Rats Appear To Have Ticks

[HighFlyer]

I have about 10 frozen small rats. I defrosted 1 to feed to my bp's and noticed several small orange spots on the rat. On closer examination under a magnifying glass they appear to be some type of insect - ticks I believe rather than mites. The rats have been frozen for about 1 week. I was given them live - I did not notice any ticks on them when they were alive.

Question re bp's:

I fed 3 rats to 2 of my 3 bp's before I froze the rest of them. I assume that the rats had the ticks while they were alive even though they weren't visible. Should I be concerned about this? If so, what should I do?

Questions re frozen rats:

1. What should I do to remove the ticks from the frozen rats?
2. Or can I use the rats now that they have been frozen for about a week?
3. Or do I need to wait a longer period of time to insure that the ticks are dead?
4. Or should I not use the rats for the bp's since I don't want to introduce ticks (frozen or not) into the bp's?

Thanks!