Hatchling feeds?

We bought 4 hatchling at the clearwater show last month. They havent eaten yet and we have offered them pinkies[live and dead], hoppers[live], and 1 out of 4 have eaten. The one that ate is very active and the others are very calm, is there some other technique we should try?

What kind of setup do you have them in? What are your hot spot and cool side temps? Most of the time when ball pythons quit feeding ( except winter breeding) it is because of husbandry issues. There are exceptions to this, but it is usually the norm. Check out this caresheet for temps and humidity and make sure you are meeting those requirements. http://www.faunaclassifieds.com/foru...ad.php?t=77422 If all those are being met, then we can begin to look at other possible causes.

We have them in a 10 gallon tank right now with a heating pad on one end and water dish on the other. You see it isnt that they STOPPED eating its that they never have eaten. Hence they are hatchlings and are now about 3 to 4 weeks old. The really active one has eaten three hoppers and her siblings havent eaten anything.

OK, do you have all of them in one 10 gallon tank?? That will stress them into not eating to begin with. What are the warm and cool side temps, and do you have the heat mat on a thermostat of some kind? A heating pad not set on a thermostat will run WAY too warm for comfort, and often too warm for safety. They should have a hide on both the warm and cool sides so that they do not have to choose comfort over safety. They hadn't even eaten before you purchased them?

Yes we do for the moment, we are in the process of expanding our tank area and so that is the only option for now. I'm not sure what the tempetures are as our house is set to a digital thermostat and it stays about 76-78 at night and during the day we have the air off so it gets to about 80-85 since we live in FL. The heating pad isnt on a thermostat either, we have about 3 inches of crushed walnut sand so its only barely warm to me. They have hides on both sides of the tank. No they did not eat before we purchased them. We bought them at the clearwater reptile show april 23rd. They were born about a week before that and had shed once. Since then only the active female has eaten.

Krystle, even if it "only feels barely warm" to you, it still may very well be too warm, especially if they burrow down into the substrate, as they usually do. Sand of any kind is a poor choice of substrate for a Ball Python, something such as aspen shavings is a much better choice. And if you have 3 inches of a heavy substrate like sand over the heat, none of the heat is actually going to warm the air. A too cool (or too warm) Ball Python will not eat. They also need a good level of humidity. Read the care sheet at the link Bill provided above....it will explain a lot. Ball Pythons can be finicky eaters at times to begin with, and if your conditions are not right, it WILL cause problems.

Also...how are you trying to feed them? Are you moving them into separate containers?

Your temps are way off and its no wonder they aren't eating. 82-84 cool, 92-94 hot. Get the temps right and they will eat. It concerns me when breeders sell animals that have not yet eaten (I can only assume they are CH) but its more disconcerting that they were sold to someone who doesn't have the experience or proper husbandry in place to get them to eat.

It is sad that they were sold to someone that was not at all ready or informed on proper husbandry! Not tryin to make the poster feel bad but there has to be a line drawn at some point!
First off read the caresheets, do your homework and learn as much as you can about Ball pythons and the care that goes into them!!
Also, go to wal-mart a pet shop or a hardware store and get you a thermometer with a probe, 2 would be ideal, to put in the tank to measure your warm and cool side temps. Your body is roughly 98 degrees so anything that feels warm to you is above that temp. 88-92 is optimal temps for a ball on the warm side and that temp should be maintained constantly. See where Im going with this??? If it feels warm to you then its probablly to hot and you risk burning and or uncomfortable temps for your snake. If you do get your snakes to eat oyu also risk the food decomposing (going bad) inside there stomachs before they get a chance to digest it wich can kill your snake because of to high of temps.
Next go to a hardware store (if your not planning on getting a thermostat to control your heat from your UTH) and buy a 10 dollar Lamp Dimmer Switch. All you have to do is plug your UTH into the plug provided on the dimmer switch and that way you have some way of controling the heat!
Also go out and buy something to track the amount of humidity! To much and you have to deal with respitory infections, scale rot etc. To low and you encounter dehydration and bad sheds among many other problems that can happen!
PLEASE PLEASE read up on all this as quick as possible! For now atleast get a way to control your heat temps and monitor them!!

Unfortunately Jglass, and Davu you are honestly taking this way to far and are misjudging me on my experience and or how smart or stupid I am, I know your trying to help but seriously if you are going to say stuff like that then leave it to the 'real' professional help on the site and post somewhere else. If I wanted to be spoken to like the way you two have I could have just gone to my mother. For one we read and read and spoke to many many people before I bought my first ball python. When we were in Clearwater we spoke with Greg Graziani plus many other great breeders from out of Florida and have stacks of cards and books. Our main Housing unit is being expanded and was in the process at the time we got them, we had to improvise and so for now that is what we have until two or three more days. We have gone to wal-mart long before I even came on to this site and purcased a tempeture/humidity termostat. Tells me the high and low on both, that is hooked up to the main unit as I said above. I know sand isnt a good choice but again was what we had for now. We dont feed them in it as it can get in their mouths and they cant digest it, can clump, etc. We move them to a different container and cover it so that its mosty dark with a little bit of light. The main point of this was and tips or hints as we have a gravid female right now and want to have 'experience' with hatchlings before she lays the eggs.

The last thing i am going to do is to get into an arguement on who is a professional and who is not and how much experience or knowledge i have on Balls. I wasnt saying you were a bad person or that you are not able to do what is required! Nor did I question your intelligence! Right now your husbandry practices are not ideal for your python(s). Ok so what, I am sure that when we first got our leos or our dragon neither was ours. The basics were covered however. Heating your tank and keeping it within standards is a big deal. I simply gave you some advice on how to get your temps to where they should be. I also gave you some tips on how to keep them monitored! Hopefully you are reading substrate temps and not ambiant air temps. Dont know if your thermometer has a probe on it or not.
Maybe the comment on the selling of the snakes was a little out of line. All we have to go on is what you put in your post and if someone is way off base you can be sure that someone is going to say something about it. We are here because we all love reptiles and tend to feel the need to defend them or however you would like to word it! Either way hopefully some of the posts helped out and you are able to take some good ideas from them! My appologies on making you feel bad! Good luck with your snakes.

Mike