About time animal is nobbled (3,2)
I believe the answer is:
got at
'is nobbled' is the definition.
(I've seen this before)
'about time animal' is the wordplay.
'about' means one lot of letters goes inside another.
'time' becomes 't'.
'animal' becomes 'goat' (I have seen 'Domesticated animal' mean 'goat' so perhaps 'animal' could also mean 'goat'**).
't' going into 'goat' is 'GOT AT'.
(Other definitions for got at that I've seen before include "Nobbled" , "Attacked verbally" , "Criticised" , "Unfairly influenced" .)