I didn't answer the poll because there's no never option.

I only have 3 snakes that eat live. I use separate feeding tank because my viv is packed with too much decorative stuff in it so the live rat has a gazillion places to hide and chew on the decor. I take out the snake, put in the feeding tank, drop a live rat, watch until rat is coiled. I have 2 immediate strikers, so they go first because they're easy. And then I got 1 prima donna. If she goes on that S-curve of the neck, then she's interested and it's easy because she's a pro-striker - never missed the back of the rat's neck. But then, if she doesn't go on the S-curve, then I just sigh and sit down infront of the tank for about 20 minutes before giving up and taking out the rodent. Sometimes she strikes the rat after 10 minutes of disinterest, but after 20 minutes and she's still not in hunt-mode, she starves for another week.

I can't leave them unattended because I've had instances when the rat bit the snake! One time, the prima donna wasn't showing interest so the rat got brave and took a bite out of the snake's neck which caused the was-not-interested snake to pull back and WHAM! Dinner. The rat didn't puncture the snake that time.

Then, another time, my silly spider (who is such a bad shot!) struck the rat on the back leg, coiled, but left the rat's head free, so the rat took 2 big bites on the snake, but before I was able to intervene, the snake coiled up the rest of his body around the neck of the rat. It was wierd because usually, the snake only coils about 1/3 of his body, but this time, he was coiled up all the way to the tail! He had 2 bloody punctures. I was not happy. So now, I watch the rats with tongs at the ready.