I've never had any problems with feeding live. If you know what you're doing you can prevent bites. I use tongs or forceps to either hold the rats back legs back so they can't scratch or hold the head back, whichever seems to be more important for the situation. By the way Crawly's Mom, that is nothing. I have seen much worse damage ie all of the skin from the neck gone, multiple severe bite wounds. There's a picture of this online but I won't post it here mostly because I don't want to see that again. My first ball python (Captain Hook) was a rescue. When I got her she had mouth rot, she was dehydrated, she had pneumonia, she had multiple bite wounds and she had mites. This is the result of very poor care by an irresponsible owner, not just live feeding. Also she has broken her jaw because she at some coconut bark/shavings while eating a large meal. Her jaw was halfway down her throat, it was horrible and she didn't eat for two months. I was heartbroken and I thought she was going to die. Anyways I feed live mostly as a personal preference, I like their lives in captivity to be as natural as possible.