try feeding from tongs. i had a handful of missed strikes where the snake would slam its face against the side of the enclosure and i could clearly see that it made the snake uncomfortable to the point where it said "forget it, i'll eat next week". also on occasion the snakes have made bad grabs and left themselves open to be bitten until the rat died in its coils.

for a while i would just rap the rat up against the inside of enclosure to goof it up till the snake could finish it off but i always felt like crap about it. i knew it wasnt the right way to go about it.

i bought a pair of rubber-tipped 12" long tweezers that i use to pick the rat up by the scruff of the neck and hold them until secured by the snake. i havent had any bad grabs since starting this method.