Can't get beardie to eat outside of terrerium

Hey guys! Need some advice. I've been trying to train my bearded dragon to eat outside the terrarium so I don't have to track down a million crickets every day. He misses a lot of them if they are smaller and I have to wait for him to eat each one or they just disappear. I've tried a medium blue tote outside the terrarium, my medium sized cricket keeper outside the terrarium, as well as a clearing large cooking bowl inside the terrarium. If the item is clear and he can see the crickets he usually tries to eat them through the plastic UNTIL I put him inside. Then he just tries to escape...He has eating like one or two when inside sometimes, but is obviously not a fan. I've only been doing it for a day or so and attempting to feed with same methods 2-3x a day. I'm hoping he just gets hungry enough he eats them instead of trying to escape. Any tricks or methods that have worked for anyone? It would make bearded dragon sitting a lot easier too for our vacation coming up. Not many people want to pick up a bunch of hopping crickets unless they like bugs/reptiles, and I don't want him to get bitten at night.

When I used to feed crickets, I used a large beer mug and tilted it so my dragon could see them. She ate as many as she wanted, and there were no bugs in her viv, "all was good in the dragon realm"!!!

Gormagon":3qfhf0ky said:

When I used to feed crickets, I used a large beer mug and tilted it so my dragon could see them. She ate as many as she wanted, and there were no bugs in her viv, "all was good in the dragon realm"!!!

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Was the mug very textured inside? I just tried it with an old large hospital cup I have but as soon as he started going inside he backed up bc it was slippery. Now he won’t even try. I know he’s hungry bc when I put him back he immediately ate a large meal worm and continues to search for food.

Tilt it over just enough that the crickets almost climb out to the edge, that's how mine liked to eat them. On occasion she would venture inside to get the reluctant ones, lol!!!!