I've seen a rat attack a snake when introduced to a bin exactly once, in 4 years of feeding ball pythons.
In the vast majority of cases, a rat will not actually go after a snake unless it's left alone with the snake for hours. I drop rats in, observe briefly, and close the bin. I come back through and remove all of the uneaten rodents 10 minutes later. Some of my snakes absolutely will not eat if I have the bin open. What is ideal isn't always practical. I have some snakes that will eat anything you hand to them--FT off tongs, off the cage floor, live, whatever--as soon as it hits the bin, they grab it. Other snakes need privacy, and a bit longer to make up their mind.
It's absolutely not safe to leave live rodents in with snakes for long periods of time, but short periods of time aren't too terribly likely to result in anything drastic happening, other than an eaten rodent.
Even FT is not 100% safe, you know. Rodents have long, sharp teeth, and there have been rare incidents...but far more than just one...where snakes have died after eating because those teeth perforated their esophagus. We can't protect them from everything.
Ideally, they eat FT...but it's better for them to eat something, than to be offered FT and refuse more often than not. Some snakes just don't accept it well.
I've had more snakes find creative ways to minorly injure themselves on water bowls than I have seen injured by rodents.
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