Little seal pup Maximo eats his first fish

You can support or adopt Maximo here: www.zeehondencentrum.nl/en/at...
A milestone for little Maximo: today he ate his first fish! Our seal nurses are very satisfied with the way he bites the fish. Sometimes a pup doesn’t care about the fish, but this obviously isn’t the case with Maximo! Because of all that food, he gained 1 kilogram in the past week. He is now 8.1 kilogram (17.86 lbs). Thankfully, because Maximo still has to grow a lot 🏋️
Are you forcing the seal pup to eat the fish?
Thank you for your concern! We are a professional seal hospital with over 50 years of experience and the well being of the seals is our top priority. Our seal nurses are trained to teach baby seals to eat fish without any harm to the animal. Fun fact to know: Common seals eat their fish whole and swallow it at once.

[@halfey]

Eating FIBSH for the first time.

[@myleneh1916]

I'm one of Maximo's many adoption parents. L ove seeing him doing so well. Love and hugs to him and his crew 💚💚💚💚💚🕊🕊🕊

[@zeehondencentrumpieterbure9268]

Thank you Mylene! Did you know that you can now see Maximo through our livestream? 🥰 You can see how he is doing 24/7!

[@myleneh1916]

@@zeehondencentrumpieterbure9268 great. Going to check now thank you 💚🕊

[@andreadistazio1519]

Beautiful ❤️😍

[@arda9393]

Little Maximo is growing so fast!

[@myleneh1916]

Just did the adopt link. So happy to help Maximo 💚💚💚

[@zeehondencentrumpieterbure9268]

Thank you for your support! 💙Maximo is doing good!

[@honeychild8525]

Doing a great job there seal people

[@angelcosm2245]

Big appetite 😋 way to go Maximo!

[@thomasmuller807]

I love him

[@optimine]

um..I know you have to "get them to eat" but can't it seem less like shoving something down their throats? I suppose I'll have to see how seals learn how to eat in the wild.

[@Zabe_B]

pretty sure it's because he's a dumb baby who has to be taught that it even IS food... he's used to milk. and like it says in the description, seals swallow their food whole. it seems like they're being careful not to choke him though, he's more confused than distressed imo

[@optimine]

@@Zabe_B I know seals are seen eating fish whole, I'm speaking to the nuances of it all.

[@honeychild8525]

Weaning off milk onto solid fibsh is a tricky business

[@optimine]

@@honeychild8525 "tricky" sounds right. I'm sure there are logistics at play I'd love to learn about. (no doubt we could "teach" human babies all sorts of strange ways to eat and whatnot)

[@bodyofhope]

I'm just curious why they wouldn't choose a smaller fish, like fresh Sardines or bait fish. Those are mighty large for such a small little one 🦭🤍