I also have been feeding live for some time but keep in mind that the bigger the rats get the more vicious they can be and if your ball decides not to eat on that day and just strikes at the rat, the rat will get annoyed enough and decide to attack your snake and thats that, so if feeding live make sure youre there to step in just in case this happens. I breed my own rats and i have seen them get particularly angry to the point where no matter what i do they just want to kill me...good job on the 1st live feed and good luck.