BigFam: Is the feather loss due to "attention" from the roos? Several of mine have the bald or almost bald patches on the back near tail from this! Also regarding the kids and eating-I totally relied on V8 to get nutrition into my daughter for similiar reasons. Another way I got good stuff into her was making "smoothies" and adding fruit, yogurt, and sneaking in veggie juice. (She was already so limited onw hat she could eat due to Celiac the nutrionalist said to not push her to much and to give her time-as she got older she would branch out-and its very true. Also getting her involved with gardening-growing her own veggies amde her more interested in trying them. There are also many interesting studies done on a corollation between gluten and autism-might be worth reading about.