are my snakes *happy* or trying to mate?

I was bringing up that fact from what I've read in the VPI's book, but I don't have it in front of me so I didn't include it as an exact quote, as there is always the small chance I read it wrong. Kara has said it better than I could anyways :)

Maybe if you carry the eggs in your pocket you'll get a 400% hatch rate... :confuzd:...

A 200% hatch rate would mean that you've hatched twice as many eggs as you had.
Somehow, unless you're implieing that if you let the mom incubate the eggs, every egg turns out twins somehow, I don't understand the numbers.
I've heard from several people maternally incubating without success. I know some people do it successfully, but I prefer to artificially incubate myself. I like to get mom eating as soon as possible, and I prefer controlling the temps and all a bit more precisely.

Quote:

---

Originally Posted by nathanledet

Maybe if you carry the eggs in your pocket you'll get a 400% hatch rate... :confuzd:...

---

No thats 300% hatch rate :rolleyes: :rolleyes:

many people who allow the females to incubate their eggs have the same success rate as aritificial incubation. obviously females are great at managing their clutches but in captivity the keeper must regulate the temperature and humidity levels in the enclosure to allow the female to be successful.

personally im going to artificially incubate the eggs and am hoping for a 100%-310% hatch rate because i dont have big enough pockets for a 400% hatch rate!

oh ya and when housing bps they should be housed seperately.

everyone gave some good reasons so all im going to say is read a book!

I think the egg incubation thing has gone slightly off-topic (though it's an interesting topic in and of itself). To the OP: you've been given good information already by members of this site about what's going on with your BPs.

You love your pets, and so I think you'll be willing to do what needs to be done to keep them safe and healthy. A pre-mature breeding on your younger female (if you have one of each sex) could injure or kill her. If the sexes are reversed and the larger snake is a female and you do get a clutch of eggs, are you prepared to care for several new hatchlings months from now? Do you have space to keep them all separately when they hatch or were you planning to also house any possible babies with their parents (also not a good idea)? If you don't have the space, do you have a plan to find them all new homes with responsible keepers?

If you've been seeing locks between them, and more than just the dominating behavior, then you could be facing the questions above. I, like many others here, would suggest separating them.