Caring for young Scolopendra

[AzJohn]

I have three broods of Scolopendra viridis. One female has left her babies and they are starting to dispearse. They appear to be fully formed. They are still white but I think that might just be the species coloration at that size. I have had s polymorpha babies before, but I didn't know it untill they were running around the cage. They looked like smaller adults. I was wondering if they need to molt or somthing. I'm new at raising young pedes, so I have a few questions.
1. Should I seperate them now or wait a while?
2. Should I start feeding right away?

Thanks John

 

[cacoseraph]

you can always offer prekilled prey (split open a bit if it is much larger than your desired eaters)... i don't think the babies will eat before they are ready so if no one is working on the prekilled you can just removed it after 12h or whatever



i seperated a white polymorpha from its mom one time and it grew up fine. i think it even ate while it was white




one of the funniest things i saw with my centipedes was when i put a headcrushed but still running N. cinerea roach in with a mom with babies that were just on the edge of dispersing... at one point the roach was dragging 3-4 babies that were trying to eat it... and every time the roach neared a baby, the baby would rear up and start sweeping its antenna around like it couldn't quite get a good enough fix on the roach to go after it. the roach eventually stopped running and was fed on by most of the babies





edit:
as for when to seperate... i usually wait until the babies are in what i consider dispersal mode. the babies usually cluster on the mom, but then start exploring farther and farther from her.... when thy stop returning to her after exploring i usually consider that the time to start seperating them.

what is the size like on those, btw? i bet they are pretty little!

 

[AzJohn]

Thanks cacoseraph. The babies aren't really white they are more of a light yellow. They are small. I'm guessing about an inch. They still clump together now but are starting to explore more.

John