Oh and definitely listen to that first post. As your Ball python gets older it will be getting into larger prey items, and that means the risk of injury rises. When it's a baby, yeah you can feed it mice & rat pups with their eyes still closed and no harm will be done (for the snake's matter) since at that stage of a rodent's life they cannot see and that also means they cannot do anything so they can be left in with the snake for an extended period of time than you would leave (for example) an adult mouse in. But, as you get into larger prey items, definitely watch over because the rodents can and will eventually attack your snake if the snake did not try to constrict or kill it. Always make sure your snake has a good grip on it and the rodent's mouth is no where near at a point that it can bite the snake.