# Can Guinea Pigs and quail live together?



## GBov (May 4, 2008)

Well, as of yesterday they seem to be doing fine!

I know neither are rabbits but the guinea pigs for meat thread is here so I thought this might be interesting for a few, at least.

We now have a walk in chicken pen, its got a solid roof and chicken wire walls with a solid plank all the way round the bottom. A few days ago I suddenly thought, that would be PERFECT for the quail! Or the guinea pigs!

Or why not both?

So I banked it deeply with autumn leaves, put the feeders down at a g pig level, put in a nice pile of hay and left them to it.

So far so good!

Only one injury so far was a young g pig who crammed itself into a gap adn couldnt back out again.

A very funny sight is a coturnix quail fluffing up and trying to dominate a guinea pig who just sits there going "Yeh? So what?"


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## akane (Jul 19, 2011)

Quail can be quite violent. They are known for pecking eyes out and stripping each others heads down to the skull. This often just happens suddenly one day after they spend weeks or months living peacefully.


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## GBov (May 4, 2008)

akane said:


> Quail can be quite violent. They are known for pecking eyes out and stripping each others heads down to the skull. This often just happens suddenly one day after they spend weeks or months living peacefully.


That is true enough but so far they are doing just fine. The quail like the open spaces in the pen and the g pigs like the sheltered space under the shelves and hay.

How true is the eye pecking out thing? Having housed guinea and chickens together with goats, rabbits and chickens together with cats, turkeys with chickens topped off by kids playing with all of them and have NEVER had any of them go for anyones eyes.

All out attack on me a time or two yes but peck out eyes, nope.

Too many males in a quail pen will indeed have scalped quail in VERY short order though, that is indeed a fact!


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

Guinea Pigs and Quail both are used in some of the more exotic aviaries for Jungle fowl and other birds as companion/diversion elements to help keep the peace, Jungle fowl roosters are often quite neurotic and can run the hen ragged or just go crazy if they don't have the other species in the aviary to diffuse the issue, (or that's what the information says) 

personally I don't see a problem with it and think it will be a very good mix, I kept Rabbits in a colony with Chickens and pigeons just fine, no body pecked anybodys eyes out, and chickens can be just as bloodthirsty if not more so than quail,


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

the only issue I can see would be trying to find the quail eggs if you want to eat or hatch them, they might set up special nest sites in a more natural setting or could even attempt to go broody but that's not guaranteed, I would still collect the eggs as best as possible, 

just keep the male female ratio in both quail and guinea pigs correct and you should be fine,


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## GBov (May 4, 2008)

KSALguy said:


> the only issue I can see would be trying to find the quail eggs if you want to eat or hatch them, they might set up special nest sites in a more natural setting or could even attempt to go broody but that's not guaranteed, I would still collect the eggs as best as possible,
> 
> just keep the male female ratio in both quail and guinea pigs correct and you should be fine,


Easter every day!


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## akane (Jul 19, 2011)

Chickens, even the more aggressive breeds, and guineas are quite calm and tame compared to quail. Everything may be fine now but that's just how it is. Everything is great and then you walk in one day to carnage. Having kept various species of quail in various situations I will never do anything again except a cage with 1 male to 1-2 females. The odds of violence toward everything in the pen is just too great. Plus no matter what you do they almost never go broody or pick a nest to lay eggs in. The things just pop out on the run so you have to hunt them down without stepping on them.


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## GBov (May 4, 2008)

akane said:


> Chickens, even the more aggressive breeds, and guineas are quite calm and tame compared to quail. Everything may be fine now but that's just how it is. Everything is great and then you walk in one day to carnage. Having kept various species of quail in various situations I will never do anything again except a cage with 1 male to 1-2 females. The odds of violence toward everything in the pen is just too great. Plus no matter what you do they almost never go broody or pick a nest to lay eggs in. The things just pop out on the run so you have to hunt them down without stepping on them.


Perhaps my Coturnix are just super calm and lazy?

Today it was all still good, even the stupid g pig that managed to hurt itself is doing better.


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

how many quail do you have in there? what male female ratio?


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## GBov (May 4, 2008)

KSALguy said:


> how many quail do you have in there? what male female ratio?


13

4 males and 9 females.

Or there were, one boinked itself off the roof last night so one male down. The dog was really happy to get freshly dispatched quail for breakfast. 

Still all going really well with the two living together. The g pigs seem to eat as much quail food as the quail eat g pig food and they all tuck into fresh greens.

Finding the eggs hasn't been a problem as they have all stopped laying except for one staunch hen that lays one a day right at the front, in plain sight. 

As soon as I know for sure that the quail arnt going to get wht the chickens have all that batch of quail are going to be fried and the nice batch of Texas A & M my son got for his science fair project will be going in there.

Might try fried g pig in the same dinner lol.


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

I just realized your in GA, lol what part? I am not far from the GA line down in south east Alabama,


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## GBov (May 4, 2008)

KSALguy said:


> I just realized your in GA, lol what part? I am not far from the GA line down in south east Alabama,


ROFLOL! Well, you are only 6 months late in noticing so not to bad!

We are south east too, not too far from the coast.

So close from the ocean and I havnt gotten the FIRST mullet this fall. :grump:


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

lol yeah I am kinda slow on the uptake sometimes lol, I hear the mullet run is a pretty big deal along the coast lol, we are almost two hours inland, but have friends down in Pensacola that want me to come down for the mullet run lol. how far are you from the Alabama line? maybe sometime we can swap blood lines lol


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## GBov (May 4, 2008)

KSALguy said:


> lol yeah I am kinda slow on the uptake sometimes lol, I hear the mullet run is a pretty big deal along the coast lol, we are almost two hours inland, but have friends down in Pensacola that want me to come down for the mullet run lol. *how far are you from the Alabama line?* maybe sometime we can swap blood lines lol


About as far as poss. and still be in Georgia lol.

The mullet run up here is more a matter of huge hidden schools moving in and out of the marsh but down Pensacola way it is an AMAZING sight! We stood on Daytona Pier and watched for hours. The masses of small mullet - they are big and fat up here in the fall - leaping out of the water to escape the sharks and red fish................

Well, its really worth going and seeing.


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

I plan on trying to make it this year or next, I am not far from the line, Dothan is the biggest town close to me, who knows. I am expecting my first deliveries the first part of November, one sow looks like she will have several, the others I hope at least two each lol, they are not very big like the other one,


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## GBov (May 4, 2008)

KSALguy said:


> I plan on trying to make it this year or next, I am not far from the line, Dothan is the biggest town close to me, who knows. I am expecting my first deliveries the first part of November, one sow looks like she will have several, the others I hope at least two each lol, they are not very big like the other one,


I would happily GIVE you my entire herd of g pigs but I wouldn't do that to anyone I liked! They eat more 21% quail food than they eat rabbit food, by at least half. And they still are having still born pups but at least they aren't killing the live ones and eating them.

This entire bloodline are going to be dog food/people food and then a good, NORMAL bloodline will get to move in.

I have started to wonder if the g pigs have discovered quail eggs and that is why there arnt any to be found.


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

that is soo weird, where did you get these crazy Gpigs? have you had ANY live pups survive?


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## GBov (May 4, 2008)

KSALguy said:


> that is soo weird, where did you get these crazy Gpigs? have you had ANY live pups survive?


Only the very strongest survived up till I found out about the quail food, the little horrors would hunt them down and eat them before then. Most of them make it now but its not a line to be proud of lol.

I got them off CL down in Florida. Perhaps the price tag of $10 each in an area where they usually go for $30-$40 each should have tipped me off that there was a problem with em?

They are so pretty, very bright colors with lots of tri colors. Had a still born last week that was a bright orange with perfect tiger stripes. Shall miss them but they have so got to go.


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

so the extra protein stopped the cannibalism, that's good, the still borne could be from a lot of things, how many sows/boars do you have? did they all come from the same place? I wonder if they are highly inbred and the crazy came out lol


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## GBov (May 4, 2008)

KSALguy said:


> so the extra protein stopped the cannibalism, that's good, the still borne could be from a lot of things, how many sows/boars do you have? did they all come from the same place? I wonder if they are highly inbred and the crazy came out lol


I think they are not only crazy inbred but VERY VERY INSANELY inbred.

The boar we got at auction was the only one we got at a different place, all the others came from a very odd man selling Flemish giants and g pigs.

Right now there are three adult boars to 12 or 14 or so sows and lots of pups.

Having learned lots from this batch, including the fact that crazy g pigs do, indeed, eat quail eggs, all shall be dispatched. So will this batch of quail who also enjoy a bit of egg.

THe pen will then be cleaned and the bigger kind of guinea pigs shall move in, along with Texas A & M quail. This way of keeping both is really good, LOTS of room for each and both are quiet animals.

We shall see if the "take two" works as well as this one.


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

they are eating eggs?? wow, I would love to see some pics of these, and actually it sounds like a rather interesting project lol, if you were closer I wouldn't mind getting a few and seeing what all makes them tick lol, but not worth the drive for insane cannibalistic freaks lol, 

the ones you have that are surviving, can you tell if they are mostly from the outside boar?


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## GBov (May 4, 2008)

KSALguy said:


> they are eating eggs?? wow, I would love to see some pics of these, and actually it sounds like a rather interesting project lol, if you were closer I wouldn't mind getting a few and seeing what all makes them tick lol, but not worth the drive for insane cannibalistic freaks lol,
> 
> the ones you have that are surviving, can you tell if they are mostly from the outside boar?


The three boars are one from him and two from a sneaky not girl g pig so one third are outside genetics now.

Never have managed to get enough cages together to separate the entire herd to see which sows have the problem and stopped caring really when I decided to jettison the project. The simple fact that 21% quail food has kept most of the pups alive was good enough for me.

If you happen to want to do the drive you can have them all, there are about 25 or so now. And Savannah is a very pretty place to visit.


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## KSALguy (Feb 14, 2006)

now I am curious what the protein is on normal guinea pig food and also what they get from a more pasture fed diet like mine, hmmmmm,


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