Question about FLIR C2

Howdy, The Flir C2 uses a Lepton 80x60 thermal core with MSX blending. MSX combines the light visible image with the IR image and is largely worthless but is used to make up for a lack of thermal detail. 80x60 is a very poor thermal resolution for identifying rats unless you are 6 yards or less from them. I have owned the FLIR Lepton 2 (Flir One Generation 1) in 80x60. I currently own the Flir One Generation 2 which uses a 160x120 Lepton 3 thermal core. At four times the resolution unless there was a strong thermal gradient I do not believe I would be capable of spotting rats at 20 yards.

I believe you would likely be better with an IR illuminator. High resolution thermal equipment gets expensive quickly and you'll likely also get into ITAR equipment.

Very happy to help! I own some ITAR-grade NVGs as well (L3 warrior systems auto-gated filmless Gen3(+)) and considering them in the role you've described I still think the best favorable solution would be an active system around IR and you would pick up the reflect eye shine.