Insert criticism here.YES YOU CAN! 2 stories to share....
#1. I have a female ball that I've fed live medium rats to for 3+ years. My routine is to take her out of her cage to feed her, put her in the bathtub where the food is waiting for her. She knows that bathtub = food. As soon as she's in the bathtub I stay away because she's ready to strike. It took a while for her to figure this out, but she knows it now.
So recently the nearby pet store where I bought live rats closed and it's been a pain to get them. I'd contemplated going with pre-killed but I really don't like keeping dead rats in my freezer or thawing them. So I thawed a piece of raw chicken and then put her in the bathtub. She quickly got into "striking position" of course. I used tongs and dangled the chicken strip over the edge of the tub for her and she immediately struck at it, constricted around it, and then held it for a number of minutes until it was obviously dead, and then swallowed it. SUCCESS! I do plan on giving her rats as well however she'll eat a lot of chicken as well. I may also try to give her a whole fish. Note: I also warmed an egg, smothered it in the chicken to add a scent, and left that in the tub for her as well but she wasn't interested in that at all.
#2. When I was a poor college student I bought a beautiful 7' Red Tail Colombian female for $60. She was fantastic. I'd buy her a large rat from the pet store to kill and eat. While she was swallowing the back end of the rat I'd take her and push a thawed (raw) chicken drumstick down right after the rat. She got a sizable meal and I was spending less on food for her. She never complained....although I'm sure I'll pick up some criticism for that one in the comments to follow.
I agree with what others have said...snakes need more than just chicken meat to be healthy.
I'm just kind of speechless at this whole post. You revived a 7 year old thread for this.