There shouldn't be any problem with them choking on a tail. If you look closely at a snakes mouth they have a small tube on the bottom of their mouth that they use to breath when they're swallowing their prey.
I've seen some pretty funny ways of eating a mouse or rat before though. When I got my first ball python either the first or second feeding she took the mouse from the side and basically folded it in half getting it into her mouth lol. So looking at her you could see the tail on one side and the mouses head on the other. It was pretty funny to see.