mother ate them all

[orkimedies]

earliar my hetrometrus gave birth, came home today to find that she has killed every single scorpling, either consuming them whole or parts of them (legs, telson, claws)

i am very annoyed at this. conditions were humid and warm so what happened? why all of them?

i left her alone as soon as i found she had birthed so as to not stress her but she did it any way. not one of my hetrometrus has ever canibalized before then this massacre.

 

[Australis]

Dude...did u fed her till she is really erm...full tank ?
If u did...then maybe its a freak of nature that such hting happened

 

[Jaffster]

earliar my hetrometrus gave birth, came home today to find that she has killed every single scorpling, either consuming them whole or parts of them (legs, telson, claws)

i am very annoyed at this. conditions were humid and warm so what happened? why all of them?

i left her alone as soon as i found she had birthed so as to not stress her but she did it any way. not one of my hetrometrus has ever canibalized before then this massacre.

Was she kept well fed because these little inverts like to stuff their faces after bringing a bunch of babies into the world?

 

[Thaedion]

Can't say why you had the slaughter... maybe the munchies?

I've had three broods of Heterometrus' over the past couple of month or so, the first batch I separated at first sign of I2 moulting and leaving the mom, the other two broods I left with moms after I2. I only saw 1 instance of consuming the young, it was an I1 that was not on moms back, maybe dead? don't know. I kept all my tanks in a high traffic area, my dinning room, and I have two children (11, 12) 1 wife, a dog and several cats, so there is alot of movement and no stress related consumptions took place.

I only fed the adults after the young left the back, and I would tong feed a meal worm to them, I would also drop in pin heads for the young, which the adult would catch also.

Once separated into delicups I would feed disabled pinheads to the young.

 

[orkimedies]

the mom has always been a little porker but she started refusing food 2 weeks ago.

she is the smallest forest scorpion i have but she eats a ton.

 

[Urizen]

In my limited experience, I have seen baby eating as a result of stress (remember, humidity and temp are not the only factors that count with stress levels) as well as partially formed babies, being consumed.

 

[Mark Newton]

How soon after birth do you think she consumed them?

 

[orkimedies]

it happened within 8 hours after they were born

 

[Mark Newton]

Thats when it normally occurs. I tend to think the young werent able to obtain what they need from mum, either because mum has altered her chemistry for survival or simply because the environmental conditions are not quite right. Whatever the reason, I doubt its because mum is hungry.

 

[emmille]

hmmm...

mine is the opposite...i left all the babies with their mum up until now (they're in their 2nd instar). & you know what, the mum is even feeding the babies. I feed the mum one time with a roach. She killed the roach & left it on the floor & let the babies eat the roach. After a few days, i feed the mum again with a meal worm & same thing, she killed it & fed it to her babies. I tried moving the water dish & she tried to attack me anywhere my hand goes. Seems like she's protecting her babies. NICE...huh!?