No, she's not eating on her own yet. I did put two dishes in there for her- shallow ones- one for food and one for water. She just walks through them. She spends a lot of her time pecking and scratching- mostly pecking but she does not actually eat much, if anything. (She spills her food when she walks through the dishes) How I know this is that her crop is never full like her hatch mates's crops are. Theirs are stuffed full almost all day because they are eating constantly. This little one spends a lot of her time pecking at the walls. I get the feeling she wants out of the cage or is trying to understand why she is confined or can't move past that boundary.
She's been biting me now when I put my hand in there. And I do mean BITES! Very hard and very long held. I even speak before I pick her up, using the same terms (words) I always do so that I do not startle her. So I don't know where this is all coming from, behavioraly... I have a feeling she is frustrated out the wazoo with her disability. I also think she may be more hungry that I think. I feed her about 4 times a day. I'm up to 15cc's of food a day that I feed her via syringe. She does not sit still for that very much anymore when feeding. She squirms a lot. She is feisty and fights, but eagerly eats up the food quickly. I fill her crop each time. I make sure I do not overfill it either. After I am done and put her down, she goes back to pecking and scratching at the ground... its strange.
At this point, I'm thinking she is not only blind but brain damaged. However, having said that, she does not act too oddly, just that she is not picking up on things .. like you said, she should be eating on her own now. She should know where her food dish is and able to find it. She should know how to drink by herself. She should know how to find her water dish. I can tell you this... I put a heating pad in her cage wrapped in a towel and made it into a tunnel for her to crawl into for warmth. She now is finding that tunnel and spending more time in it. At first, she ignored it. Now she seems to hang out in there more... and best of all, she FINDS it on her own, which tells me she may not be as mentally incapable of finding things as I thought she was. Who knows what the difficulty is about. I'm still trying to figure it all out. This is a really difficult case, but I certainly appreciate all your suggestion! They are helpful. Thank you!
I'm thinking the loneliness factor is the number one problem... and I think that can compound everything else with her health to great detriment.. She needs a living warm creature with her at all times. I remember some study a person did with Reese's Monkey's and nurturing and it seemed like it was SO important that a baby gets that warmth and attention of a mother, otherwise, its health just deteriorates, same with mental capacities. I have not been able to provide for her as a constant- and maybe too erratically. I hope to find something suitable for her soon and that its not too late.
More pictuers of her to come. She is very behind in growth. She really has not grown too much at all, but is growing- albeit very slowly. Just not as fast as the hatch mates. They are huge now compared to her. I don't think this is a good sign for her health though, sadly. All of this that I write about is not a good sign for her health. i will keep trying though. She is feisty as heck! I think she wants to live, just frustrated to exhausting levels. I feel so badly for her!
