Not much chance getting it to eat on the floor. They need privacy when they eat. Get you a small tuperware container and poke holes in the top, put the snake and food in it, cover it with a towel, cut the lights off and leave it alone. If the prey is prekilled leave it as long as you need to, if live make sure you lift the towel and check on it every 10 minutes or so. As for the myth...I don't think so, part of the feeding mode is smelling the food. Do you smell like a rat? I feed all my snakes in their living enclosure. Just always pick him up from behind.

www.fbballpythons.com