# My vinegaroon had babies, now what?



## catcubus (Mar 19, 2014)

I was feeding my Dumpy Tree Frog this evening and decided I would see if my female vinegaroon would like a lobster roach as well. When I went to open her container, I noticed she had burred herself away in her hide. Thinking nothing about this, I went to lift it and saw that she had laid a large size egg case. Here, I always thought she was fat; I guess the shop owner was right when he said she might be pregnant!

At the moment, I'm unsure what to do now that she has that eggcase; she's my first vinegaroon and all the info I've found was how to feed them and what temperatures to keep them in. This is really exciting and terrifying at the same time! I don't have the foggiest idea what to do for her. Do I need to raise the humidity in her enclosure? Do I try offering her food? Is she going to end up dying once the babies hatch? How long until they hatch? Will they act like scorpion babies and hang out on her backside? Do I need to separate the eggcase from her? Or do I just close her container and not touch her at all for a month or so?

If anyone has any tips or useful information on how to care for her now that she's actually laid an eggcase, it'd be SUPER appreciated. 

I'd take photos, but I don't want to stress her out anymore than I have.. :cry:


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## klawfran3 (Mar 19, 2014)

I have never personally bred these myself (my babies are too young, but I sure as heck will when thy get older!)

From the things I have learned about their breeding habits, the female will usually refuse food for a few months until the babies hatch. Higher humidity is OK, but they will mould if you raise it too much, so just leave it as it is. When they do hatch out, they'll hang out on and around her until second or third instar, when it is safe to remove them from the mother. You should feed her as soon as the babies hatch, because she will be starving AND the babies will eat her food too. They have been known to pull the food from the mothers palps to eat. Make sure she gets enough to eat or she will die after they're born. What's best now is to keep an eye on her so there are no complications, but let Mother Nature take her course.

----edit---- vinegaroons are arachnids, so you will probably get a better response from the true spiders/ other arachnids part of the forum. If a mod sees this could they please move it over there?


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## Galapoheros (Mar 19, 2014)

I have just left them alone, she could be underground for months.  I had one that was with a sac, then babies for about 9 months.  But that one had the sac in the fall, it wintered underground with the babies until spring.  So imo the best thing to do it just let nature take it's course and don't let it dry out too much(the substrate).  No need to offer food.  It's not normal for them to walk around with the sac so if that happens, something is wrong.  They normally go underground, make a room and shut the door for a long time, ime anyway.  Since she is underground(?), it will be humid there if the soil is a little moist so no need to worry about the humidity above ground.  Vinegaroons are pretty cool imo, one the favs I used to keep, haven't had one in a while though.


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## RzezniksRunAway (Mar 20, 2014)

This has me mildly excited. Especially what you posted Galapoheros. My female was the "extra female" that someone didn't want, when they thought they got a pair. She's holed herself up in her burrow and barricaded the door. If I get babies I'll probably pee myself out of excitement. 

Super Congrats on it Catcubus! Pictures when they hatch, please. =)


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## catcubus (Mar 21, 2014)

Thanks for the suggestions so far! I have her container misted (not damp) and moved it near (not next to!) my DTF's heat lamp so she can leach off some of the warmth. I've been monitoring the temperature so it doesn't get too hot inside. Hopefully in a month's time I may see some babies crawling around. 

I do have a question, tho! Her container is actually the size of a plastic shoebox; should I move her (CAREFULLY!) to a bigger container when the babies hatch or will they have enough room to move around?


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## Tongue Flicker (Mar 21, 2014)

just leave it be as if you have a scorpion and prepare lots of pinhead crickets! congrats!


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## Mindibun (Mar 25, 2014)

I purchased a gravid M. giganteus by accident a while back and she had 30 or so babies without my expecting it. (I thought she was just fat and healthy!) I still have 26 of those little buggers and they're almost 11 months old. Starting to molt into their adult colors. Well, one already has, the others are prepping burrows. If you have any specific questions, just PM me. I still have mom and she's doing great. I keep mom at 75-80 degrees F and about 70-80% humidity, though it can get up to 90+% when I spray it down. The babies are at 75-80* F and roughly 60-70% humidity. They don't seem to like it as much as mom, who hangs out in her water bowl for fun. The babies keep away from the wet side of their deli cups until the surface has dried a bit. Mom doesn't seem to like worms and when I feed crickets I sometimes take the hopper legs off so she doesn't have to chase them for an hour. Sometimes I leave the legs because she needs the exercise and she's actually quite good at catching them when she tries -- that's part of why I bought her: I saw her hunting and was very impressed.  They're incredibly personable little things as far as bugs go. I'm amazed they're not more popular, though I do get that they're not the prettiest thing to look at. -lol- 

Here's the abstract from an article I came across today, just as some fun science facts if anyone is interested:

"The vinegaroon or whip scorpion Mastigoproctus giganteus gains water by drinking from a moist substrate and from its prey. These are found by the sensitive antenniform front legs. Large specimens readily lose water to the air at 26 degree at humidities up to 95% R.H. As temperatures increase they lose water in proportion to the saturation deficit of the atmosphere, suggesting the absence of an epicuticular wax layer. Desiccated vinegaroons respond positively to moist air in a humidity gradient, but show no preference between darkness and light. Substrate moisture does not affect the lack of such a preference by normal animals. Burrowing is characteristic of dehydrated individuals. By using their sensitive front legs these first detect nonhorizontal surfaces and, provided the substrate is moist, dig burrows against - and in nature most likely beneath - such surfaces so that further water loss is presumably avoided."

Cite: 
Crawford, C. S., & CLOUDSLEYaTHOMPSON, J. L. (1971). WATER RELATIONS AND DESICCATION-AVOIDING BEHAVIOR IN THE VINEGAROON MASTIGOPROCTUS GIGANTEUS (ARACHNIDA: UROPYGI). Entomologia Experimentalis Et Applicata, 14(1), 99-106. doi:http://dx.doi.org/10.1111/j.1570-7458.1971.tb00145.x


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