I understand.. wilma did that same thing, eating, but not enough, head slumping... but Esmeralda does that when shes getting ready to lay an egg. So many mixed signals make it hard to know if theyre doing ok. It sucked especially with Wilma because she actually LIKED being held and petted.. so she was my cuddlebug. The day she died, i was carrying her around thinking i was seeing her moving, not realizing she was dead. Just too emotional. And she was my pretty tolbunt.. i am holding off on any new pets for a while though as it is, i have 7 chickens a parrot and 2 dogs, lots of heart breaks over the next 10 years..