Quote Originally Posted by treeboa View Post
This is the exact reason feeding in a separate enclosure is a myth. The only time I've ever used a separate enclosure was when two snakes were housed together. In 22 years I've been bit maybe a half dozen times because of snakes expecting food. I have to either leave the snake or do something to get it out of feeding mode EVERY TIME I feed in a separate enclosure. Another consideration with Ball pythons is that it's hard enough to get them to eat sometimes without putting them through handling stress right before a feeding attempt.
That, and that the notion of cage aggression disregards the animal's biology and normal feeding behaviour, and fails to distinguish that there's a pretty discernible difference between an aggressive/defensive strike and a feeding strike.

Safe to say unless you've been handling rats, your snake knows you aren't food.