In order to bond with my bluey I hand fed him a lot when I first got him--pretty much every time he ate for the first month or so. Usually not the whole meal, but a significant portion of it. I've had him for about 4 months now, and recently he'll only finish about 1/3 of his meal and ignore the rest, until I serve him by hand
A couple of things I've notice along with this:1. The problem is worse when the food is mushy as opposed to distinct chunks. When I was feeding him shredded chicken (Tiki Cat) and the like, he seemed to finish more by himself. Now he's on turkey pate (Halo), which seems to be a big struggle. He'll take a few bites out of it, lick the pile a couple times, then give up and crawl elsewhere. When I present the food to him in smaller blobs on my fingers, he'll seem to eat normally. But...
2. He seems to be really bad at recognizing food in general. If I place or hold food in front of him (even snacks he loves, like banana or egg), it takes him 5-10 seconds before he seems to react. After the first bite, he'll immediately take any more food I present. But prior to that it's almost like he can't sense it. He just stares at me like, "Durr... what do I do with this? Oh, I eat it?"
He's about 7 months old, I'm feeding him twice a week, about a tablespoon of cat food each feeding. Sometimes I'll give him a few dubias between feedings, but as he's gotten older he seems less interested (or just less reactive to them, he'll eat a good few once he gets started).
Any insight would be greatly appreciated!
