Simon's f/t rat pup managed to pop a leak after nothing unusual in the thawing process. It wasn't that horrible until Simon dragged it all over his enclosure, leaving blood pools on top of a hide and smeared all over the glass. That was kind of gross. What causes this without any obvious trauma? Were my water temps (for thawing) too hot? I tried searching with various terms, but I didn't find anything related to this topic. In previous threads, I've seen mention of something like this, but I can't summon up the keywords to find those threads.

Essentially, the f/t rat pup looked normal while frozen. After thawing and trying to dump it out of the baggie, it presented with a smallish hole in the abdomen with a small bit of "guts" poking out (I noticed the blood in the baggie). I still gave it to Simon, because I figure he won't care if the guts are sticking out a tiny bit, but I guess I forgot that he might "fight" with it and squish even more "goodies" out. His enclosure now looks like a massacre has taken place, because "Special Simon" has been trying to eat his f/t rat sideways for about an hour. He'll definitely eat it, but he's made a horrible mess of his enclosure. His hides, the glass, the bedding...all bloody and gross, lol.

Anything I can do to avoid the Rat Gut Explosion in the future?