RE: Seeking advice on starter veggies for a picky buns

[Isabelle]

Dutchess is wary of trying new foods, it will take me a few weeks to a few months before she’ll trust the strange new ‘poison’. I still can’t get her into strawberries yet! Anyway, I put a little piece of whatever it is into her normal treat bowl and act like it’s one of her usual treats. She’ll sniff and turn tail, that’s NOT a treat! Then I’ll pull some of her already liked treats around/on top/partially in the new one, which of course she’ll eat around. Usually it takes a few hours to a few days for her to try it, and sometimes I have to catch her when she’s in a corner, and stick it right up in her nose like here, it’s yummy! She’ll sniff and before she tries to scamper away I’ll try to rub a little bit of it (like mash a little touch of banana for instance) on her mouth so she’ll have to lick it to get it off, thereby tasting it. I’m not sure how well that would work with greens, but you could try other things like that. Even some of the juice of the fruit like a strawberry, at least it’ll give them a lick of it. You might try putting chopped pieces of the veggies mixed in with her hay and pellets, and then say “whoops, how’d that get in there?” and hope she munches some of it with her regular food.

I don’t know if you’ve tried kale, but it is aboslutely Dutchess’ favorite food, she will do ANYTHING for kale! She generally dives into her greens, I rotate every few days what she gets: cilantro, parsley, kale, romaine lettuce, italian parsley, italian cilantro. I’m looking into giving her some mint or dill soon and seeing how she likes those. Yummy fruit treats she loves are banana, craisins, raisins, and apples. Fruit should be given in very small amounts though