My Eastern Garters, Selena and Cee Cee, both eat from a dish...they do not like to be fed from tongs, as they are both skiddish about that and will hide from me if I try to feed them that way. I have always separated them when feeding them to avoid any possible fighting over food...and both prefer cut up pieces of fish to live fish...the one time I tried to feed live fish they had no idea what to do with them. They will eat worms occasionally, but they are going through a off-worm phase right now. Both girls eat the exact same way...they just slowly slide up to the dish and gently nose around and then gulp the fish pieces down...no striking involved at all. Neither are very hearty eaters...they always leave some on their dish. The one time I did put them in together for a feed...Selena attempted to gulp down Cee Cee's much larger fish pieces (Cee Cee is quite larger than Selena)...and sat with one large chunk of fish half way down her throat for a while looking quite odd....and I thought I might have to pull it out of her mouth for her. She finally gave up and spit it out realizing it was too big for her!