Reptile & Amphibian Forums

I purchased a male black milksnake last january about this time.So without a hatch date I would guess a late 09, maybe Octoberish hatch date.
My question is its over a year old and still pretty small, has barely started a color change.From looking on google images and comparing hatch dates this guy should be almost completely black and well over two feet? Am I not feeding him enough? He is not even 2 ft long, maybe just over 18 inches.

Here is a pic of him I took today.I feed him the same as the corn and they are both about the same age.The corn is bigger too,not as thick but much longer..

What are you feeding him and how often? I have 2010 Hondos that I feed weekly and are 16 to 18 inches. People with more Milksnake breeding experience could probably speak more about runts and there average size if that is the case.

I have a very strong feeling that you are not feeding it often enough,and/or big enough meals. Make sure the prey is large enough to see a very noticeable bulge in their mid-section afterwards, but not so big they cannot get it down, or can BARELY get it down. This takes some experience to be able to tell exactly what is a good optimum-sized meal, and what is really too small. Many people just aren't really aware of just how much a snakes jaws can expand and easily consume a prey item. Just make sure with good-sized meals, the snake has access to mid 80 floor temps in ONE side of the enclosure only. This means you may need to adjust things like heat mat placement, and ventilation holes, etc..

Offer the snake a good sized meal similar to the pics below about every 5 days, and you will see a big difference in the snake's growth.

~Doug

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"a snake in the grass is a GOOD thing"

my website -serpentinespecialties.webs.com

First, I'd contact the breeder, and find out when and what year your gaigeae hatched out. Should be easy enough to find out.

I haven't seen an excessive amount of gaigeae but I'v seen a fair number of them. And I'm not aware of any that became fully black in their first year. Give you snake three years to reach its' full black stage.

As far as feeding goes, I fed mine once a week. They moved up from pinkie eaters to fuzzy, and then hopper eaters rather quickly. After the first year I started feed them on full adults every four days, and think I could have fed them every two days w/ out any refusals from the milks.

-Dell

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

I have seen quite a bit of variation in the rate of darkening in Black Milks, but most of them do eventually get black by the time they are 4-5 feet long.

There is clearly a lineage issue as well. Some lineages get blacker than others. I've seen some 6 footers that showed some pattern but my pair was jet black with no discernible pattern by the time they reached 5 feet. In this photo you can still see some light color on the face, but that eventually disappeared.

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Chris Harrison
San Antonio, Texas

Nice picture of a nice snake. I love seeing pics of well cared for captive snakes.
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“Nothing is at last sacred but the integrity of your own mind.” Emmerson

WWW.TDSNAKES.BLOGSPOT.COM

Thanks.I have always been a conservative feeder.Ive kept him on the same schedule as the boas/pythons so every 7-10 days.I will definitely bump up his feeding schedule.Ive been feeding him two mouse hoppers each time but these hoppers are very small(I bought a bag of 50 so need to finish them off)..
I dont necessarily want him huge but I dont want to underfeed him either. Just a good healthy size/wieght for his age.

I've been breeding black milks for about six years now and in my experience a yearling black milk should be a bit bigger than yours but I wouldn't sweat the color change at this age. Some start quicker than others but they should be mostly, if not all black by about two years. Some of my hatchlings come out at about 16-17 inches and take large pinks as their first meal and quickly bump up to two large pinks every 5-6 days. They would likely take more if offered.

As with buying any snake, ask to see pics of what the parents look like and their size. My adults are about 6 feet and jet black.

Rob

on Thanksgiving Day 2010 (2 months ago) and they appear to be about that size. Mine eat fuzzies every 4-5 days at this point.

I did not feed my adults heavy enough the past three years and they were a little small for 2006 animals (a little over 4 feet). My understanding at the time was that gaigeae was a cool weather species and needed smaller, less frequent meals. I was wrong. I'm feeding the heck out of the babies I have now and they are responding better than I ever imagined!

Feed 'em.

Michael