New 5 ish Month old scorpion not eating?

Scott0333

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jan 25, 2021
Messages
10
Hey, so i recently purchased a asian forest scorpion and i have had it for a week. so far i have offered food but it doesn't seem to want to eat and it seems to look like it is scared of it. i fully understand scorpions can go a long period without food however my only concern is as its a young scorpion is it more susceptible to starvation when compared to an older scorpion? i also thought it looked a bit skinny but obviously being new to this i have no idea.

ill attach some pictures of the set up and the scorpion and I was hoping someone could just tell me if I'm doing anything wrong or if the scorpion is a bit skinny.

I keep the enclosure at around 70%-80% humidity with an average temperature of about 21.5c (71f), i keep a fresh water bowl and 2 hides to choose from, ive opted for dubia roach as a feeder and i have tried both tweezer feeding as well as crushing the dubia head and leaving it on it back so it wriggles.the substrate consists of cocofibre/small amount of sand/leaf litter with an area of stones and a small area of moss and live plants

Tried to get the best photos I could, the substrate is moister than it looks

IMG_20210305_210048.jpg IMG_20210305_210528.jpg IMG_20210305_210633.jpg IMG_20210305_210644.jpg IMG_20210305_210656.jpg
 

Albireo Wulfbooper

Arachnoprince
Joined
Aug 1, 2019
Messages
1,606
Your scorp doesn't look particularly skinny. Moving is stressful, and a week isn't a long time. It may just need some time to get comfortable in its new digs. Enclosure looks fine as long as that big pile of rocks isn't just sitting on the substrate - if it is, and the scorpion tunnels under it, it can cause a collapse. You can safely ignore humidity and just aim for maintaining moist substrate. The air humidity isn't that relevant to a burrowing animal. Your temperature is fine, although if you can safely boost it a bit you will probably see a bit more activity and slightly more frequent feeding.
 

Scott0333

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jan 25, 2021
Messages
10
Your scorp doesn't look particularly skinny. Moving is stressful, and a week isn't a long time. It may just need some time to get comfortable in its new digs. Enclosure looks fine as long as that big pile of rocks isn't just sitting on the substrate - if it is, and the scorpion tunnels under it, it can cause a collapse. You can safely ignore humidity and just aim for maintaining moist substrate. The air humidity isn't that relevant to a burrowing animal. Your temperature is fine, although if you can safely boost it a bit you will probably see a bit more activity and slightly more frequent feeding.
Hi thankyou for the response :) yeah i thought of the possibility of a collapse a day before getting the scorpion so i dug a hole and just built up the rocks from the drainage layer.

Do you think is should wait a few days to a week longer before offering more food to give him time to settle?

In regards to the adding a bit of heat do you think I would actually benefit from a heat mat on the side or would it not make much difference because it's a glass tank ? I was thinking a super low wattage CHE (like 25W) on a dimmer and locating it in the corner above the rocks would work, but wasn't sure if it would make it to warm?
 

Albireo Wulfbooper

Arachnoprince
Joined
Aug 1, 2019
Messages
1,606
Hi thankyou for the response :) yeah i thought of the possibility of a collapse a day before getting the scorpion so i dug a hole and just built up the rocks from the drainage layer.

Do you think is should wait a few days to a week longer before offering more food to give him time to settle?

In regards to the adding a bit of heat do you think I would actually benefit from a heat mat on the side or would it not make much difference because it's a glass tank ? I was thinking a super low wattage CHE (like 25W) on a dimmer and locating it in the corner above the rocks would work, but wasn't sure if it would make it to warm?
Glad to hear you thought about the rocks :)
If a heat mat is your only option, I don't think I'd personally consider it worth doing at the temperatures you're currently dealing with. Boosting the room temperature, where possible, can be worthwhile, but heat mats and similar focused heat sources do come with some risks, and since you're within a safe and comfortable range to begin with, I'd just roll with the current temperature. The scorpion certainly won't suffer from it.
 

Ferrachi

Arachnoprince
Joined
Feb 2, 2020
Messages
1,014
A week is not long at all... they can go months without food

Just make sure you remove the prey after 24 hours
 

Tarantuland

Arachnoprince
Joined
Mar 19, 2020
Messages
1,354
This scorp is definitely over 5 months old. I have one of these and sometimes it goes weeks or even months without eating. Don’t worry about it just try again in a week
 

Outpost31Survivor

Arachnoprince
Active Member
Joined
Aug 23, 2019
Messages
1,574
Juveniles and subadults eat alot more readily and frequently than adults. A week is no way long enough. However I am raising a brood now and they often do not feed until anywhere between a couple hours or even few hours after they have been offered feeders. The crickets just begin "disappearing". Give the scorpion another few days or a week.

You can even prekill crickets and leave them at the entrance of its hide and see if over 24 hours that dead cricket disappears.
 

Dry Desert

Arachnoprince
Active Member
Joined
Mar 9, 2016
Messages
1,552
Hey, so i recently purchased a asian forest scorpion and i have had it for a week. so far i have offered food but it doesn't seem to want to eat and it seems to look like it is scared of it. i fully understand scorpions can go a long period without food however my only concern is as its a young scorpion is it more susceptible to starvation when compared to an older scorpion? i also thought it looked a bit skinny but obviously being new to this i have no idea.

ill attach some pictures of the set up and the scorpion and I was hoping someone could just tell me if I'm doing anything wrong or if the scorpion is a bit skinny.

I keep the enclosure at around 70%-80% humidity with an average temperature of about 21.5c (71f), i keep a fresh water bowl and 2 hides to choose from, ive opted for dubia roach as a feeder and i have tried both tweezer feeding as well as crushing the dubia head and leaving it on it back so it wriggles.the substrate consists of cocofibre/small amount of sand/leaf litter with an area of stones and a small area of moss and live plants

Tried to get the best photos I could, the substrate is moister than it looks

View attachment 377924 View attachment 377925 View attachment 377926 View attachment 377927 View attachment 377928
Temperature too low, you need 24/28 C then it should start feeding after a while. If you're going to use CHE best use a pulse proportional thermostat, dimming stats are for lights. However if you want to use your dimming stat you can use it with Moon light heat bulbs. ExoTerra Blue night light, they come in 25/50/75/100 watt ranges and you can have them on permanently as they won't bother the scorpion. I use them and have done so for the last 25+ years. They were available in various forms in early days, the ExoTerra one use proper blue glass, not painted glass.
 

Scott0333

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jan 25, 2021
Messages
10
Glad to hear you thought about the rocks :)
If a heat mat is your only option, I don't think I'd personally consider it worth doing at the temperatures you're currently dealing with. Boosting the room temperature, where possible, can be worthwhile, but heat mats and similar focused heat sources do come with some risks, and since you're within a safe and comfortable range to begin with, I'd just roll with the current temperature. The scorpion certainly won't suffer from it.
And do you think I should wait a few days to offer more food just to let him relax fully ?
 

Scott0333

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jan 25, 2021
Messages
10
Temperature too low, you need 24/28 C then it should start feeding after a while. If you're going to use CHE best use a pulse proportional thermostat, dimming stats are for lights. However if you want to use your dimming stat you can use it with Moon light heat bulbs. ExoTerra Blue night light, they come in 25/50/75/100 watt ranges and you can have them on permanently as they won't bother the scorpion. I use them and have done so for the last 25+ years. They were available in various forms in early days, the ExoTerra one use proper blue glass, not painted glass.
I was thinking of using a manual dimmer as I usually have a pretty consistant house temperature, do you think that would be ok on a CHE bulb.

I did see the eco terra night heat/moonlight bulbs in a local pet shop and they are pretty cheap.
 

Scott0333

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jan 25, 2021
Messages
10
Juveniles and subadults eat alot more readily and frequently than adults. A week is no way long enough. However I am raising a brood now and they often do not feed until anywhere between a couple hours or even few hours after they have been offered feeders. The crickets just begin "disappearing". Give the scorpion another few days or a week.

You can even prekill crickets and leave them at the entrance of its hide and see if over 24 hours that dead cricket disappears.
I will deffently try the prekill and leave by the hide method that sounds like a pretty good idea.
 

Scott0333

Arachnopeon
Joined
Jan 25, 2021
Messages
10
This scorp is definitely over 5 months old. I have one of these and sometimes it goes weeks or even months without eating. Don’t worry about it just try again in a week
The shop I got him/her from said it was about 5 months old ? Ill have a measure when I can but it's smaller than it looks in the picture, obviously have no idea on size Vs age as Im pretty new to it.
 
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