Oscar is very excited to announce his new video series, Oscar’s First Foods! For the past few months, we have mostly fed Oscar his Mazuri food pellets with Cheerios, freeze dried peas, and grass for treats. As nervous first-time pig parents, we wanted to get him settled before trying new foods and snacks.
Now that we feel more confident, we are ready to let Oscar taste new foods. We are introducing new foods a little at a time so we don’t overfeed him, but it’s been really fun to let him explore.
Oscar’s First Foods series includes videos of him trying new foods, and he will also get to pick his favorite out of several foods at once so we can see what he likes most. Enjoy!
When we moved to the country last year, we were excited to plant our first garden. In the past, we planted a few things here or there but didn’t really have the space we needed. So, over the summer, we finally planted our first real garden.
Next was the fun part; we needed to pick what we wanted to grow! We went back and forth on some options, but we made our final decision based on which foods Oscar could enjoy with us. We avoided any foods that might be harmful for him and chose ones we thought he would love. After a lot of deliberation, we finally picked kale, arugula, and kaleidoscope carrots.
My husband built the garden, we planted the seeds, and then I impatiently waited for everything to grow. As it turns out, I love the idea of gardening but not actual gardening, so thank goodness for my husband who kept up with watering, weeding, and harvesting the garden!
We used the kale in salads for Oscar, which he enjoyed as expected. He wasn’t as excited about the arugula, but what we were most excited for him to try were the kaleidoscope carrots. We regularly give Oscar baby carrots from the store as treats, but he had never tried any from the garden, particularly not a white or purple carrot.
Kale from Oscar’s gardenRainbow carrots from Oscar’s garden
We washed one of the white carrots, cut a few little slices for him, and eagerly watched as he tried it. Here is the video of Oscar trying his first white carrot from the garden.
He didn’t like the white carrot at all! Oscar is one of those pigs who loves just about every food. In fact, in almost a year and half, we haven’t found a food that Oscar refuses to eat…until the white carrot. After trying it myself though, I can’t really blame him. It was extremely bitter, without even a hint of sweetness. He normally loves carrots, but he and I both stuck with the orange carrots after trying the white one.
Oscar trying his first white carrot from the garden.
In retrospect, Oscar didn’t seem as excited about any of the garden foods as we thought he would be. My best guess is that everything was a tad bitter compared to what he’s used to from the store. While the garden foods were super fresh, he didn’t seem to care for the extra bitterness.
I was a little bummed Oscar didn’t love the garden food, but we’ll just try again next year and see if we can find some that he likes more. Choosing foods that Oscar could eat made the entire garden experience more fun; it was exciting knowing he could be part of the experience and try the harvest with us. Maybe we’ll have more luck next year!
Happy Easter from Oscar, Rylee, and family! Since it’s Oscar’s first Easter, we wanted to let him celebrate with a special snack. We didn’t want him to have Easter candy due to the sugar content, so we came up with a healthier treat for him. Oscar has eaten oats before, but he’s never actually had oatmeal. So, we made Oscar his very own oatmeal with raisins, blueberries, and bananas.
We put Oscar’s bib on and let him enjoy his Easter oatmeal. He loved every last bite! Happy Easter!
Oscar recently turned nine months old, so we celebrated by letting him try a fun, new food. Oscar loves fruit, especially apples and bananas, so I suspected he would also love the flavor and juiciness of oranges. I was really excited to see him try his first orange!
I cut the orange first and then pulled apart some slices for him. If given the opportunity, Oscar will attempt to eat an entire piece of fruit in one bite, so I always cut or slice his food into pieces that I’m comfortable with him gobbling down. This is especially true of new foods because he gets so excited and eats them as quickly as possible.
Here is the video of Oscar eating his first orange to celebrate turning 9 months old. If his smacking noises are any indication, I think he loved it. Happy 9 months, Oscar!
Happy 9 months, Oscar!Oscar curiously sniffing at the orange before I sliced it for him.He still has a little orange on his face, but Oscar is a happy boy after trying his first orange.
When Oscar was young, we started him out with vegetables as treats and then slowly introduced fruits. We suspected he would love fruit, but we wanted him to like veggies since they are healthy, low-calorie treats. Our method of starting out with veggies worked and Oscar learned to love kale and carrots, so now we give him fruit as special treats. He gets so excited for fruit, particularly bananas and grapes, that it’s hard not to smile at his anticipation for a new fruit.
We recently decided it was time for Oscar’s first apple, and boy was he eager to try it! Since apple seeds are toxic to mini pigs, we cut the apple up first and fed Oscar a few slices. He went crazy for the apple, and I’m glad he likes it since it’s an easy fruit to chop up and add to his salads every now and then.
Oscar ate his first sweet potato this week! Every time we have sweet potatoes for dinner, Oscar sniffs around and looks so desperate for a bite. We finally decided to give him his own potato to try. I baked the sweet potato, scooped it out of the skin to avoid any choking hazards, and added some celery for decoration and crunch.
Oscar quickly ate the sweet potato and then licked his plate clean. He ate every last bite, aside from the sweet potato stuck in his whiskers at the end.
