Exactly what Doug and Dell said... food items can safely be slightly larger in diameter than the snakes body... I fed my Black Milk every 3 to 5 days until she a little over 3 years old after that it's been weekly for the most part... mine was also a "runt" as a youngster, always seemed too small in comparison to others, today at a little over 5 years old she's just shy of 6 foot so don't worry about yours being a slow starter, you never can tell.



Wouldn't worry about the slow change in color either, as Dell says very few turn black quickly, I've only seen one that was nearly black at 1 1/2 years of age... three is more realistic and even then you'll still be able to pick out some signs of bluish black bands down in the tail area if you look very closely... that's why most people will refer to their BM's as being 95 to 98% black



Not knowing who or where you picked it up from... it's possible it will never get to the giant size so many like in their BM's, also possible it will never get as black as you hope, genetics and all that science type stuff ya know... if you can contact the breeder, see if he has pictures of mom and dad, yours will almost certainly end up looking like them.



Up the feedings if need be, hard to over feed a BM in their first 3 years and be patient. I've only known one person that wasn't happy with how their BM turned out when it finally hit 3 years old



Gerry

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