Hatchling ball pythons not accepting first meal?

[kxr]

Hey I have a question I hatched out my first clutch of ball pythons a little over a month ago and none of them seem to be interested in food. I've tried feeding them once a week since their first shed but they just don't seem interested at all. I've tried both live and f/t rat pinkies and mouse fuzzies. The best info I can find about when they should start eating is after the first shed and most people say they should readily accept mouse hoppers or pinkie rats so I'm starting to get worried. They are all in 6qt tubs with hides and good temps (about 90 on the hot side and 80 on the cool side) the only thing I can think of that might be off is the humidity but I do have a large water bowl in each of the bins. Anyway I really just want to know if this is uncommon and if there are any special techniques that might help. I've tried "braining" but that didn't seem to help at all. They're all about 60g and still look relatively healthy so I'm reluctant to assist/force feed them but at what point should I try to assist feed them? Thanks for reading this hope to hear from some experienced breeders soon.

[Stewart_Reptiles]

For a 6 quarts tub 90 is too hot lower the temp to about 86/87

If you have not done so already provide aspen as bedding it will increase security.

Once you do that give it a week and offer live hopper mice (forget rats, forget f/t)

Assisting is always a personal call but there is no set amount of time it depends on a few factors, like yolk absorption, general look, health etc (I usually don't consider assisting before 6 to 8 weeks) and before resorting to this there are a few tricks worth trying such as loose newspaper in the tubs, brown paper bag trick etc (braining does not work with BP)

[bcr229]

Set up your tubs as described above, it does work.

Also I've found that waiting for 10-14 days after their first shed and then offering a live hopper mouse improves the odds of them eating on the first try. If that doesn't work the following week I get a live large-ish fuzzy or small hopper mouse, one big enough to move around a bit but not big enough to hurt the snake, and leave it in the tub overnight. It's usually gone in the morning.

[kxr]

Thanks for the advice guys. I'm changing the substrate right after I type this. Hopefully those changes will help.