Food dish/tongs versus hunting?

[felix27]

Hi, we got our baby beardie, Noremac, about a month ago and he is doing great...eating crickets and a few veggies every day. We recently switched to bigger crickets as he has grown a few inches since we got him, and I expected the number of crickets he eats to decrease because they are larger, which they have. But we got some feeder tongs and I tried them out and he ate about ten crickets in a row as opposed to usually eating fewer when they are in a bowl or when he hunts down the escaped ones. Well, I guess hunting isn't the best word...if he happens to see one hop by, he will eat it, but he won't go looking for them. After the tongs he barely even goes into the bowl for them anymore, he just grabs whatever is in reach but only wants to be fed with the tongs. Did I totally mess up? It seems he should be more interested in running around chasing crickets, not waiting to be fed! This is our first beardie so I'm still learning what is best for him, but any suggestions on whether I should stop using tongs and let him find his own food the 'natural' way? Thanks for any input or advice!

 

[Lenewen]

I feed my beardeds with tongs some of the time and sometimes they eat from their dishes. I feed mostly worms such as hornworms, silkworms, repti worms, phoenixworms and superworms so the beardeds can easily eat them from the dish along with their greens.

Every beardie is different. I have one who prefers the dish and another who seems to only eat from the tongs. If you want him to eat the natural way, just stop using tongs. For a lazy dragon, worms might be a nice alternative to crickets to ensure your dragon is eating enough.