I agree with Will. Feeding dead is the only way to go. I know for a fact that PetCo sells a product called mice on ice. They come in packs of 3 and its about 3 bux. You can wack the mouse and dangle it by the tail in the tank with some tongs. As far as a snake taking a mouse backwards, there is nothing harmful in it, i have seen ball pythons take prey in weird ways. I even saw a BP take a live pinky while it was still alive. Feeding 2 mice at the same time could harm your snake by letting air get into the stomach between feedings. Feed only one appropriately sized prey item at a time. I do feed in multiple sometimes when I can't get my hands on a rat but i seperate the feedings by a few days. If you are squeemish about killing the mouse you really need to get over that pretty quickly becuause you cant feed mice all the time. Your ball python will get bigger and a couple of mice just wont do it and you will have no choice but to switch to rats.