>>...as long as my animals are healthy and 100% intact I will not change my mind.

Sounds like you'll be an "after"... (Some of us switched to pre-killed "before" one of our snakes lost an eye, and some of us switched "after".)

Until recently, I would have said that it was no problem to feed live to rattlesnakes because they strike and let go. That was before I put a live mouse in with a mojave rattler and watched the following:

Mouse wanders around cage
Snake pursues mouse
Snake bites mouse
Mouse flies up in the air
Snake retreats to one end of cage
Mouse lands at other end
Mouse looks around for a second
Mouse RUNS to the other end of the cage and starts biting snake on the side
Snake strikes again
Mouse lands halfway across cage
Mouse runs straight back over and continues biting snake until mouse dies

It happened that the mouse was not able to penetrate the scales on the snake's side, the eyes and the mouth are not as well protected...

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