Hi everyone,

This is my first post, but I wanted to ask if anyone had any insight on why my gliders seem to be biting each other’s tails? I have 2, George and Holly, and I’ve had them for 5 years. They are both fine and active. They get aggressive towards each other more often now, but never used to. They are both males.

Any answers or thoughts are greatly appreciated!

Thank you!

hello, in order to try to pinpoint the possible origin of the issue, we'd need a bit more informations:
are they related?
are they neutered?
is dominance established?
do they eat all their food?
what are the situations when it occures?

They are not related. George is 1 year older. I got him in 2013 and Holly a year apart in 2014. They are both neutered. Holly (younger one) has always been more dominant. George is very friendly and bonds easily and Holly was really mean for a long time. He is a lot better now and I can pick him up with ease, but I’m still careful on how I do so. George I can just scoop up any old way, but Holly might crab and bite if you don’t do it right. They both eat each day and have snacks. Holly will try to take George’s food sometimes, so he’ll usually go off to a corner to avoid this. When they bite each other’s tails, the other glider will curl their tail up, almost looks like a knot, and it becomes stiff because they are protecting themselves. I’m not sure why they’re doing this, but I went on vacation right before Christmas and my friend watched them for 10 days and told me this was happening. I witnessed it myself last night.

in the past I have read tail biting or chasing can happen if one is ill.
maybe a vet visit is due.

I just brought Dale to the vet Tuesday because he was hissing when he pees and his genitals looked red. He has also been chewing the fur off the end of his tail and Chips (I watched him do both). Dale has a UTI it turns out and we caught it early enough that his urine is still clear. My vet said that the overgrooming is usually from stress and since nothing has changed in his environment is most likely from the UTI. You may want to see your vet even if he doesn't have any other symptoms just to rule out any illness. I was also told that sometimes they do it for reasons only they understand and we can't possibly know what kind of stress their little brain is experiencing (my vets words).