Old Brahma girl not eating.

[timberhill]

I have a 6 yr old Brahama girl who was given to us because her last mates were taken away by fox. Owner thought putting her into an environment with 6 young Golden Comets would give her a new life (little ones are 10 wks). Lifestyles are/were very different. Comets are confined to a shady 30' X70' yard and the Brahama lived a free range grass life. Since here she has paced the fence and in the beginning ate seeds, mash and melon seeds happily, but gradually over 4 wks has declined to not eating and has lost a lot of weight. She is happy to sit in the 55 gal drum home we have made for her but now she can hardly walk. I fear she is lonely and wants to check out....but she remains alert every time we visit her. Former owner said the last 3 oldies still laid an occasional egg, so could she be egg bound??? I am new at this...the younguns are brats at this point and have been separated into their small winter yard in case Old Mrs. B. has a disease, but this old lady is making us feel sad. Any suggestions?????

 

[dlhunicorn]

She may indeed be pining ... also the move to a new place is very stressful and rehomed birds will often stop eating and drinking when this happens. You might ask the former owners what brand of feed they fed her normally (and if it was crumble/mash or pellets) > if she is used to a pellet or a smaller crumble instead of mash then that change back to what she was used to might make all the difference (she is getting a layer feed?)
What you can also do to encourage her to eat is to put the feed in a scooped out half watermelon (the red color encourages them to peck)
You mentioned "seed" > did you mean sunflower seed hearts or such or birdseed > I would not feed poultry bird seed.
Offer her some live culture yogurt free choice.