The latest thing worrying me about Treacle is that I haven’t seen her eat any pellets recently. I think her molt has put her off her food and she is only eating treats. I didn’t see her eat pellets last night when I spent half hour with the girls before bedtime and again this morning when I spent half hour with them as they came out of the coop.
I made up some scrambled egg to give them first thing this morning in the hope of getting some goodness into Treacle but it didn’t work. The other three girls fell on it and Treacle was so slow she didn’t get any. I tried to keep the others from it and kept putting it by Treacle but she just stood there and let them have it. I felt really frustrated and decided that I needed a better plan.
I thought of separating Treacle while I give her scrambled egg but only have the rat cage and Treacle is my biggest girl. I feel that would be too stressful for her, so I have come up with a plan. Tomorrow before it’s light I will go out and open up the side of the coop and take Treacle out then close it again. I will then unhook the string on the door opener so that it won’t open automatically and switch on the floodlight. Then I will put a pot of scrambled egg in front of Treacle and see if she eats it before I let the other girls out. It’s not fool proof but worth a try.
In the mean time I decided to go to the fishing tackle shop and get some maggots to see if I could give her a boost today. We gave them half of them this afternoon and the girls made short work of them. Treacle managed to get her share of them and was much quicker at getting stuck in.
They are so speedy that their heads are a blur!
Fluffy bottoms
Pepper in action
I just managed to get Pepper with a maggot in her beak, yum! I hope this gives Treacle a boost. She seems a bit brighter but her not eating is a worry.
Click here to see the history of my flock.