Is live feeding really that dangerous?

[Spiritserpents]

I wish you luck with your temperament experiment, but I'm honestly in doubt as to whether snakes have the proper mental hardwiring for true 'domestication'. Usually domestication involves a component of social dependence on humans for food or shelter, and I just don't know if I think snakes
have the capability to truly connect those things with us. I think you could definitely breed for bolder/shyer/calmer/whatever snakes, but I'm not sure if it would really qualify as domestication in the true sense of it since they can't really be 'social' with humans. (Not saying they can't interact, but I don't believe they have the capability to think of things that aren't in their immediate environment; like I honestly believe I cease to exist to my snakes once I leave the room)

I'm breeding specifically for docility, which I figure is about as close to 'domesticated' as something like a snake or fish is going to get. I doubt many people consider Oranda goldfish, for example, to be anything but 'domesticated', partly because we've made them entirely unsuitable to live in the wild.

My foundation sire is so crazily calm that you can lift his lips up to show off his teeth and he doesn't react at all, before/during/after. He's my go-to snake for interactions with people who are nervous about snakes, even though he's also my largest at 5'6". The babies he sired last year were much calmer than my typical hatchlings and I kept back the least reactive girl, who also happens to a moose in the making like her dad.

Re: prefering live-

Not always. Not even mostly. My first corn snake freaked the 'f' out when I stuck a live rat pink in with him once. He takes f/t like a champ, and always 'kills' it. Most of mine will happily take f/t from my fingers. I think it partly depends on the species, how long its ancestors have been in captivity (there were early issues with some corn lines being lizard eaters and switching them to rodents was a pain... kinda like the issues hoggies have/had), and individual temperament.