Please do not take what I am going to say in a bad way (I know it's hard to "hear" people's connotation through a forum) but I already know all that. My question was if that was a sperm plug. You said they don't produce plugs, so my question is if the hemipenal shed is an indicator that he is physically ready. I know they can breed early and all that. And since we don't speak snake, I can't ask him if he's up for it. But I just wanted to know if that dried up stuff maybe he was producing sperm. I may be wrong, but I'm pretty sure they can't just produce sperm fresh out the egg. The same way humans, dogs, and many other animals aren't just born ready to go. They have to be ready physically and their internal clock has to be ready too.