Owen and Molly aren’t bonded yet, so they live with a fence between them. The interactions that we see are friendly, although Molly nudges and digs at Owen for attention sometimes. They like to lay against each other with the fence between them, and they groom each other through the bars.

Owen has been ill for 2 weeks because of stasis and was declared healthy a week ago. Molly’s behaviour changed a lot: suddenly she’s very vocal, confident and she presents herself for grooming a lot. She’s acting very dominantly at the moment, and she’s also been spraying urine since Owen’s stasis started.

Yesterday we noticed that Molly’s whiskers have been chewed: they’re still about 5 cm long, but a lot shorter than they used to be. Is Owen being a klutz? He bites the bars to get closer to her if he wants to groom her, and he may have bitten them off accidentally. Or is there something less innocent behind it and should we separate them for a while?