Possibly nipping in new fort?

[sarahthegemini]

Hi guys, quick query regarding Peanut and his nipping. You may know, Peanut can be a bit of a nipper. If I’m getting the hay box down or any other food, he gets excited and sometimes chases sweet little Buttercup and nips her. It’s not full speed chasing or anything like that. When he ‘catches’ her, sometimes he’ll nip her butt. Other times he’ll just sit with her and then they’ll both run over to me/food source. I suppose sometimes it’s him chasing and sometimes it’s more follow the leader. He goes through phases I guess. He can go weeks where he doesn’t really nip at all and then he’ll have a few days where he’s a bit of a menace. Buttercup doesn’t seem too bothered, she’s quite tolerant of the little rascal  Anyway, if you’ve seen my instagram I have just made them a very shabby cardboard fort. Yesterday when they were both in it, I heard their feet moving on the cardboard and then Buttercup ran out. I’m not sure if Peanut nipped her and that’s why she ran? Same thing happened just now, boyfriend told me they were both in the fort and then Buttercup ran out again. He said he’s only concerned because of what I observed yesterday. So basically, Peanut is potentially getting a bit nippy with Buttercup in the fort. 

Aside from when he’s excited for food, he’s never really nipped any other time. What should I do? I think I will take away the tunnel because it’s quite enclosed and if we remove it we can get a better look at them when they’re inside the bigger parts of the fort so we can hopefully see for sure if he’s nipping. Anything else I could/should do?

[Harley&Thumper]

How dark is it inside the fort? Maybe Buttercup snuck up on Peanut and that caused a nip? Alternatively the fort belongs only to Peanut and Buttercup stayed a bit too long. That seems unlikely though.

[sarahthegemini]

Posted By Harley&Thumper on 6/10/2018 6:06 PM
How dark is it inside the fort? Maybe Buttercup snuck up on Peanut and that caused a nip? Alternatively the fort belongs only to Peanut and Buttercup stayed a bit too long. That seems unlikely though.

It’s pretty dark as it’s quite small and enclosed. I did wonder if perhaps she’d inadvertently frightened him or something.

It’s strange because they were both in it this afternoon and both seemed quite happy, they were going in and out exploring, chewing it etc and no problems from Peanut so him being territorial this evening and yesterday would be unlikely, like you said. I’ve taken away the tunnel and made one of the entrances a bit bigger on one of the box parts so it’s more open now. Going to see what happens.

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