well, i do get the "what if they don't eat" thing. We have 11 snakes, and when one won't eat, sometimes someone else will...and if not (or it's the wrong size) then we refreeze. If it's the right size that someone else may eat it...sometimes with the pythons or the dumeril's boas i'll leave it out over night, and most of the time they eat it...if not, it's nice and stinky for my "garbage disposal" snakes to eat it *lol*

I have only seen a snake's live feeding once...when i was at the pound, about to adopt the two balls they had. They had just put mice in to feed them (yup, a mouse for a 4 foot long ball python..they also had no water at all)...anyway...the first ball struck, and suffocated the mouse, and swallowed it down. The second was blind from eye cap build up, kept striking and missing, and when it did hit the mouse it got the butt...so when it wrapped around the mouse, the mouse bit and tore a scale off while i was watching. That snake was also too weak to kill the mouse (I named her Ribs, and at the time she weighed only a little more than a pound)...anyway, both those snakes are doing fine now...and i'm helping them recover. But that was the only life feed i've seen. It' looked really ineffective and it looks like just the slightest off bite and scales and blood fly.

But, they are rescues and both were dehydrated and undernourished.

Aha and in response to "it's more natural for them" and "they like the excitement" LOL
Okay so as an example, I have 4 snakes in-particular who have never had live food. Our girl ball python gets PLENTY excited for her dead rat ...LOL she is hilarious. She's so silly she wouldn't know what to do with something alive. A lot of the ones i have are preeeetty domesticated it seems. At least a couple of them actually strike. Our hognose, and our rescued corn snake just....start eating. It's actually pretty funny too.

I think i'm just pretty protective of my snakes. I'd be so worried the whole time they were striking and eating live food. I don't mind anything else eating live, since they can't get hurt. Oh and don't get me wrong...i'm an oddball girl. I've gone hunting with my dad, and even have a nice deer mount or two or three on his wall that he's proud of (the son he never had lol) but i would be so upset if my little snakey babies got bit or hurt.

There's a reptile show in January in Pamona, and i know i shouldn't go....but i do need supplies! And yeah maybe i'll be looking at snakes....maybe i'll find one....but i have to admit, that if they were eating live all the time it might be a turn off for me. It might depend on the snake, too though.

I suppose i might learn to feel different when i have like 30 snakes. Right now 11 is manageable for f/t lol