Agression to tongs?

[Diablo]

Ok so I've been tong feeding Yoshi while trying to bond with him so he calms down and lets me pick him up and start feeding him in a separate been. It has been slow progress but so far he has started walking over my hand and walking up my arm. However, today he did something strange. I had gotten pinkies which I thought were dead and frozen but they were actually alive. I decided to feed them to Yoshi anyways. He knows by now to associate the tongs with food, so when I open his cage he will walk out and I took the tongs and showed him that it was feeding time. He immediately struck at the tongs and started getting aggressive. I gave him a pinkie and he slowed down for a second. I pulled the tongs out of the enclosure to let him eat the pinkie and he came to the door and jumped out at the tongs and fell to the floor. I acted calmly as I did not want to end up chasing him around the floor like I have before. I tried putting my hand in front of him to pick him up and put him back. Instead he huffed and started walking away so I got his stocking that he likes and he walked in that and I put him back in his cage and fed him the other two pinkies and he then just went back into his hide. Is it normal for them to jump at the tongs and get aggressive like that? Did I handle it ok, or is there another way I should have done it?

 

[TegusRawsome80]

They are rather aggressive eaters when hungry. They view the tongs as a source of food, not as tongs, so it is perfectly natural for them to act "aggressively" towards them in my opinion. What made you think the mice were frozen if they were alive?

 

[Diablo]

They are rather aggressive eaters when hungry. They view the tongs as a source of food, not as tongs, so it is perfectly natural for them to act "aggressively" towards them in my opinion. What made you think the mice were frozen if they were alive?

I didn't specifically ask for frozen which was my fault. I just asked for pinkie mice and she said ok and go pay at the front and she brought me a bag and I looked in it and they weren't moving. When I got home and looked closer I realized they were alive. They have been having problems getting shipments of frozen pinkies, so next time I'll be sure to ask specifically for frozen.

 

[HeatherN]

tarot does that as well. even when theres not food, he'll strike at the tongs. its the magical food dispenser! completely normal, especially when hungry. hurry up food dispenser!