Yeah Im really not sure where the hand feeding came in with Judah. He use to eat out of his bowl freely no problem! at 1 1/2 old he would eat handfully of any salad I gave him. Then one day.... I think it is because in summer we have a garden and he is allowed to freely roam and eat what ever salad greens and such he chooses. But even then sometimes he just didnt want to eat. It is amazing how much he was eatting and then bam it just slowed way way down about the time he hit 2 years old. The other thing was I was going out of town on weekend trips so my aunt would feed him and take care of him while I was gone. She tried everything even like strawberries and such but he'd refuse food the entier time I was gone. So he wouldn't eat like 3 days at a time untill I came home and took him out to the garden to eat. Poor lil guy missed me and was on a hunger strike till mom got home.
Like a say there are a few things he will eat freely from my hand like the good sweet stuff, his fav is Saturn peaches, but if I put it in a bowl "No way mom! You think im going to pick that up and put it in my own mouth?" and he will eat the dalihas if I lay them in front of him. Too bad they will all be gone soon
Veggies I acctual have to stick the pieces in his mouth, sometimes he will go ahead and chew them, most of the time he spits them out. I have to stick them back in there untill he chews it. I can only get him to eat like 2 dandelion leaves untill he like "nope full mom, spitin it out now, no more." Roaches he will finally chase again, for a while I couldnt hardley get him to eat them either. He would maybe eat 1 freely every few days, othertimes same deal, I had to stick a few in his mouth (one at a time of course) just so he would get some protine. I didnt want to force him to eat. If I tryed to just put it in front of him to eat, he wouldnt touch it. So I made sure he at least had 8 roaches per week, I just cant believe how stubborn he was, you would think he'd be starving. He wasnt sick or anything he was just board of all his foods I guess.
It is in just the last 2 weeks that he has started eatting about 8 or more roaches every other day. The last few days and I can put them in the tank in front of him and he will eat them now. If they run too much he does the same thing sorta chases them a little but if its too much effort he looks at me like "MOM, hold it for me!" so I hold its leg down so it can't run. They are so funny how picky stuborn and spoiled they can get! :whip:
That must make you feel SO much better. 
