Aren't they supposed to be bottom feeders?

I have a problem with my two juvenile axxies not being able to find food I put in their tubs.

I tried for days to leave pellets or thawed bloodworms in there, but they only ever respond to food floating at the top. This makes things difficult since all their food sinks, so I need to wiggle the bloodworms on a toothpick, or really carefully drop pellets on their nose.

Is this normal for young ones? Will they outgrow it? Is there any way I can condition them to eat food from the bottom? I feel like I've tried everything! Putting pellets on a spoon, using a long skewer to direct them to the food, but food on the bottom just isn't registering to them...

Have you tried live food items? Smaller/younger Axolotls are still very much triggered by movement of some sort. Maybe the floating food items seem to have a sense of motion or something, attracting the axolotls. Most younger Axolotls just spent the previous part of their lives eating BBS/Baby Brine Shrimp or daphnia. All live food items that hold movement. It may take a while for them to get out of this routine.

Try using live blackworms and small sinking pellets. Sometimes the blackworms will even coil around small pellets and cause an Axolotl to eat the pellet and blackworm. Motion near a sunken pellet attracts Axolotls also. This has worked for me without fail. If it doesn't work for you maybe they just need to out grow their current eating preferences with age. Older and mature Axolotls have a stronger sense of smell also.

I'd love to, but I can't find any place that sells live blood or black worms :T (Just some places online that have crazy high minimum order numbers...)

I'll keep looking but in the meantime I guess I'll keep hand feeding. Sort of inconvenient, but they're awfully cute when they swim to the top when I come by.

try using a turkey baster or a pipette to make a gentle little current near the pellets or bloodworms to make them move slightly (make sure you don't make too strong of a current as it can startle them). This may draw their attention

Hm, I will try that. I usually try nudging the pellets around with the same toothpick I feed them blood worms with (in hopes they make a connection!)

Oh and related question- they're about 2 inches long, should I be feeding them more than once a day at this point?

Nope, once a day is perfect. For axolotls, the bigger they get the less frequently you feed them. Newly hatched they eat a few times a day, around now they eat once a day, and when semi-adults/adults they will start eating every other day