Well obviously we have a multi planted, very cricket hiding friendly set up for "The Dude", so feeding in his cage is a bad idea, but he just refused to eat when we put him in a different cage to be fed. Crickets will be crawling all over, and worms will be wriggling right in front of him. He just won't move. It's exactly like when we first got him, and put him in his cage, he was frozen for a good 2 hours.

So now to feed him I put the bugs in an old Sour Cream container that's pretty tall, dust em, then sort of shake them down to him, because the crickets especially try to stay to the closed end, so I can get one or two down to without worrying about a bunch getting loose in his cage. But there always are a few that get out, and immediately hide :\

I have the same kind of setup for my baby WD's so I just hand feed them with some tweezers. Little time consuming though. You could rip the legs of the crickets and put them and whatever else your offering in a shallow glass bowl or saucer I suppose.

Can you put a feeding tub inside his tank? If he is hungry enough, he will eat. Seems he has you trained, lol

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MARSHA

:D I'm smiling because I have no idea whats going on!

When a lizard (or most reptiles for that matter) are put into a new environment, they basically freeze up like that (I'd imagine because they're afraid and stay alert) and they will not eat immediately. If you leave them in the cage for a while, they'll get used to it and start to eat, but how long it takes for them to calm down depends on temps and the animals themselves.

I used to have a little feeding cage for Kono for the same reason. He ate okay for awhile. Then he got sick and I hand fed him for a little while. After that he refused to eat unless I hand fed him every time.

It gets time consuming, but it's great for bonding.

How old is the dragon? It sounds like he's just very young or very nervous. Try taping some paper around the sides of the feeding cage, so that he can't see out. This may put him more at ease. Even better, put him in the covered cage, then leave the room for a little while. Once he feels secure, he'll start eating. You may be able to teach him to trust you by taking slow steps. After a couple of weeks where he's been eating well, try staying in the room. When he gets comfortable with you there, you can start removing the paper one sheet at a time.

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"Let's eat, Grandpa!"
"Let's eat Grandpa!"

Punctuation. It saves lives.