Never remove hides ever. Hides are places of security and cover. Removing them increases stress and levels of insecurity. What time of day are you attempting to feed? Ball pythons are nocturnal hunters so during the day and even into evening might not be the opportune time. Personally I would never drop a rat into a cage to allow it to roam free in any non venomous snake. My preferred method would be to prekill the rodent right before offering but some people are not capable of dispatching prey so I would not offer until your snake starts to exit his hide and then only dangle the prey in front of him, never drop it suddenly. That's me and it might not work for you. I also no longer feed live for convenience (can't find live rodents near me) and safety (too many time snakes get hurt with larger prey).
Is there a reason you are still needing to feed live prey? Does your snake not accept frozen thaw or prekilled? That can happen and no judgement on you just trying to understand the necessity for feeding live prey.
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