Our little chick is doing great! Force feeding her really gave her the boost she needed to get back on her feet. She walks around an eats constantly now. With us spending so much time with her, it's created this very lovely bond. More so with my sister, but that's okay with me. She runs to LaVaughn and jumps in her hand or on her leg. She'll sit on me from time to time, but never for very long.
We got her out of her box last night and let her walk around the floor. Our mealie cup was sitting off to the side, but close enough for her to see. As soon as she noticed the worms inside, she took off! she ran straight up to the cup and started trying to peck the worms -- she couldn't get them because they were covered, but the entire container is clear. We decided to let her try one and she loved it! We ended up giving her 3 or 4 before we had to stop, which I know isn't good for her, but come on, she's been sick!
And by the way, I'm not sure that Mabel is a fitting name for our chick. She's absolutely deserving of the name, but it just doesn't fit her. For now, that will be her nickname, but we'll find something more permanent down the road.
The Bad,
This is kind of good and bad, but mostly bad. We were FINALLY able to get the rattie girls moved into their much larger cage. Not the huge cage that we got from Stacie, but the slightly smaller one we had Evan and Jonah in. We ended up taking one layer out and just leaving the two. We added a long hammock in the place of the other layer and it looks SO much better! It just seemed too cramped with all three.
After it was nicely decorated, we added the girls! They walked around the bottom for probably 30 minutes before they explored the other levels. On the very top layer, we have one of our short Glider Buckets hanging. After we showed them that they could sleep in it, they never wanted to leave! After two days they still don't want to leave!
They're so terrified of their new cage, they never want to come out! I feel so bad for them, because I know how creepy new surroundings can be. Part of me wants to put them back in their old cage for a while, but I just don't know! They're very rarely out of their bucket anymore. It's only been a day and a half, so hopefully they'll start to come around more.
The Terrible,
As you know, Sadie has two joeys IP. One large joey that's just weeks away from being OOP and one very small joey that wont be OOP until next month. Well Monday night when I was int he glider room, I looked over at where Sadie was sleeping and noticed the pouch was moving a lot. Not thinking much of it, I turned the lights on and left.
I went back in the glider room later that night (around 1ish) and noticed that Sadie was out running around the cage. I automatically got a horrible feeling in the pit of my stomach and very nervously walked towards the cage. I stuck my fingers through the bar and rubber her tummy. The gut wrenching feeling was confirmed when I didn't feel her larger joey. I pulled the pouch out of the cage, only to find a half eaten joey carcass.
I was filled with so much anger and heartache, I didn't even want to look at Sadie. I pulled her on out of the pouch and felt around. To my surprise, she still had the smaller joey! I returned her to her cage and broke the news to LaVaughn. She kept telling me that it happened for a reason, which I figured, but it still didn't help.
I know gliders will cannibalize their joeys when they're sick, or possibly already dead. It's just so hard for us soft humans to understand. I'm better now, I've put it behind me. It's still very sad and upsetting, but that's just the way things are sometimes.
Love & Peace
-Megan
I'll leave you with some pictures of the baby chick:
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