Hi Brandon,
I hear of some people hand feeding all the time. I've also heard of others saying no because it causes the dragon to not want to hunt then you have to feed that way all the time. Some say it is also a good way to bond with and gain your beardie's trust. My husband feeds Yoshi by hand sometimes but Yoshi is still content on chasing after crickets and eating the worms out of his dish. So I guess it's a personal choice.
I start off by hand feeding Evie. I give her baby food (and she loves the carrots) and she usually licks it off of a spoon that I'm holding or my finger. I will also hold some veggies and greens for her but then when I put her back in her home I set her down with her with the rest of her food. I like the interaction with her, but with crickets....well I just let those go and watch her go wild
i hand fed allie her greens when she was smaller, now she won't touch them unless i hand feed them to her, my new baby eats them from a dish. so if you wanna risk having to hand feed all the time, go for it, i think it was a bonding thing between me and allie, but who knows. all i know is she will let a whole plate of salad wilt away unless i hand feed them to her.
One of my dragons is exactly like scubasteve's. He got sick when he was younger and lost his appetite, i hand fed to entice him to eat because theres no way he was chasing his food down. So now If I don't hand feed he absolutely will not eat! This goes for his salad and his feeders. My newer dragon I never hand feed and she eats out of her dishes. They get spoiled very, very easy!