i feed live exlusively, had a mouse attempt to bite ONCE, stopped that with tweezers, the chances of them getting a serious bite in, with the 25-30 seconds of life they have left are very slim, 99% of the time the prey is a little more focused on trying to breathe, i supervise the whole feed until the prey is fully swallowed, it seems some people drop the prey in and wait 10 mins then act, from the pages i've read in this thread just the impression i got, a snake is a very effective predator, prey items around here don't stand a chance