We wait a good 48 hours before handling our snakes after feeding.
We feed mice for a few reasons....#1 they are far easier to get locally then appropriately sized rats....#2 we have pet rats and the kids would quite simply kill us LOL....#3 our snakes both take multiple mice and since they seem to be showing every indication of aggressive feeding (even on the 2nd mouse) and are growing, shedding and pooping regularily....why change what works.....#4 no one has ever shown me anything that convinces me that one small rat would be better for my snake than it's usual 2 decent sized mice.
The only thing we do a bit different is bring the feeder mice home and feed them up really well for a few days prior to feeding night. The pet store does keep them in pretty big groups so I think the extra days of good food w/o so much competition may help my snake get a better mousie meal.
We just started breeding our own mice so we will be able to better control their quality down the road.
~~Jo~~