This video is of my pet royal (Ball) python dispatching a prey item. Although not a video i would have put up (i find it in bad taste as i know some sick people will watch it to enjoy the suffering of the rat) I decided to anyway so i could highlight the dangers of live feeding. If you watch the video you will see that My snake (Vergil) struck from a very small strike range completely missing the face and biting under the arm this led to a rather more violent struggle than usual and also resulted in the rat's mouth and teeth being uncomfortably close to Vergil's body. That was a day i could have lost my beloved pet to bad feeding techniques.

NEVER FEED LIVE UNLESS ABSOLUTELY NECESSARY!!.

(sorry about the quality. It was filmed on my phone and i had a cold)

Vergil was bought as an adult at 3 years old and his previous owner fed him nothing but live food. When i bought him i owned him for nearly 20 months before i relented and tried a live one. I tried everything from frozen to scented and yes even brained and gutted rats nothing worked so i did what was necessary to keep my snake alive. (less info)