P. imperator eating babies help!

[NickW]

Hi, unfortunately my emp is eating her babies. I just recently relocated my collection to a dedicated cabinet so I could more easily maintain proper heat and humidity. A few days after I moved them, I noticed my emp had a baby on her back and one in her mouth. Her burrow is against the glass on the bottom corner, so I can peek in without disturbing her much.
I checked back on her today and I noticed a dead one on the floor of the burrow and another one in her mouth.

The Temps are around 86 during the day and 75 at night. Substrate is coco fiber kept moist.

The only thing I can think is maybe the burrow is not big enough and when she moves the babies get pushed against the ceiling of the burrow and killed or pushed off. I'm pretty stressed out about it as I've been looking forward to raising these little guys. Any info is greatly appreciated!

Thanks
-Nick

 

[KevinsWither]

I recommend that if the babies are mobile, then separate them. Also I would like some p imperator slings.

 

[Galapoheros]

The conditions sound pretty good. I've only seen this problem when grain mites are in the hypopus stage start to become mobile again on the scorpion. It seems the babies crawling up on the back of the mother disturbs the mites and so they start walking around everywhere, and on the babies. Then the babies obviously are irritated by the mites walking around on them, they try to move around, some fall off, the babies start to annoy the mother because of all the movement. These non-parasitic mites are very common in the hobby. They are hard to see, esp. on the white babies but you might try to take a look, you can see them if you have good eyes or strong reading glasses and a flashlight works pretty well if you can get a good enough angle there.

 

[brolloks]

Do you know what condition the baby she was eating was in when it was born? If it was deformed or had any sort of birth defects the mother would not hesitate to eat it. I have had scorpions eat their deformed young and embryos on occasion.

 

[wodesorel]

How old are the slings? They will do cleanup on any that were born imperfect or that may have had a bad molt when they're still tiny. I've read that they will sometimes snack on them as well if they get hungry enough, or to regain energy immediately after birth but it's not something I've personally witnessed.

I've experienced lethal aggression between adult Emps that had their enclosure disturbed which was probably territorial, but have yet to have that issue with a mother and babies. I've had to move several groups when the babies were 2i and it's never caused issues - just did one last week and need to do another today actually. I do keep mine in 10 to 30 gallon enclosures so the babies can scatter away from mom just in case she decides to get testy.

 

[Ihuicatl]

This is probably not recommended but I had this same problem with my B. Gigas brood and i separated them from the mother and kept them all in a deli cup with a wet paper towel until they molted. If i remember correctly they all survived and I still have all of them.

Ryan

 

[ScorpionCollector91]

As suggested, though not recommended you can separate them. They're still quite hardy even without the mother, just without the luxury of the secretions the mother provides. I used sugar water soaked paper towels whilst I awaited their moults. Worked for me.