He didn't do it last year probably because he wasn't ready to breed at that time. They'll do it whether or not there's a female around, but it might be more likely to happen if there is one.
I've noticed two things and have talked to other breeders about this:
- If you haven't sexed them yet (which it sounds like you have), one way to guess is to follow feeding records after they change over. Males seem to stop feeding more often than females after the color change is done for the most part
- The pickiest, most pain-in-the-butt male (with regards to feeding anyway
) is usually the best breeder compared to one that eats every available meal. The same can be said about a lot of snakes to some extent...if you have an overweight snake, they're less likely to breed successfully
One of my ~2 year old males just came off of a feeding strike of about two months. He ate two weeks ago, but then refused food again last week...sometimes they just do that for awhile where they'll skip lots of meals and then take one with such force it looks like you've been purposely starving them or something.
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