Stewie is eagerly eating his treat… a snap pea! (Shh, he doesn’t seem to realize that peas are veggies). So far, beside corn, these are the only fresh veggies he likes — and both are kinda high in sugar, more like fruit than veggies in terms of nutritional value — but I’ll take what I can get, considering that Stewie was on a very seed heavy diet when I first got him.

So far, Mika doesn’t appear to show any interest in fresh food whatsoever, but she does seem to enjoy the Just Veggies brand of dried peas. Interestingly enough, Stewie does not like the dried peas, although he does like some other types of dried veggies, especially the dried carrots that come in the Just Veggies dried vegetable mix.

If I remember correctly (and it’s possible I’m deluding myself on this detail), Stewie was pretty easy to convert to pellets, and he took to a couple different kinds of fruit after a while, although fresh vegetables continue to be a challenge.

At least he’ll taste most things I offer him now (especially if he thinks I’m eating it too).

Mika, on the other hand, seems like she’s going to be much more stubborn about giving up her seed addiction. The food she came with does contain high-quality pellets, but as far as I can tell, she doesn’t actually eat them — she just picks through the mix to eat the sunflower and pumpkin seeds. And she won’t even try anything new, not even “treats” that Stewie only gets as rare rewards.

When it comes to converting birds to a healthier and varied diet, patience, persistence and creativity are key. Stewie recently started really loving his Beak Appetite, something he wouldn’t eat when I first introduced it to him, so there is hope to changing their minds. Just gotta keep trying…