I tried holding a baby mouse by the tail with tongs, it's very painful for the mouse and they squeal real loud, I won't do that again. I also held a mouse by the tail over my snake and the mouse got real mad and bit my snake on the nose, I wont do that again. Most of my snakes will take a live mouse instantly, especially after the third or fourth live mouse after they figure out how tasty they are LOL. Now if they don't eat within 30 seconds to a minute or so they don't eat for that week and I move to the next snake. For me the good thing about live food is that if the snake doesn't eat the mouse / rat you can save it for another day, unlike frozen thawed, which have been frozen for weeks / months then thawed for a couple hours and isn't really good enough to refreeze after one offering, I can't even count how many I tossed in the trash, such a waste. The hardest thing about feeding live is that if the snake doesn't get a good grip on the mouse and the mouse can bite the snake you may have to use a stick to put in the rodents mouth for a minute or two while the snake does his thing, happened to me once already. I actually used the dull end of my knife, probably best to have a popsicle stick around just in case. I actually got a bit too close at first and the mouse bit my finger, luckily he didn't break the skin! In this case the mouse was actually biting the back of the snake and the snake could feel it, a pretty tough situation. Luckily I was watching closely. I also used to put the mouse in the tub and close it up and let the snake do his thing, I won't do that again...
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