update:
I switched him over to XS-sm rats after his last shed about 6 weeks ago and noticed today he is in blue! I was not expecting him to shed for another month or more. did the switch from rats cause him to grow much faster than before?
also, he ate on the 26th. when looking him over today I saw a few small scale injuries, likely from the way he grabbed his rat allowing him to struggle a bit. I thought maybe that would cause a faster shed cycle to expedite healing but that was literally 2 days ago. so maybe not.