It might be worth your while to switch to rats, feeding 3-4 live mice in one sitting takes a lot of effort on the snakes part. They have to constrict and swallow up to 4 meals rather then one. It takes a lot of physical effort for them to kill their prey. Imagine flexing all the muscles in your body for up to 5 minutes. That is hard work!

If you want to try f/t, go for it. There really is no difference to the snake. If you offer the prey correctly, he should strike and coil just as if it were live prey. If I find my snakes getting lazy, I will hang on to the rodent and wiggle it for a minute to get them to constrict more.