How to? Kill?

[CloudtheBoa]

The most humane, quickest way to kill a rat is cervical dislocation. Grab the neck at the base of the skull with one hand and the base of the tail with the other, and give a steady, firm pull. If done right, the rat will die instantly, and in my experience will have little to no twitching.

The only way you'll stop your snake from getting injured is by offering fresh-killed or f/t, even stunned prey can injure/kill your snake. The key to switching is persistence. It took me 1.5 years to switch my ball python to f/t from live, which he ate live for ~6 years of his life, so I was very late to the game, and he has changed how he prefers to be offered f/t several times (he used to get scared when I dangled the rat/mouse, now he gladly takes them from the tongs). Just keep at it and try many different ways and you'll eventually get her to eat f/t, if you want to switch her. Ball pythons can be supremely picky in how they eat, especially when trying to get them to switch from live.