vegetation and meat. People often feed hamsters dried insects to supplement their hamster pellets.
Can Rabbits And Hamsters Play Together?
Rabbits and hamsters can’t and shouldn’t be allowed to play together as both pets can be aggressive to each other under certain circumstances. Hamsters are likely to get frightened instead of being playful with rabbits because of their size and behavior.
Rabbits and hamsters should never be left alone with each other as their behavioral characteristics are 180 degrees opposite. They could end up hurting each other or at least stressing out each other.
If you have both rabbits and hamsters at your home, never let both of them out to play at the same time. They should have their free-range areas seperated.
Will a Bunny Kill a Hamster?
A bunny can kill a hamster intentionally or unintentionally. Despite looking cute and friendly, rabbits can be aggressive if they feel threatened. Hamsters are significantly smaller yet more territorial and quick to aggression. If a hamster attacks a rabbit, the may respond aggressively in which case the hamster has no chance to defend itself.
Injury can happen even when your rabbit and hamster are getting along.
Imagine a 6 lb binkying rabbit lands over a tiny hamster. Do you think it would survive the hit? Therefore, hamsters’ life shouldn’t be risked at all by keeping them close to rabbits. They are unpredictable and it will be too late before you could do anything to save the hamster.
Will Rabbit Eat Hamsters?
Rabbits will not eat hamsters because rabbits are herbivores which means that they only eat vegetation. Likewise, rabbits won’t kill hamsters for food but they can still hurt them by accident or when they feel threatened.
Although a rabbit doesn’t eat hamsters, it doesn’t mean that it won’t attack them.
Can Rabbits And Hamsters Eat The Same Food?
Rabbit and hamster pellets are not the same and rabbits and hamsters can not eat the same pellets. As omnivores, hamsters require higher protein in their pellets, and as herbivores, rabbits must avoid higher protein in their pellets. If a rabbit were to eat hamster pellets they would develop long-term health issues.
Rabbits and hamsters could eat the same fruits & vegetables. For example, both animals enjoy eating broccoli, parsley, apple, pear, berry, mangoes, etc. Likewise, both could eat the same vegetarian baby foods, but only the hamster could eat baby food with meat in it.
P.S. Here is an article about the ideal rabbit diet.
Can Hamsters Stay In Rabbit Cages?
Hamsters can stay in rabbit cages if the holes in the cage paneling are small enough to contain the hamster. The size of these holes varies greatly between rabbit cages. Hamsters should only stay in a rabbit cage when there is no rabbit in the same cage.
Since rabbit cages provide plenty of room for hamsters because of their small size, they can be using a rabbit cage as a home for your hamster can be a big plus for your little hammies.
The ideal galvanized mesh size would be 1 cm for hamsters.
Don’t worry — Your ham won’t feel lonely in a large cage. Hamsters are pretty solitary creatures so as long as they have a small hidey-hole in the larger rabbit cage, they’ll be quite happy.
If you want to use a hutch alternatively for rabbits and hamsters, here’s our list of recommended rabbit hutches — Go check them out!
~Stacey