I should say I have 9 other ball pythons, a boa and a corn. I feed them by putting the rats in a plastic bag and stick them in super hot tap water, dumping out the water and heating them up again if the water has gone cold. I know ball pythons hunt with sight, heat and smell. I use tongs with all my snakes. She is the only one that eats live. I have a sugar who was also on live but being young, I easily transferred her over the F/T. I have couple of other snakes that were the same but this paticular BP has been fed live her whole life for all i know and she wont take F/T.