Hand feeding

[noonthirtyfive]

This is kind of a dumb question, but how do you guys hand-feed? Do you just grab something and hold it in front of your beardie until he eats it? It seems like whenever I try to hand-feed a vegetable or fruit, it ends up being too slippery and I drop it before he even notices Either way, he doesn't seem to care. Is hand-feeding something only some beardies respond to?

 

[Gail]

yes, hand feeding is just holding it up to the dragon so they can eat it. Slick food like strawberries or mango is hard to hand feed, I generally only hand feed insects or choice pieces of greens.
I've only had one dragon who wouldn't eat from my hand which is ok, dragons can really spoiled and refuse to eat out of a dish if they are hand feed too much. I like my dragons to be able to feed themselves.

 

[Tomek]

You are not kidding !, my beardie was sick for a while and wouldnt eat ANYTHING. I started hand feeding him worms every night (actually, I would pry open his mouth a little) and he would eat the worm. Well, guess what....... he is spoiled now. I am going to have to stop doing this, he will eventually eat when he is hungry.

 

[wckdbtch]

As I type, I'm sitting with a very spoiled beardie on my lap, a dropper with baby food in one hand and another 5 days of medication... Both Angie and Flippie are on their second round of coccidia meds and after 15 days of being dropper-fed, Angie refuses to even look at anything resembling food, unless its in a dropper and placed directly on her nose... I'm getting quite fed-up with this, but need to get my babies healthy again

 

[noonthirtyfive]

zomg, they sound like cats! Maybe I should be glad, then. Ender will occasionally try to eat something I hold up, but if he misses or drops it he pretends like he didn't want it anyway... just like a cat!

 

[wckdbtch]

LOL, yeah, that about sums it up. Beardie kittens...

 

[Tomek]

LOL, I second that !, I cannot believe I do this. First of all, I hate to touch the worms with my bare hands. So, I put on a plastic glove in my left hand - with my right hand try to get his mouth open and then try holding his head and putting the worm in his mouth.... OMG !!!, she is probably thinking, what a dork i am

 

[wckdbtch]

I used to be that way with worms, until we got roaches. Now, the worms seems like nothing to me!

 

[Tomek]

Your a brave soul !, roaches !, ACHHH!, I do not think my beardie will ever see one of those. I couldnt stomach those things.

 

[apaprikao]

Jayne loves to be hand fed but I'm trying to not create a habit of it. I'd love it if I could just put the bowl in his tank and he'd eat from it.

 

[Tomek]

Wouldnt that be great to just put the bowl in the tank for them to eat. It drives me crazy!, Tomek will just look at the worms as they crawl out of the bowl and I get so mad, I tell her forget it!, you dont eat then. But, then I feel bad

 

[noonthirtyfive]

That's amazing! Whenever I try to hand-feed anything but maybe an especially wiggly cricket or a blueberry, Ender just stares at me like "No. Get it away. Get it out of my face." They're all so different :3

 

[zac]

i dont hand feed veggies but i hand feed crix because he will only eat in his cage and wont eat in separate bin and i dont want to go digging for crix in his cage

 

[Jess]

I hand feed foods that are too slippery for Dudley's tounge to stick to. I only hand feed with tweezers, because sometimes he gets over excited and doesn't realize that fingers aren't edible too.