Can Hedgehogs And Guinea Pigs Live Together? (Read First)

Many owners of pocket pets such as hedgehogs and guinea pigs relish the thought of owning multiple pets.

One question that often gets asked is, can hedgehogs and guinea pigs actually live together? Meaning live together in the same cage, room, family home or even be in contact and play with each other?

We’ve decided to look at this in detail by taking a deep look at the thoughts and fact given to us by vets and experts in the field and put all the answers in one handy post.

Let’s start by giving you a short but informative answer to the original question from what we’ve learned…

So can hedgehogs and guinea pigs live together? Hedgehogs and guinea pigs shouldn’t be housed together in the same cage. This can cause many conflicts and stress issues for both animals. It’s possible that they can live in separate cages in the same room but being housed in a separate room is better still. 

Read on to find out…

Can Hedgehogs & Guinea Pigs Live In The Same Cage Together?

As pocket pets are becoming very popular all over the world, it’s only natural that owners want to own a variety of different pets.

An increasingly popular combination is hedgehogs and guinea pigs and this, as we mentioned earlier, has caused owners to think about housing them together for many reasons including cost, space and even the thought of company for both pets.

Unfortunately, you shouldn’t house a hedgehog and a guinea pig in the same cage as this can have serious consequences.

On the face of it, it may seem like they would make great housemates as both animals do have certain habitat similarities.

For example, both pets can successfully live in the same cage type and many hedgie owners actually do purchase guinea pig cages for their hedgehogs.

Secondly, the temperature requirements of both pets are similar. According to the vets at VCA-Hospitals, hedgehogs require a cage temperature of 70° – 85°F to be both happy and healthy in captivity.

While the veterinary experts at Vetmed recommend at cage temperature of between  65° – 79°F as optimal.

In theory, you could house your hedgehog and guinea pig in a large guinea pig cage with a temperature of around 75°F and everything would be great, right? Well, in reality, there’s much more to it than this…

Let’s now take a look at why housing a hedgie and guinea pig together is bad news!

Hedgehogs Can Be Territorial

Deciding to house a hedgehog and a guinea pig together could cause a lot of territorial issues.

Many experts talk about how hedgies are extremely territorial even with other hedgehogs and don’t tolerate them in their own personal space.

This can cause them to either to become stressed, intimidated or aggressive.

This could lead to health issues for your hedgie such as decreased appetite and/or constant hiding. 

More likely though, is the reality of aggressive behaviour towards the guinea pig.

A classic sign of this is when hedgehogs ‘hiss’, we’ve shared a post here that shows exactly why hedgehogs hiss and what it means and the reasons may surprise you!

In the wild hedgehogs actually eat mice, frogs, birds and even small snakes which is backed up by Livescience who wrote about this in a recent article.

If your hedgehog decides to take aggressive action towards your guinea pig then it might not just be a warning or a nip but could end up in much worse.

Guinea Pigs Are Prone to Stress

On the flip side of what we have just talked about, guinea pigs are extremely prone to stress.

Many vets such as Vetmed write about this and owners must always keep their stress levels to a minimum to have a healthy guinea pig. 

In fact, it’s also well documented that guinea pigs get used to certain foods and surroundings early in their lives and changing furnishings or things that make them uncomfortable can cause them ‘extreme fear behaviour’. Source:

Adding a hedgehog to the cage of an animal that’s well known to have a nervous and timid personality is not recommended, especially when the hedgehog could turn aggressive as we mentioned above.

In our opinion, all pocket pets should live in separate cages and this is probably the biggest example of this.

Can Hedgehogs & Guinea Pigs Live In The Same Room Together?

Housing a hedgehog and guinea pig in separate cages but in the same room can sometimes work and sometimes not depending on the circumstances and personalities of both pets.

Hedgehogs as you probably know are nocturnal and therefore are more active throughout the night. Source:

Guinea pigs, on the other hand, fall into a rather odd category called ‘crepuscular’.

This means that they are most active from dawn to dusk like rabbits and ferrets.

They don’t usually sleep for large periods at any one time and will instead nap through both the day and night.

This can sometimes cause a problem if they are wanting to nap at night and your hedgie is very active and for example, playing on their exercise wheel.

You can do things to reduce the noise your hedgie makes and we actually highly recommend this, for example purchasing a silent runner wheel.

The silent runner wheel, as we talk about in detail here, is the only exercise wheel we recommend as it will greatly decrease the noise they make through the night.

Your hedgehog is still likely to make enough noise to keep your guinea pig up through those nap times because they won’t understand where the sound is coming from and this can cause stress.

Your guinea pig could actually feel stress or anxious with having another pet in the room period.

Like we have already mentioned in this post, guinea pigs are extremely shy, and timid animals and they don’t like loud or unfamiliar sounds.

If you want to house both pets in the same room we would suggest having their cages as far apart as possible, and sometimes it’s also better if they can’t see each other too.

If either pet is showing signs of stress such as decreased appetite, constant hiding, trembling or your hedgehog may be territorial and aggressive then you need to house them in separate rooms if it persists.

Can Hedgehogs & Guinea Pigs Live In The Same Home Together?

If you are seriously thinking about owning both a hedgehog and guinea pig then we believe the best option is to house them in separate rooms if possible.

We understand this can be difficult depending on your situation but for the welfare of both pets and it’s the one that makes the most sense and will cause fewer problems to them in the long run.

By keeping your hedgehog and guinea pig in separate rooms you instantly remove any issues with stress, fear, intimidation, territory & habitat issues and more.

Do Hedgehogs & Guinea Pigs Get Along & Play Together?

Hedgehogs and guinea pigs shouldn’t be allowed to interact and play together for fear that the situation will cause stress and even turn aggressive.

It’s probably every owner’s dream to see their pets getting along and playing together having fun.

Unfortunately, this just isn’t a reality for hedgehogs and guinea pigs.

I’m sure you have seen Youtube videos of pockets pets playing with each other with no apparent problems and there may even be the odd video of this happening with hedgies and guinea pigs too.

The bottom line is, you should never try this, even if they aren’t living together hedgehogs can easily become aggressive and guinea pigs are far too prone to stress for this to even be attempted.

It’s great that you want to own both of these animals and give them a loving home but the best way we believe you can do this is to keep them separate and give them attention separately too.

Having read this post, you may now be wondering if hedgehogs can be housed together so we’ve created a post here that tells you everything you need to know in under 5 minutes!