How to lessen the odds of a desert hairy Scorpion dying of molt?

[gromgrom]

Havent had a brood in about a year, I'm hoping for another!

I tend to keep them on a sand/coco mix.

 

[JavaJacketOC]

Great post! I feel bad about how I'm keeping my adults now, lol. I'll be setting up more burrowing options for them this weekend.

Yes i have to agree the easiest way to avoid molt issues with any hadrurus species is to buy adults and because alot of people seem to doubt my setups that did work for me ( and didnt work for others ) im reluctant to post my methods anymore.....although 1 of my best attributes i possess is i love to help people ... so here goes
I used play sand , excavator clay , aquarium gravel , chunks of broken sea shells as my substrate about 2 inches deep. I used clear solo cups that had 1/3 of a side cut off buried under the substrate with tiny holes poked through it for water to drip through ( this was to simulate the conditions where my cousin found all of my specimens in scrapes under creosote bushes ) i asked him to bring me a few small bushes to use but all the plants died or got mangled on his way to Pa from AZ. The cup idea was crude and not appealing to look at by any means but everytime i found a newly molted juvie - it was inside 1 of the " humidity dome" solo cup hides. I added about a 1/2 cup of water once a week to each cup on top straight through the substrate and misted over top seashells and other rocks to create tiny pools of water for them to drink if they were out and about.
I kept them this way for over 10 years and had great success ( and had no idea of the troubles most people had with them until i joined AB a few years back) this was the species that started my passion for scorps over 20 years ago and because of hadrurus - im still keeping scorps now.
Even though this method worked well for me after i sold my tanks + hadrurus to a friend who kept them relatively the same way i did - he failed miserably and sold them to keep bearded dragons (which meant i couldnt even use the tanks again for scorps )
Heres a couple pics ( sorry theyre not great quality but they are scans of old polaroid pics )
View attachment 252252 View attachment 252253
There were occasional fights between tankmates but i never had a death occur so i left them together. If there woulda been a death - i wouldnt have kept them communally. Hope this helps if you do purchase any hadrurus

 

[ArizonaAmanda]

Thank you very much that you're sharing your experience once more .

I don't quite understand the solo cup thing.. could you explain more in detail?

 

[darkness975]

I don't quite understand the solo cup thing.. could you explain more in detail?

@Scorpionluva did what I was talking about in your other thread. Basically providing a moist area for them to go to if they wanted higher moisture but also make sure they have the ability to go to dryer areas. Being stuck in too moist conditions is bad. I know constant humidity that I can't escape from bothers my sinuses, never mind an animal that is used to being able to burrow away from it or towards it in nature .

It's kind of like when keeping leopard geckos, you provide them a moist hide to go in to help with shedding though they come from Desert regions and thus not High in ambient humidity.

 

[ArizonaAmanda]

@Scorpionluva did what I was talking about in your other thread. Basically providing a moist area for them to go to if they wanted higher moisture but also make sure they have the ability to go to dryer areas. Being stuck in too moist conditions is bad. I know constant humidity that I can't escape from bothers my sinuses, never mind an animal that is used to being able to burrow away from it or towards it in nature .

It's kind of like when keeping leopard geckos, you provide them a moist hide to go in to help with shedding though they come from Desert regions and thus not High in ambient humidity.

So is anything in the solo cup, what makes it more humid? Just because it's a smaller area?

 

[darkness975]

So is anything in the solo cup, what makes it more humid? Just because it's a smaller area?

Spraying it inside , having damper sub inside, basically creating a small moist micro dome.

 

[Scorpionluva]

So is anything in the solo cup, what makes it more humid? Just because it's a smaller area?

I cut about 1/3 of the side but left the whole bottom of the solo cup intact.
The cut part goes down in the substrate on an angle so they can be on the substrate
the top of the cup gets tiny holes poked in it so tiny drops of moisture can seap through the substrate.
I placed the bottom of the cup almost flat on the bottom of the tank and the front of it about 2 inches above the substrate and covered it with substrate ( in a corner of the tank) then I dumped water straight on the substrate slowly until I saw tiny drops come through. I posted pics earlier in this thread if that helps to see what im trying to say here lol

 

[Chris WT]

This is a good thread for anyone with scorpions

 

[Smokehound714]

You need several inches of stable substrate. Hadrurus need to seal themselves off in a cell to molt properly, humidity doesnt influence it at all. You also need to provide your hadrurus with a deep water dish, they often dehydrate because people fail to give them a deep enough dish, without enough water in their body they will fail the molt and die. they must be allowed to submerge the pronotum, not just chelicerae, otherwise they wont be able to drink.

For optimum stability, the substrate must be at least twice the depth of the scorpion's width (5-inch adults need at least ten inches, the more the better.)

The reason hadrurus need so much water is because they regurgitate it to groom their bodies, and they lose alot in the process.

 

[Tim Benzedrine]

I've considered a desert hairy, but the moulting issues always steered me away. I've seen the advice to obtain mature specimens, and that raises a question. What is the life-expectancy of a mature specimen? The ones offered as wild-caught specimens would definitely be a roll of the dice since there would be no way to determine when they had their final sub-adult moult, I guess, and I don't know if captive-born raised adults are even commonly available. Would likely be expensive if they are, I imagine.

 

[XaviorJace]

Yes i have to agree the easiest way to avoid molt issues with any hadrurus species is to buy adults and because alot of people seem to doubt my setups that did work for me ( and didnt work for others ) im reluctant to post my methods anymore.....although 1 of my best attributes i possess is i love to help people ... so here goes
I used play sand , excavator clay , aquarium gravel , chunks of broken sea shells as my substrate about 2 inches deep. I used clear solo cups that had 1/3 of a side cut off buried under the substrate with tiny holes poked through it for water to drip through ( this was to simulate the conditions where my cousin found all of my specimens in scrapes under creosote bushes ) i asked him to bring me a few small bushes to use but all the plants died or got mangled on his way to Pa from AZ. The cup idea was crude and not appealing to look at by any means but everytime i found a newly molted juvie - it was inside 1 of the " humidity dome" solo cup hides. I added about a 1/2 cup of water once a week to each cup on top straight through the substrate and misted over top seashells and other rocks to create tiny pools of water for them to drink if they were out and about.
I kept them this way for over 10 years and had great success ( and had no idea of the troubles most people had with them until i joined AB a few years back) this was the species that started my passion for scorps over 20 years ago and because of hadrurus - im still keeping scorps now.
Even though this method worked well for me after i sold my tanks + hadrurus to a friend who kept them relatively the same way i did - he failed miserably and sold them to keep bearded dragons (which meant i couldnt even use the tanks again for scorps )
Heres a couple pics ( sorry theyre not great quality but they are scans of old polaroid pics )
View attachment 252252 View attachment 252253
There were occasional fights between tankmates but i never had a death occur so i left them together. If there woulda been a death - i wouldnt have kept them communally. Hope this helps if you do purchase any hadrurus

 

[XaviorJace]

Hey so you're the man to talk to I guess. I have 2 desert hairies, both scorplings. Been keeping them mostly dry 50~60% humidity, same tank, same food. Ok so I think that one is dying. About a week ago I was misting their enclosure and they both came out of their separate hides and started like attacking attacking the air. Like pinching all around and trying to sting and then they started running in and out of their hides. So up to today I notice they've been kinda twitchy since, one way more so than the other. And today I walked over to the enclosure to check on them and the biggest one is stinging the air and dirt again. Just going at it, spinning in circles, then finally just fell over into a tarantula death curl kinda. So I gave him a few minutes and he didnt move, so I sat him upright and he was super twitchy for like another 10 mins. Now hes kinda okay, like he walked around for a min but hes holding his claws over his head. And I misted the enclosure again and the same thing happened. They started freaking out. I dont know what any of it means. I was thinking they might be having trouble molting so I raised the humidity for now to about 70%. This is my first time with this species so I'm kinda learning as I go. All my other scorpions are forest species. Did you ever go through anything like this?