Hand Feeding Your Koi

One of the most rewarding feelings you will get from owning a Koi pond is the first time your fish begin to eat from your hand.

Hand feeding your Koi is an excellent way to learn the unique personality of each of your fish. Training your Koi to eat from your hand won’t come easy, and will take loads of patience and conditioning. In order to be successful you will have to overcome the Koi’s natural distrust of any animal that could do them harm.

While you may be very nurturing and really care about your fish, from their vantage point you are capable of doing tremendous damage. You should start working toward hand feeding your Koi from the very beginning of your relationship with them.

While it is possible to train fish that you have had for a while, training fish from the beginning is the easiest way to go. One thing you don’t want to do is just toss food on top of the water to feed your fish.

To begin conditioning your fish bring the bag of food to the water’s edge and squat or sit down. Take a couple of the food pellets into your hand and then place your hand under the water, allowing the pellets to slowly float away. Don’t be concerned if your fish are not very interested in this action. Your fish will most definitely notice both your hand in the water and the appearance of the pellets.

After a while one or two brave fish will come and eat the pellets, and other fish are sure to follow when they see that it is safe. Use the method described above until you have distributed the same amount of pellets that you usually use for a feeding. Continue this process for approximately one week. The following week slightly cup your hand when you place it in the water so that the pellets stay in place.

Make sure that your hand stays absolutely still. If you are patient you will eventually get at least one fish who will come over and take a food pellet from your hand. Be sure not to move your hand at all while this fish is eating. When this fish finishes all the pellets slowly remove your hand, fill it with more pellets, and place it back into the water.

If your fish will not come to your hand to feed, skip the feeding for that day. Missing one meal will not cause your fish to starve. It will make them hungry, however, and more likely to eat from your hand the next time it is presented. Once your fish are comfortable eating from your hand you can start training them to eat from your fingertips. Place one pellet between two fingers and then submerge your hand underwater. At least one brave fish is bound to approach.

Just as in the beginning, other fish will follow the example of that bold leader. Do not be alarmed if some fish do not come to eat from your fingertips that first time. Allow them to skip this one meal and they are sure to come and eat the next day. Hunger is an excellent motivator for Koi.

You are sure to enjoy the process of hand feeding your fish once they are trained. There will, of course, be some days when you are just too busy to sit and hand feed. On these days it is fine to go back to normal feeding practices.

More available information to help you with your yard:
Outdoor and backyard ponds
Landscaping around your pond
Pond furniture for relaxation
Home pools
Animals and pets

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