Thanks for the tips on the first aid kit, next time I am at the grocery store or pharmacy I will have to start picking some stuff up. I have never even heard of injuries bad enough to have maggots! I can't imagine taking on something like that, so I will definitely save that for emergency situations only. The nearest herp vet is about two hours away, but if he ever had anything serious enough to warrant something that major you better believe we would be on the road and sparing no expense to have him seen and get it corrected. He is absolutely invaluable to me, I couldn't imagine risking home treatment for anything major.

Fortunately he has had pure gorgeous white belly scales the whole time I have had him, but I will keep in mind that a bit of discoloration may happen. I hope to avoid it, but I won't fly off the handle if it comes up. His tank is cleaned religiously, I track everything and it gets cleaned and fully scrubbed down and sanitized once a month, or occasionally earlier if he has shed. I like to get rid of the scent post shed with a full tank cleaning to avoid any kind of compromised feeding pattern. Plus he usually makes a huge mess when he sheds, so it is usually warranted.

As for the thawing, yeah I usually move them from the freezer early afternoon on feeding day and leave them to thaw in the fridge until 9 pm or so before feeding. They are out warming for maybe 30 mins max in the sink (only if they are not quite fully thawed in the middle by feeding time) and then fed. If he doesn't eat them they get thrown out. I would absolutely waste a rat over risking any sort of illness for him so hopefully we will avoid issues there. I just read a post a couple days ago that seemed to list thawing rats in the fridge as something that people used to accept as perfectly fine but have since gotten nervous about doing. I may have misinterpreted the authors intentions with that example, but I figured better safe than sorry. Never hurts to check.