Help! Emperor hasn't eaten yet

[BigBadConrad]

Bought my first scorp, a 6" (stretched out) male Emperor 16 days ago. Sits under cork bark all day (of course), but noticed that at night he would either be under bark with pedipalps open (sign of hunger, right?) or he was active, trying to crawl up the walls alot. Left a couple cricks in there 1st two days and he had no interest in them. Removed cricks. Offered headless crick on tongs a couple nights later when he was out and prowling, but just turned and crawled away from it several times, then seemed annoyed. Offered headless large mealworm and he took it with his mouth parts for about 10 seconds, seemed to be working it with his mouth but didn't use claws, then dropped it and crawled away. I have tried cricks every couple days since, both w/tongs and just dropping them in live. Nothing.

Learning what some of my mistakes are as I go, mostly thanks to you all on this board. Brought it home in a large Kritter Keeper w/peat, a bark log and water dish and a 7W light in the lid. House is 72-77 degrees, so this was too cold, too dry (I'm in the desert). Four days ago I moved him to a spare room where I can close the door and vent to keep temp up, and then put together a 20L (I plan to add a couple more if I can get this one to eat) with the gravel/tube setup (2 watering tubes) and 3-4" of lightly pakced peat/potting soil mix (70/30), slightly sloped. Gave him 3 hides with a bigger bark log and some broken pottery, water dish, a clamp lamp w/60W 'blue daylight' bulb on low end (sitting on screen), and covered 80% of screen (everywhere but lamp) w/plexiglass to keep in moisture. Hope to post a pic tomorrow. Light is on a timer to go on/off w/the sun. Temp range is 80-84 degrees (can add heat pad if needed). Added about 48 ounces water last two days, and humidity still only 66% an hour after a misting. Damn it's dry here (and freaking hot - 116 on Sunday!). Offered another crick last night when he was out, no luck. Let it jump around all night and he still didn't eat it. I did see him take a good long drink though, and he is active again tonight. I don't know where he gets his energy LOL.

Should I be concerned? No physical problems or signs of bad health that I can see, but then it's my first one. Any insights into what I might be doing wrong? Humidity too low? I don't know what more I can do other than to add a waterfall or misting machine. Anything I should change in how/what/when I offer food? A small pinkie maybe? At least he can easily catch it if he wants it. The shop has offered to exchange him for another one in a couple days if he still hasn't eaten. Should I just do that?

Sorry for the length of this, but I wanted to cover all the bases I could think of.

-BBC

Update: looks like humidity is coming around. After adding half of the water a couple hours ago it's up to 85%, so that should be good.

 

[scorpio]

I just bought an emp too. At first, she wouldnt eat, but i used forceps, and annoyed her enough for about 5 minutes, and it finally sat down and ate a meal. Try this, because I dont think you are being annoying enough!!

 

[BigBadConrad]

Do you feed her at night? When already out or do you uncover her hide?

 

[scorpio]

No, I just fed her in a little bucket while wathcing shark week. I guess you could say it was dimmed. I imagine most scorps prefer the night. It seems like they get occupied with finding a dark spot sometimes.

 

[Richard_uk]

Hi BBC,
Your setup sounds excellent. Hunidity and temperature sounds perfect. Do you know what sex your scorp is? Males can be prone to fasting for long perionds of time. I wouldn't worry about it too much. If the scorp is active at night and resting in a hide during the day then it sounds like it is perfectly healthy. I wouldn't reccomend annoying it to get it to eat. This stresses the scorpion and can reduce there lifespan. Just keep adding a couple of crickets to the tank once or twice a week and remove any uneaten ones after a day or two. When he gets hungry he will eat them. Scorpions can go for many months without eating a thing.
One thing you may want to try is changing your variety of crickets. My emperor wasn't so keen on brown crickets so I changed to black cickets instead. Now it eats every single one I place in the tank!

Hope this is of some help,

Richard.

 

[BigBadConrad]

Richard,

Yes, it's a male. Hasn't been offered food for 2 days now. I have to go by the pet store in a few hours & think I'll get a small pinkie to try. Should I wait till sunset and put it just outside his hide?

Geez, less than a day after adding a bunch of water the humidity dropped to only 70%. Is this high enough? Damn desert.

 

[wsimms]

I would still work on the humidity a little, but I wouldn't get too worried. Have you tried pulling the rear legs off the crickets (yes I did pull wings off flies as a kid). I have also noticed that my guys prefer fat, mature crickets (esp. females) to immatures. Since I pull the rear legs off all of them, I don't think it's just a matter of cricket speed. I agree with trying some variety, though. A pesticide-free roach might be the ticket. My guys also seem to prefer Zophobas ("superworms") to Tenebrio (regular mealworms). I just lightly crush the heads of superworms (they have pretty strong jaws for a worm) so that they are still moving and dangle them in front of their chelicerae. If they are hungry they will take them. I have yet to find anything other than speculation that this causes any stress to them, certainly no more stress than hunger itself.

W

 

[Richard_uk]

I wouldn't rush out for the pinky just yet. I would just keep trying krickets for at least the next couple of weeks.
Since you are able to to tell what percentage of humidity is in the tank I am assuming that you have got a humidity dial. Where in the tank is it placed? Is it the kind that uses a pointer mounted on a small metal coil? If so, these are highley innacurate if placed in the wrong place. I bet you have it mounted halfway up the glass on the side with the heatlamp right?! If it is reading 70% there it is going to be MUCH higher at ground level where the scorps are. Is there any condensation in the tank at all? If so then humidity is fine (doesn't mean there is anything wrong if there isnt any though!!!).

 

[BigBadConrad]

It's a ZooMed gauge with velcro patch on back, I think the one you describe. I have it sitting on the substrate leaning on the glass on the end without the light, next to the flower pot hide he seems to prefer. I can see condensation below the substrate level only. I suspected this one is inaccurate since it read 50% when I unpacked it and set it on a table (couldn't have been more than 20% in reality). Can you recommend a better gauge?