I feed 25 snakes a week on frozen thawed by using hot water in a tub. Between being a full time student 35 hours, working part-time 30-40 hours, and another 15-20 hours with my snakes I have no time what-so-ever for live.

Sure F/T is expensive but not much more expensive than having your own rats with a small collection. Rats take a ton of time, they stink, and they can be expensive. Just my 02. cents on the subject.

Back to the original subject. When I had a collection about the size of yours, I would portion up three medium rats per small zip-lock bag and the equivalent for anything smaller. Then I set them out before I head off to work so that when I come back they are room temp.(So 5-8 hours max) Then I just put them into a bucket of steaming hot water until they feel warm all the way through or read over 95 degrees with the temp gun.

Hope this helps!