P. Imperator giving birth...is this normal?

scorpionguy77

Arachnopeon
Joined
Mar 15, 2011
Messages
45
Hey guys, I need some info and advice, if possible.

First off, I am one of those "bought a pregnant scorpion from Petco and didn't know it" victims. Luckily, I research the hell out of things and I knew by her appearance and behavior that she WAS pregnant and what to look for. As you may understand, I had no idea how far into gestation she was and for all I knew I had a month or a year. She stopped eating around Thanksgiving time but I thought maybe this was just a fasting period since she pretty much ate like a hog to that point. I noticed her behavior became far more aggressive about a week ago, she had even begun to sting at the water drops as I misted the tank. This past Thursday she even charged the male she shares the tank with (not the father, I have only had him a month and he is CONSIDERABLY smaller than she is) and forced him from their hide. I watched them closely from that point to make sure no one was injured or killed. Friday I came home from work to see that she was stilted and cradling and the first scorpling was about half way out. I removed the male and put him into his own enclosure. I didn't want any disturbance for her and the babies nor did i want her crushing him in a defensive move. She gave birth to the first three rather quickly in about 5 or six hours but it took her nearly 15 hours to finally deliver number four and by Sunday morning she had delivered 6 babies and I thought she was done. She was no longer in birthing stance and even began to eat for the first time in months. Her appetite is almost insatiable as she eats everything that moves, but I didn't notice her killing prey for the babies to eat (which is what I read was normal behavior on several boards). This concerned me a bit, but lacking knowledge of how long it takes them to eat, I just kept an eye on things. Well this morning (Tuesday) my wife wakes me up and tells me there are now 8 babies! I came down to check and she is back in the birthing position again. Is this normal behavior? It took her nearly two and a half days to deliver the first 6, but do they take very long breaks between births to eat and regain strength to go at it again? I haven't seen this behavior in any of my research and I am concerned something might be wrong with her or she is having difficulty getting them all out. Also, since I am asking for advice already, how long DOES it take for the mother to ensure her babies are fed? Thanks guys.
 

AzJohn

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Dec 25, 2007
Messages
2,181
That doesn't sound to bad. Unusual yes, but not unheard of. Problmes could happen when one gets stuck. She'll keep the babies with her for several days. the babies will leave on their own. When they start to leave you would probably want to seperate them.
 

scorpionguy77

Arachnopeon
Joined
Mar 15, 2011
Messages
45
No, she is definitely pumping them out pretty good. The fourth one, like I said, had me concerned because it did take almost a whole day to get it out and I did wonder if it got stuck. If that actually does happen I will absolutely no clue what to do from that point. But thanks for answering, as long as someone else has seen or heard of this behavior I feel better about it.
 

John Bokma

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
May 31, 2005
Messages
486
As for separating: I kept mom + babies together until the mother died (over a year later), and no problem at all. There is IMO no need to separate the juveniles from the mother with this species, unlike some other species.
 

scorpionguy77

Arachnopeon
Joined
Mar 15, 2011
Messages
45
As for separating: I kept mom + babies together until the mother died (over a year later), and no problem at all. There is IMO no need to separate the juveniles from the mother with this species, unlike some other species.
Well she is still giving birth as I type this, number 11 in fact, virtually doubling her brood in a day after stopping for three. John, how many babies did your mother have and live communally? Surely, there is a safe limit? I do have two tanks, one contains the male that WAS living with the mother (he isn't the father, not that I am sure it would matter anyway) and he is alone, but I know I can't just let the new ones molt two or three times and feel comfortable abut putting them in with him. But I do value your guys' advice on the topic, I have only been keeping scorpions for about 6-7 months. My wife did want to keep all the babies, but that was when the brood was at 6 and we thought she was done.
 

John Bokma

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
May 31, 2005
Messages
486
Like you, I also bought a pregnant female (but was sure that she was pregnant ;-) ). She gave birth and died about a year later. About 18 months later I didn't see any of the young ones, so I removed carefully the substrate. Close to the bottom I decided to carefully turn over the terrarium, and was greeted by 19 (!) juveniles. One died shortly after, and I think I lost 5+ more due to cold spells. I now see 5 - 6 out most of the time, but I assume there are at least 5 more in the substrate and they are almost 3 years old. I want soon to make a second terrarium and move all that are out to the second one, and see if the first one will turn up more emperors. If not, I will check the substrate.
 

llamastick

Arachnoknight
Joined
Jan 8, 2011
Messages
155
They don't (can't) eat at all until they've molted once, so don't worry about that. Best not to disturb her at all until then. Once they molt and climb off on their own, you can either move them to another enclosure or just keep them with mom. I usually just use headcrushed crickets/roaches for the 2Is to eat, as opposed to bothering with small prey.
 

scorpionguy77

Arachnopeon
Joined
Mar 15, 2011
Messages
45
It looks like she finally finished and the head count seems to be about 17 total. Thanks for the tips guys.
 

Jorpion

Arachnobaron
Old Timer
Joined
Mar 4, 2009
Messages
324
Just leave her alone. You can safely leave her with the babies indefinitely.
 
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