I'm gonna try hand feeding before invest in a feeder. Problem is I'm not always around like an auto feeder would be.
Hand feeding first is a very good idea to first see if you can get some of sort of pellet eating activity. One can go to a fish farm and buy a small amount of pellets and not a whole 40 - 50 lb bag of pellets. IMO it is not the best idea to hold a whole big bag of pellets for a year or more due to some nutrition gradually breaks down over time. Old pellets in humid conditions will become moldy.
Some fish can "learn" by watching other fish eat pellets. monkey see - monkey do type of thing. As I mentioned earlier,,,,, first softening the pellets will get or train more fish to rise to the surface, recognize and then hopefully eat pellets. IMO you don't really need to feed the fish every day. IMO everything a fish eats has some benefit. Benefit can be a minimal snack size amount to over eating and becoming obese. Bottom line the more fish eat,,,, the more they (could) grow. Thus IMO the more pellets they are able to eat the more growth (benefit) that will be realized. If you feed the fish just 2 to 3 times a week the fish will get benefit but they will not receive as much benefit as feeding them every day. If one reduces the number of fish in the pond and feed pellets 2-3 times a week, there will be more benefit to each fish than having no pellet feeding.
Ideally you don't really need to feed pellets to fish to get them to grow better. You can accomplish good fish growth by reducing the number of fish that live in the pond to a point that each one then gets enough of the natural foods produced in the pond for all the remaining fish to grow. Fish body condition can be measured or determined by using relative weight of the fish. Feeding pellets is supplementing the natural foods for the fish to INCREASE total fish production (standing crop) in the pond. Studies have shown that a bluegill needs to eat 2 percent of its body weight per day for maintenance of good health AND then some for growth. When the BG does not get enough to eat this = no growth and maybe losing weight. BG growth is closely related to how much food a fish puts in its belly each day.
It is the manager's job to balance or control the numbers of fish present and the amount of food/s present for the fish so they are then able maintain weight and grow. .
If you want to try softening the fish pellets before tossing them to the fish see this thread where I discuss the technique. I always feed soft pellets to my fish because a small fish even a 3" fingerling can easily eat a soft 1/4" size squeezable pellet. This gets the small fish growing well even when using the 1/4" pellet that is mainly designed for adult fish.
https://forums.pondboss.com/ubbthreads.php?ubb=showflat&Number=433963#Post433963
