Well our girls are finally starting to accept their transition to pellets. I've been mixing some into their daily yogurt all week, and today I've finally seen the level in the feeder drop by a significant amount, plus I saw Ethel eating from the feeder on Sunday. So YAY I can quit worrying about them starving themselves to death!
and perhaps the reason the level of food in the feeder isn't dropping as fast as it did with crumbles, is specifically BECAUSE they're not tossing it all over the ground, and it's actually getting eaten. Wouldn't that be a nice outcome? I'm remaining hopeful. It's really great to have this forum to come to for help with stuff like this - thanks everybody!!!