H. spinifer

[Monstrance]

I've looked throughout the scorpion forums to find anything similar to this, but I can't seem to find anything that quite covers this topic. If I need to delete this thread, please tell me.


I have had an H. spinifer female since June, and recently she seems to be putting on a lot of weight. I feed her two crickets weekly, which is what I've been instructed to do by several care sheets, but I was wondering if this is too much? I've also read that gaining weight could be a premolt sign, but she is an adult female (as I was told) and I know they don't molt nearly as much as juveniles, so I don't think it's premolt. The only other thing I could think of was that she was somehow pregnant, but I'm also not sure if that's possible since she was in her own tub when I purchased her and seemed to have been like that for some time. However, I did not buy her directly from a breeder, and there's a possibility she could have been around other scorpions before coming to the store I bought her at.

Her tank temp is currently around the mid 80s (mid 26s) and she has high humidity as well as burrowing space and places to hide.

I can't currently upload pictures at the moment, but as soon as I'm able to (which should be sometime tonight) I will.

 

[G. Carnell]

Hey

1. they cant over-eat, they will eat until full and then top up when hungry
2. the pregnancy period for Heterometrus is usually around or over 9 months, so from June to August she just ate a few crickets
3. adult scorpions don't moult (some scorpions can mate at subadult stage though)
4. if it was wild caught, its most likely pregnant, so its a guessing game as to when it'll give birth, you should feed it until its full if you think its pregnant
this will reduce the chance of her eating babies/being stressed/etc
5. good temp, good humidity, availability to burrow is great - don't disturb her too much! though if you feed her until full, she will be a pet rock!