I've heard of other breeders doing this, and I tried it once. Neither the breeding male nor the breeding female seemed to acknowledge the nonbreeding male. Everytime I introduced the breeding male with the nonbreeding male, it didn't seem like the breeding male cared about the other at all. The last thing I tried was popping the nonbreeding male to make sure sperm plugs were exposed (I tried to pop the big breeding male as well, but he was too large), and then put the nonbreeding male with the breeding male. To my surprise, the breeding male started combating for the first time with the nonbreeding male after he had ignored him so many times before. The nonbreeding male did not combat, he only tried to flee. I was concerned it would be detrimental to the nonbreeding male so I removed him after 5 minutes. The next day the nonbreeding male was locked for the first time. I tried putting the nonbreeding male with different females after he locked with the first one, and he didn't seem interested in either of the two other females I put him with, then I noticed he was going into shed.
Possible Outcomes:
- Popping the males and introducing them helped the nonbreeding male begin breeding.
- Introducing males had no effect, just coincidental timing.
- The male bred because he only liked that female and never liked the others.
- He wouldn't breed with the other females because he was going into shed.
I'll know more when he's done shedding and I reintroduce him to females he had no interest in in the past. Hope this experience helps a little.
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