Haha, I've never heard of the brain technique, and I hope that will be last resort after I have tried everything else! Umm, as for preparing the meals, I take them out the night before, and put them in the fridge. Then, about 5 hours before the meal, I let it thaw out on a counter. Then, what I used to do, was about 20 minutes before feeding, I would take the thawed rat and put it in a water-tight bag, then leave it in very, very hot water for about 20 minutes. The reason I stopped doing it that way was that I was afraid I was accidentally cooking the rat a bit, because sometimes when I opened the bag, a funky smell would pop out at me, other than the "dead rat" smell XD. So now, I do the exact same method, except substitute the soaking for about 15 minutes of using a hairdryer. And....no progress has been made with that either . So, if/when I actually get mice, I'll try the scenting method as well.

And, I literally haven't touched him besides for cleaning his cage, so nothing to worry about that. There hasn't been much to clean up anyways besides teeny little urates I found, not surprising since he hasn't eaten in 7 months. And yep, I feed him in his enclosure, which is a glass viv.