A little aspen usually does no harm. Sometimes strikes are bad... but what gram size rat are you feeding to her live?
Just my opinion here, but rats, when larger sized, can be dangerous to the snake when fed live.
Again, my opinion, feeding live is great and I feed multiples of mice to reduce to almost nothing the chances of a bite.
Again, my opinion, my snakes who eat rats get them f/t....
Have I mentioned that these were only my opinions...?