First, the bad news:

The best tool for poking around in there IS your hands. Maybe some latex lab gloves?

The good news:

You don't have to be poking around all the time in the bottom worrying that they're all going down there to die. If life-threatening stuff begins to happen, they will let you know.

Give them something soft, decomposing, and non-acidic in small enough quantities to keep odors from developing. Mine love composting horse manure and cantaloupe.

Your worms seem to be doing their best to introduce you to this new adventure with a minimum of stress on your part. They're bending over backward to do it by the book, it seems.

Congratulations, you're a wormer. Considering the success you're having, it might be best to get out of their way. Just kidding...sorta.

Chuckiebtoo

Don't feed them dog food. The worms can handle it eventually but the dog food has meat in it and can cause very foul odors. You can go quite a while before they will need any more food. Just add as you have before and you should be fine.

Personally, I think using my hands to check on my worms is the best way to go. I dont think twice about the pot worms, and the only thing that kinda grosses me out would be occasionally putting my hands in something slimey ( old, decaying food). But then again, thats what soap, water and a nail brush are for. Enjoy your worms.

There is no tool for poking around that can't potentially cause more harm than good. Although I will confess it to be very difficult, the best thing you can do for your worms is NOT poke around in there and disturb them.
I do use a serving size spoon to carefully make trenches for feeding.

I think the advice to wait a few days before adding food in a new system is not the best action. When you introduce food to a new bin (or newly harvested bin) it takes a couple of days before decomposition begins attracting the worms. That being said, if I introduce food the same day as worms, it will in fact be a day or two before there's any real food for the worms.

Plan to always have some food stock on hand for those times when kitchen waste is scarce. This might be corn meal, chicken mash, alfalfa meal or pellets, coffee grounds or even dried bread crumbs. Dry dog food is probably just fine to add. You could add canned dog food, but as suggested, it might smell bad as it decomposes. Many canned dog foods contain some kind of (mystery) meat. Meat, as it decays, goes through a process called putrefaction making it smell very bad and attracts flies and other undesirables.

debntexas..When you said dog food, I thought you were talking about dry food, which I feed leftovers to my worms all the time. If you were to feed straight from the bag you would want to moisten it first.