Up until a month or so ago I was feeding live. I have 2 balls. My older male, has been a picky eater. When we got him, he ate mice but preferred African soft furs. When our local pet shop couldn't keep up stock we'd use mice. Then he started refusing. And fasted for a month or so. About the same time we got a female, just a little 80 gram baby. She ate live weekly, and killed like a killer. Scary almost, how efficient she was. She has since grown like a weed and outweighs the older male by at least 300 grams.

We decided to feed them both rats, the female because she was getting bigger and needed prey larger than a mouse and the male because, why not see if he eats it and breaks his fast. Totally worked. Both on rats since. But the female was attacked by one when left alone for a bit too long due to my negligence at the time. No serious damage, but it was the last time a live rat has been with either of them.

We have someone that has been breeding rats and providing us with a couple every couple of weeks (I moved from trying to feed weekly to every 2 weeks with great success), and when the time comes I kill them quickly and feed them out. Interestingly, the male has been the most aggressive with getting his meal now than he was when they were live. Maybe the 2 week schedule was the key, i don't know. I just know he tries to snatch the dead rat from my hand before I can let go.