Rabbit and guinea pig housing in one room

Before anything else — rabbits and guinea pigs should never share the same enclosure, even if they seem to get along. Rabbits can carry Bordetella bacteria that's harmless to them but can be fatal to guinea pigs, and a rabbit's kick can seriously injure a small cavy. So separate housing in the same room is exactly the right call. Most hutches sold in pet shops are far too small — your Dutch rabbit needs space for at least three full hops, the ability to stand fully upright on their hind legs, and distinct areas for sleeping and toileting. Same principle applies to the guinea pigs. Are these animals kept indoors or outdoors, and roughly how much floor or wall space do you have available in the room they'll share?

Good — indoors makes things easier to manage and gives you more options. A stackable or multi-level unit works well for a spare room because it uses vertical space rather than spreading across the floor. For your Dutch rabbit, I'd point you toward the Rosewood Bunnytime Tower Rabbit Home. It's a two-tier indoor unit with a solid base level for sleeping and a ramp-accessed upper level, giving a reasonable total run length, good upright height for a Dutch, and a pull-out tray for easy cleaning. It's designed for indoor use, looks presentable, and keeps the rabbit contained without feeling cramped. How old is your rabbit, and do they get supervised free-roaming time outside the enclosure?

Perfect — an active two-year-old Dutch getting regular free-roaming time means the Bunnytime Tower works well as her home base rather than her entire world. The lower level suits sleeping and hiding, and the upper platform gives her somewhere to perch and survey the room, which Dutch rabbits tend to enjoy. For the guinea pigs, you'll want something at a similar height so neither species can stress the other out through constant eye contact. A Ferplast Cavie 80 or the slightly larger Cavie 120 placed beside or stacked near the rabbit unit works well — it's ventilated, has a solid floor safe for guinea pig feet, and a top-opening lid for easy access. The two setups together look intentional rather than cluttered. Does the room have good natural light and does it stay reasonably warm in winter?

18 to 20 degrees is ideal — no issues there. Inside the Bunnytime Tower, the priorities are these: a hay rack or hay bag fixed to the side so hay stays clean and dry (hay should make up about 80% of her diet), a heavy ceramic water bowl or a bottle fixed to the bars, a small cardboard box or wooden hide on the lower level so she has a dark enclosed space to sleep in, and a litter tray in one corner filled with paper-based litter topped with a little hay — rabbits like to graze and toilet at the same time. Avoid sawdust or wood shavings, especially cedar or pine. Keep enrichment simple: a willow ball, a tunnel, or a grass mat. She'll do the rest with her free-roaming time.

It's a sensible question and the honest answer is: the risk is very low when they're in separate enclosures with normal hygiene, but not zero. Bordetella spreads mainly through direct contact or respiratory droplets at close range, so separate housing with a metre or so of distance between them reduces the risk significantly. Clean their enclosures separately with different cloths, wash your hands between handling them, and don't let the guinea pigs graze in areas where the rabbit has been unsupervised. Annual vet checks for both species will catch anything early. Most households with both species in the same room manage perfectly well — just keep the enclosures genuinely separate and you're in good shape.