Mika made me proud this weekend. Not only did she take a couple of flights that didn’t involve crash landing behind the couch or into the recycling bin, she also ate her first pieces of fresh food since she’s been with me.
Ordinarily, when I offer her something that isn’t dry and hard (pellets, nuts, pieces of pine) she’ll touch it lightly and then quickly recoil in disgust… like she thinks I’m trying to poison her or something. Over the weekend, I handed her a fresh sugar snap pea (one of Stewie’s favorites), hoping she’d play with it a little. Lo and behold, she held onto it and started tearing at it. And then she decided the icky wet food wasn’t so terrible and started eating.
After finishing her first piece, I gave her a second piece and she ate that too!
Later that evening, I heated up some mixed veggies for Stewie and decided to give Mika a bowl too (I usually don’t fix them for her because she won’t touch anything that’s not dry, but since she was being adventurous this weekend that I’ll give it another try). The bowl had some pieces of fresh apple, plus a heated up mix of frozen veggies (including corn, peas, carrots and green beans). Stewie likes the mix and dove right in as expected.
Mika was more cautious, but after leaving the bowl on top of her cage for a while, she started eating too. As far as I could tell, she at least tried all of it, but seemed to like the apples best. (Keep in mind I’ve offered her apple bits dozens of times before…. The lesson? You just have to keep trying. Persistence pays off eventually.)
Between the eating of the fresh food and her attempts at flying, this has been a groundbreaking weekend for my Mika girl.
You go girl, Mika!!! That’s great news. I have found with our Senegal You-You (who we’ve had since he was 11 months) that long after I give up on him eating a fresh vegetable or fruit item – lo and behold – he will suddenly eat it. His tastes seem to change as he gets older (he’s now 2 and a half) You-You would only eat apples for the longest time, but now has branched out quite a bit – and we were delighted when this week for the first time he tasted a tangerine, and LOVED it! You are so right that patience and persistence eventually pays off!
Yay Mika! Sugar snap peas are a huge hit here, as well.
hey there, great to see mika eat the veggies. im curious..howd u get stewie to eat the veggies? i have a sun conure and the only thing human food he eats is cereal and apples. i tried to get him to eat veggies lots of times..but i kinda gave up. any advice would be great.
I love that pic of Mika!
Hi tone – it took patience and persistence. I just kept offering them to him over and over, even though he didn’t touch anything for a long time. I also sat next to him and let him watch me eat any new food and made a big show of how yummy everything was. It didn’t happen overnight. I took many weeks (or more!) He’s still not a veggie lover, but he does eat some. But that’s how I introduce all new foods: make a big show about how much I enjoy eating it, and then keep offering day after day.
Hi Anne – thanks for visiting!