Yes, they need to be separated... You're going to need another male to keep the original male company for the next 6-8 weeks(birthing, rearing, weaning and rest for mom).

It's going to be alot of work and you're going to end up with rats coming out your ears for one snake. Why not just buy F/T and use what you need? Or buy one prey item a week from the pet store...

If you have 10+ snakes, I might understand, but even I have 35 Balls and still buy f/t cause it's cheaper and the snakes do fine on it.