So I have a rehab case who is about 2.5 years old and just learning how to eat from my hands, real food too, instead of dropper food....
History: I took him in at 6 months old, he came from a home where his enclosure was too hot all the time and he stopped eating and they returned him to the pet store, where my best friend is a manager, and she gave him to me. He's in a desert low exo terra, slate bottomed tank with 105-110 basking temps and 80-85 cool side, plenty of stuff to climb on and a UVA/UVB and LED light fixture. I don't keep water in the cage because he sits in it, but I find he's often cold sitting in the water dish so I only give him water out of a dish at feeding time and at his bi-monthly baths. Ever since I got him, I've had to dropper feed him repta-aid, carnivore care, powdered veggies mixed with vitamins and water, and the occasional calci-worm I had to sneak into his mouth.
A few weeks ago, I was approaching him with calci-worms and he went for it and took it right out of my finger tips for the first time EVER. Since then, I've gotten him to eat some veggies from my fingers and plenty of worms, but the more he learns that pinched fingers have food, he keeps biting my finger tips instead of his food. Thing is, he won't eat from a dish only fingers, and I'm afraid to use tweezers -- even wood ones -- because I feel like he'll chomp too hard and hurt his teeth or won't let go.
Any advice on how to get him to stop going for my fingers? I think he's got really bad depth perception but I'm not sure how to help him and keep him from going after me like Audrey 2 from Little Shop of Horrors.
*Update*
Tonight was a salad meal for my other lizards so I figured I would let my trouble maker try to eat it on his own so I let it get a little dry and tacky enough to stick to the inside of a clear Tupperware, and slowly turned it like a salad kaleidoscope and he went for some bites but got discouraged really easily when he missed or bumped his face hard. I did start with my fingers but he quickly munched my thumb nail but it seems like the only time he gets a good meal in is from eating directly from my fingers and making me bleed in the process.
History: I took him in at 6 months old, he came from a home where his enclosure was too hot all the time and he stopped eating and they returned him to the pet store, where my best friend is a manager, and she gave him to me. He's in a desert low exo terra, slate bottomed tank with 105-110 basking temps and 80-85 cool side, plenty of stuff to climb on and a UVA/UVB and LED light fixture. I don't keep water in the cage because he sits in it, but I find he's often cold sitting in the water dish so I only give him water out of a dish at feeding time and at his bi-monthly baths. Ever since I got him, I've had to dropper feed him repta-aid, carnivore care, powdered veggies mixed with vitamins and water, and the occasional calci-worm I had to sneak into his mouth.
A few weeks ago, I was approaching him with calci-worms and he went for it and took it right out of my finger tips for the first time EVER. Since then, I've gotten him to eat some veggies from my fingers and plenty of worms, but the more he learns that pinched fingers have food, he keeps biting my finger tips instead of his food. Thing is, he won't eat from a dish only fingers, and I'm afraid to use tweezers -- even wood ones -- because I feel like he'll chomp too hard and hurt his teeth or won't let go.
Any advice on how to get him to stop going for my fingers? I think he's got really bad depth perception but I'm not sure how to help him and keep him from going after me like Audrey 2 from Little Shop of Horrors.
*Update*
Tonight was a salad meal for my other lizards so I figured I would let my trouble maker try to eat it on his own so I let it get a little dry and tacky enough to stick to the inside of a clear Tupperware, and slowly turned it like a salad kaleidoscope and he went for some bites but got discouraged really easily when he missed or bumped his face hard. I did start with my fingers but he quickly munched my thumb nail but it seems like the only time he gets a good meal in is from eating directly from my fingers and making me bleed in the process.