Keep in mind the UTH will not do anything for ambient temperatures. Try and avoid a night drop in temperture if you can, you want to try and maintain ambient temps around 77-85 degress.
One suggestion when feeding live, be on standby with an obect you can stick in th rats mouth incase it gets in a position where it can bite your python. I would recomened something like an unsharped pencil or a pen with the lid on. You don't want anything too pointy or sharp.