Emperor scorp food

C0kaCoLa

Arachnosquire
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What are the things that emperor scorps will eat?? I am not buying crickets because they always sell about 10 crickets a time and i only have 1 emperor scorp with me. Most of the time 9 crickets go to waste so i want to catch some live creatures for it. What can i offer that my scorp will eat?? Do they eat dragonfly, moth, grasshopper, beetles?
 

Thaedion

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I've fed my emperor WILD caught crickets & grasshoppers... and I've seen in videos people feeding them moths, meal worms and a mouse :eek: . Anything wild caught does have the chance of parasitic introduction though...

If interested, you can get a small 'critter keeper' and set it up to house your crickets, I do that. I buy a dozen or so and in the two to three weeks I use them up and only lose a few. But that is a whole other setup and caring.

Hope you have a good day, Thaedion :cool:
 

quiz

Arachnoprince
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just feed your emp 10 crickets in 1 shot and then just feed it again after 3 weeks.
 

C0kaCoLa

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lol.. if i can feed it even 2 crickets ill be happy.. the problem is that my emp doesnt even eat 1 cricket in a few days.. maybe its getting old.. or do u have any trick to make it eat 10 in a day?
 

Thaedion

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I used to do that, I'd buy 12 and drop them all in (I had 3-4 scorps in the tank). They would eat them over the course of a week, but I would lose several to the 'water dish' and the crix would cannibalize each other (and as I've read, but never encountered, chew on the scorp). :D

Anyhow, as I've also read on this forum emperors (and others) do fast from time to time. Mine right now are fasting, they have been offered but refused crix for a couple weeks now. ;)
 

C0kaCoLa

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i have only 1 emp and i dont know if it can handle 10 crickets.. Anyway, i read that if there were a lot of cricket, they would disturb the scorpion and make it stress. And also im worried that the crickets would $hit all over the place because from my observation, they like to $hit all over.. right?
 

C0kaCoLa

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and also is there any hint if the scorpion is on fasting mode or not?? because if i keep buying crickets and its not eating it will be a lot of waste..
 

EAD063

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How much are you paying for crickets? They are 10 cents a piece where I'm from and because I've been a long time customer, they usually take the scooper and just dump a ton in the bag, I usually ask for a dozen and get between 20 and 30. I feed as many as they will take... usually drop in about 3 per scorpion and then take the rest and dump them outside.... no harm done and it only costs $1.20

Thaedion... I've rarely seen a cricket biting a scorpion, but one of the pinkies I fed was making CRAZY amounts of noise one night, I decided to check it out, and there was 3 crickets biting the heck out of it... I could actually see their teeth pinching at the skin of the pinky. Not to mention one of the buggers bit me the other day when I was getting a cricket from the scorp tank to go into the spider jar, I subsequently threw it onto the tile floor, no one bites me.:embarrassed:
 

C0kaCoLa

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i know there's no harm in buying more.. but i feeel sad for those crickets who died for nothing...
 

FOOTBALL FAN

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Crickets lifespans are between 8 and 10 weeks anyways, don't feel too bad, lol.
I dont know about that mate, I have had some for months that I bought as pin heads and they got too big for my slings so I just kept feeding them and they got bigger and bigger there still alive now.

to the op, be careful with wild caught prey personally I dont think its worth it I wouldnt risk it myself I value my tarantulas too much, for the sake of a couple of pounds. I know people that have had Ts die after feeding them wild caught prey
 

Thaedion

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Thaedion... I've rarely seen a cricket biting a scorpion, ...
EAD063 I've just read how they might feast on a newly molted scorpion, that's what I was referring to.

be careful with wild caught prey personally I dont think its worth it I wouldnt risk it myself ... I know people that have had Ts die after feeding them wild caught prey
That is another good point, I was watching a survival show and 'he' was eating grasshoppers and mentioned how they contain parasites, and you should remove the heads and digestive tract before consuming. And I felt it also too risky for my pets just to save a few cents. :p

and also is there any hint if the scorpion is on fasting mode or not?? because if i keep buying crickets and its not eating it will be a lot of waste..
If you search the threads for "fast, fasting, or my scorpion is not eating" you might find a lot of info... The info I gained is that some scorps could go nearly a year without eating. Mine haven't touched any crix for nearly 3 weeks. I just fed one a roach yesterday since he was at the entrance to it's hide with chelae poised open and 'looking' hungry. {D

Thaedion
 

EAD063

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I dont know about that mate, I have had some for months that I bought as pin heads and they got too big for my slings so I just kept feeding them and they got bigger and bigger there still alive now.

to the op, be careful with wild caught prey personally I dont think its worth it I wouldnt risk it myself I value my tarantulas too much, for the sake of a couple of pounds. I know people that have had Ts die after feeding them wild caught prey
I've heard keeping them cooler than normal will make them last longer... They still live VERY short lives, I would assume a small percentage of all species live less than a year. I don't agree with feeling bad for things dieing though... that's what everything that lives eventually does. :) But like I said before, I just let them go when the store gives me too many. No sense in worrying about one not making it, theres more important things going on. :) I guess I'm just too easy going. {D Although if I was that concerned, I'd just make a setup for the crickets, who knows, might even get lucky and end up with a few more than you started with. Or find a petsore that will just give you one or two a week.
 

Mr. Mordax

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My two cents: When I first got my emps, crickets would mysteriously disappear after a few days. I got tired of trying to rear them though because the soil kept drying out, they stank, and they kept me up at night (and nearly alerted dorm RAs to my hobby!).

I tried switching to Blatta lateralis this summer, which worked great for FunnyLori's tarantulas and my mantis . . . but my scorps refused. I figured they were just fasting -- I hadn't seen them eat for over three months, and the roaches found inaccessable nooks and crannies to hide in. But I had problems with the roaches not breeding and dying off, so I tried mealworms. And the scorps accepted them! My calm female took them from her pedipalps when I offered, and my aggressive male would nibble them when I rubbed his chelicerae with them (otherwise, the darn things would burrow away).

So, CokaCola, I would suggest mealworms. They don't stink or chirp, they're cheap, and they're easy to rear. I just keep mine in a KK with Total breakfast cereal (I know a grad student who raised his mealworms on it that he needed for his thesis).

Though, if you try this, put something between lid and tub or you'll wind up accidentally rearing meal moths. I'm still trying to get rid of those.
 

Thaedion

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So, CokaCola, I would suggest mealworms. They don't stink or chirp, they're cheap, and they're easy to rear. I just keep mine in a KK with Total breakfast cereal (I know a grad student who raised his mealworms on it that he needed for his thesis).

Though, if you try this, put something between lid and tub or you'll wind up accidentally rearing meal moths. I'm still trying to get rid of those.
I agree with IHeartMantids statement! And as a side note to this method, as they mature and keep the cycle advancing... and you get more than you could feed off to your pets... place the critter keeper in the refrigerator to slow the process down. :p
 

FOOTBALL FAN

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what about lobster roaches they are prolific breeders cheap and quiet and as long as you dont leave rotting food in with them they wont smell either, wax worms is a good idea as well most Ts and scorps will eat a wax worm, up until yesterday my scorp hadnt been eating I was starting to get a bit worried so I went out and got him some wax worms and he eat straight away
 

Dom

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You could see if your scorp will eat dead food. That way you could freeze them and feed as you see fit. I've raised my emps from birth to 6I on dead B. lateralis and now dead B. dubia. One adult B. dubia is several or even a dozen crickets by weight.
 

EAD063

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Roaches do seem to be the popular food of choice on the boards.... plus it looks cool when they eat them.
 
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