Exactly, thanks!I am thrilled to hear this. I'm so glad.
I think this is an excellent example of giving them a chance to work through things on their own. Monitor but not interfere until it is absolutely necessary. Now you also know that this is normal for her when this happens next year while she is molting. You know to watch her to make sure she gets through it but you also know that she can work through it herself.
I had an idea about the loose poo after reading about sorrel and oxalic acid. I read it can be a diuretic in humans when consumed in enough quantity. Also I know from possibly outdated nutrition teachings that oxalic acid is thought to bind with the calcium in foods like brocolli and kale, making the calcium less available to the body. I thought it would work the other way too. In the absence of additional calcium to bind it up, could the oxalic acid in the dandelion, grass and other greens she was eating be causing the loose poo through a diuretic action? This would be why she seemed to drink so much also.
She is molting and it is Fall. She is laying less and never went to the oyster shell cups that I saw (however much she used to eat). She was not eating the pellets or mash due to the molt. The only calcium she was likely getting then was in the greens, and that's not enough to compensate for the oxalic acid in them. She had both digging-only days and days I saw her go after greens exclusively (when I watched her), and she always ate the greens I offered her.
Just a thought.
That means there is more competition but not necessarily antagionism though it may look ugly from the outside. I say this because of the choices Phyllis is making. If they really were making her life intolerable, or she felt they were, she would not be choosing to roost with them @ all or hang with them. I suspect a subtext we've all missed is @ play here. I really wish I could spend a day observing your girls. I find their interactions fascinating.
I came home this evening and hubby told me he found her dead on the ground. She would have been three in November. Her voice sounded a little different for a day or so and I noticed today I could hear her breathing (through her nostrils, she wasn’t panting). Otherwise she didn’t seem any different. She laid an egg today and squatted for me. We buried her with a sliver of cheese to pay the ferryman and a blueberry for her to snack on for the journey.
