Rescued Battery Hen losing weight and only eating grass

[Byronnn]

About a month ago I rescued a hen (a rhode island red) from a battery operation at a local research facility. We kept her in a large dog crate in our coop for a few weeks and slowly integrated her while the other 3 chickens were out free ranging. All chickens are about a year old (1 each of wyandotte, rock, sussex).

The new chicken seemed to be okay besides losing a couple feathers to the others and getting some scrapes on her comb. They all sleep together now and the others mostly ignore her while they're all in the run.

I picked her up today and she seems very light. Like maybe 2-4 pounds compared to 9 pounds for the other 3. I think she's lost weight. When she's out on the lawn she feverishly eats grass and the occasional worm but she won't touch scratch or food out of my hands or off the ground, even when shes out of sight of the others. I've only seen her poop liquid diarrhea since we got her but I figured it was because she was stressed. She has access to food and water indoors and out.

I haven't seen her eat from the feeder in the run with the others but it seems that all the birds only eat briefly every few hours so I'm not sure I'd catch it.

Any suggestions on how I can make sure she's eating, and having healthy poop? I'm worried that she's not integrating well and might be afraid to eat.

 

[Kelsie2290]

What/how was she eating when you had her in the crate before you integrated her into the flock? If she seemed to be eating well by herself, you might try putting out multiple feeders, preferably far apart so in case one of the other hens is guarding the main one so she can still eat out of the other... or separate her for a little while each day to let her eat. If she isn't eating by herself, chickens sometimes seem to take awhile to adjust to new foods or another form of food (crumbles to pellets ie) so you might also try mixing the food or wetting it if she doesn't like the food in general. Have you wormed her or had her stool checked since you got her? She isn't de-beaked is she?