[gooberific]

Please take some time to read the home page and all the links and information it has to offer. You will become inundated with facts about guinea pigs that you might not even had thought would be something to consider. Go through all the stickies on the forum. Read the links the other users provided you in this thread. Your knowledge of piggies and rabbits will grow by leaps and bounds and you will notice as their care improves in what might seem the slightest ways (environment change, stimulation, super duper proper diet, etc.), your pets will reflect the extra love and be all the happier and healthier for it.

I'm sorry for your recent losses. I do wish you'd gone with your "gut" as it were and housed them separately even though the shop sold the pig and rabbit together and told you they were fine. It's one of life's hard lessons, that you can't listen to what everyone says. All you can do now is read up on what went wrong and get yourself educated, which is what you've already started to do. It's a big step in the right direction!

I would also like to reiterate and plead to keep your pigs indoors, and move your rabbits inside if you can. If your piggies had gotten bacterial infections in that area, it's best to keep their habitats extremely clean. I'd suggest using a 50/50 water/vinegar solution when you clean the plastic/surface, and keep up with cleaning the bedding daily.