Hand Feeding Your Koi
Koi have no teeth and are not aggresive by nature so will not bite you if you do decide to try feeding your Koi by hand. This means that it is a pastime you can share even with small children.
It is highly likely that your Koi will be afriad of you at first and may not come to you straight away. Just like any other animal, it is built into your Koi to be wary of you until it gets to know you better. You will not be able to hand feed your Koi overnight. You need to gain your Koi's trust and this requires time and patience on your part.
Koi will eat both meat and plants which makes them omnivorous and due to this, they will eat almost anything that you put into their pond, regadless of whether it is good for them or not. Since they have no concept of what is good or bad for them, or even when they have had enough to eat, you must be in control of the quantiy and type of snack you feed them. As your Koi is not a fussy eater, they can easily suffer with weight problems when fed excessive amounts of non-nutritional foods. The heatlhiest type of treat to give your Koi is what they would find in naturally in their ponds, like earthworms and tadpoles, but you can also feed them treats like lettuce, bread, fruit and vegetables. Due to the fact that they have a skin and cannot be easily digested by your Koi, you should take extra care when feeding your foods like corn, brapes and beans and must completely remove the skin before giving this type of treat to your fish.
When you start to hand feed your fish, you must start slowly. Never make any sudden movements, as this will scare even the most trusting of fish. It is best to start training your fish to hand feed as soon as you get them by placing a few pellets or snacks in our hand and slowly submerging your hand. When your hand is fully submerged, allow the food to fall from our hand into the water, whilst your fish may not seem to be paying attention to you, they will quickly become aware of the food and also the fact that your hand placed it there. Keep doing this for a few days.
After you have spent a few days just dropping the food into your pond, you will find that you have gained the attention of your Koi. You can now start making the fish remove the food from your hand. If they refuse to take the food from your hand then do not feed them that day. They will soon get used to the idea that they must take the food from your hand if they want to eat. By doing this everyday, you fish will soon become comfortable being around you.
When you have convinced the Koi to eat from your hands, you can start training them to eat directly from your fingers. Again if the Koi will not take the food from your fingers then do not feed them that day. Just like any other animal, your Koi will not starve itself just because it is unsure of the situation. Food is the main motivation for your Koi to get close to you.
Once your Koi have become confortable feeding from your hand, you can switch between feeding them normally and feeding them by hand. You should always supervise childrenm and adults when you allow them to feed your fish as you need to ensure that your Koi is not being given inappropriate foods and that the feeder is not making any sudden movements that will scare your fish.
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