So, this isn't a huge deal at all, but I was wondering if you all had any tips for what I might be able to do to help my ball python get her food down head first.

She's on appropriately sized f/t mice (she weighs 165g and is on small mice) and is a really fantastic eater, she has a crazy good food response. But no matter how I present the mouse to her, she almost always tries to eat it sideways. After I just watched her try to eat it for 45 minutes, starting out sideways, drop it, lose it, find it again, try to eat it by the front leg, drop it again, and finally get it down tail-first, I just wish I knew something that could make this process easier for her!

I never intervene while feeding (unless she totally loses it, in which case I'll warm it back up and re-offer and that usually does the trick), so I won't reach in and try to reposition it for her, but she's been really bad for trying to eat sideways the entire time I've had her. I've tried dangling the mouse by the tail and holding it by the back, but neither strategy seems to help. Like I said, she's gotten to have a great feeding response, and I think she gets so excited when she realizes it's food time that she just grabs it wherever. I've also tried making the head a bit hotter than the rest of the body, and we've only had mixed success with that. I also tried pinching the nose to make it a little bloody just in case that would make it smell a bit stronger, but since she has such a good food response anyway I don't think she even noticed.

So, do you all have any tips for how I might be able to help my poor dumb snake manage to get her food down with less than 45 minutes of effort? Like I said, it's not a big problem since she's eating so well, but I don't really like thinking of all the bacteria that mouse is picking up while it's sitting around waiting to be swallowed for so long, and I'd like to minimize her frustration if I could.