Lazy Dragon Wants me to Hand Feed him.

[tignish99]

Our 9 month old beardie has turned into a lazy lizard. I thought that hand-feeding him would be fun for both of us, but I did not realize he would quickly turn it into his wanting to be exclusively hand-fed. He is refusing to go get any of his food and just waits for me to drop food into his gullet. I have no one to blame, but myself and I know that :roll: . Since he is my first beardie, I did not know this would happen. I figured hand feeding would be the same as hand feeding another pet such as a dog. A dog will happily take food from the hand but will feed himself when give food in a bowl. Needless to say, I am not happy about my lazy beardie's new feeding expectations. If I simply offer food as before in a bowl and on the bottom of his tank as before, will he go back to regular eating? I do not want him to starve, but nor do I want to be his personal servant (more than I already am in his regular care). Any advice?

Thank you

 

[XiDiS]

Just stop hand feeding and dont give in. Honestly i dont think the dragon would starve himself to death when there is food there.... it just might take a day or two to break the habit.

 

[zandi202]

Also, you could place him in front of the bowl. I had to do that when I bought bigger bowls for Jace and Zy so the worms couldn't crawl out. The only problem was that they couldn't see them. Now when I put the bowl in there, the know worms are in there and go on their own.

 

[Lenewen]

Ugh I have the same problem. He even went over a week without eating because I tried to break him of the habit. He now eats greens on his own but refuses to eat his feeders unless I hand feed him. And I am of course to blame. He was my first, too My girls are not like that at all.

 

[zandi202]

I'm too grossed out by the idea of handling live feeders without tongs so I never tried. Plus, the girl at Petco warned me not to do it, but for a different reason. Her beardie would start to bite her thinking she had food in her hand.

 

[Lenewen]

ew who said anything about not using tongs?? :lol:
I use tongs every time, GROSS

 

[zandi202]

ew who said anything about not using tongs?? :lol:
I use tongs every time, GROSS

I don't know, when I think hand feeding, I think with hands.

 

[tignish99]

Bugs do not gross me out and think they are fascinating. Actually, I find it easier just to handle them with my hands.

You have a point though, he will start thinking of my fingers as food, and I definitely do not want that.

 

[Lenewen]

OMG


...

lol

 

[tignish99]

I followed your suggestions and this morning His Highness realized that perhaps he should get off his mushroom rock and actually go hunt some food on the bottom of his tank. :lol:

 

[Lenewen]

Yayyyy! Progress! :mrgreen:

 

[tignish99]

He looked quite unamused by the whole process. No anthropomorphism here what so ever. :lol:

 

[Lenewen]

I'm going to try to break my male dragon of the handfeeding habit now that I have seen you're having some success. It really is a pain in the neck. Showing him the bowl seems like a good idea, he eats his greens out of it just fine.

 

[tignish99]

Good luck! Let me know how it goes.

 

[tignish99]

Update on His Highness. He is back to eating from the bottom of his tank and catching his prey.