I always feed my snakes frozen thawed, I have no issue with feeding live but find frozen to be far more convenient and less risky for the snake. The way I see it is that 99.9% of the time, the snake will take down it's prey without so much as a scratch, it's what they were born to do. But then there is that .1% of the time where the snake gets a poor hold and the prey has a chance to fight back. I've seen wild milk snakes with horrific scars and can easily imaging that sometimes, just sometimes, the rat wins.
As far as strike feeding goes, most of my snakes will bite and wrap if the prey is presented on tongs, and I encourage them to do so as I feel it helps build better muscle tone and strength. If they are shy and won't take it I simply leave it in so they can eat it later.
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