Quote Originally Posted by BPBeth View Post
Any advise? Any insights? I realize that ultimately I may need to permanently separate them so I don't need that advise, I'm aware. But would appreciate any thoughts at this point.
I made it pretty clear in my original post that I had separated the snakes. And here (quote above) I make it pretty clear that I understood that the separation could well be permanent and that I wasn't really here looking for that pat response from fellow posters. Rather I was looking for some insights into the behavior itself and the paradoxes I described given how long they've been together. (I wasn't looking for low communication skill lectures about separating my snakes). I've been taking care of these guys for 16 yrs and I think I can realize what their needs are and when their needs change, and when their care needs to be modified, even if I don't know everything about why they do the things they do. I came here looking for insights and maybe someone who may have exp with same sex attempts at copulation.

BTW, the snakes haven't locked whatsoever.

Thanks for the input about dominance behavior.