We had two gerbils in together, a male and a female, both over breeding age. We first thought that the male was biting the females tail in a battle for heirarchy but when we seperated them, we found that she is doing it to herself. The tail is almost bitten clean through but I have only known this to happen if the tail is trapped and the animal chews it off to escape.
She will casually wash herself and then launch into an attack on her own tail for no apparent reason which is alarming to watch.
Can anyone shed some light on this as we are concerned and my daughter who owns the gerbil is very upset about it.
