Phew...

Kenny

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Messages
293
My Emperor scorp'ling started to behave in a weird way.
Allways sitting around the waterdish. Even inside it. Seemed to be confused of the hunting thingey.

Left it's normal, easy hunting ground, where I could just drop a cricket close to the opening and it could just drag the prey inside it's hideout.
I have misted the cage every day and it was moist in there and some days ago s/he didn't eat although it had was willing to try to hunt.

Well,, I started to take crickets and feed with tweezer the other day , let it eat from the tweezer and yes, I am holding the cricket with my tweezer and my Emperor scorp'ling is eating while I'm holding the mashed-cricket.:)
I'm so happy.

It just left it's inside hideout and went outside, and is there all the time nightwise and started to get thinner. Cricket can get away easier there.

Can this be because it caught a couple of crickets around the waterdish once?

Kenny
 

Wade

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 16, 2002
Messages
2,929
It might be because your ambiant temps have gone down. In the warmer months, tropical scorps go deep to avoid the heat, but when it cools down, they may be more apt to come to the surface to warm up. Never mind what direction the heat is coming from, instict says up for heat, down for cool. Coolness will also decrease the amount scorpions want to eat, so they hunt less aggressively. A warm emperor has absolutely no problem capturing a cricket if it wants it!

The other issue could be humidity. If the cage enviroment has become too dry, the scorpion may seek ot the most humid area it can find, the water bowl. Moistening the substrate might be in order if this is the case, especially since I've notice emperor scorps seem to molt better in a moist burrow.

Good luck

Wade
 

Kenny

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 7, 2002
Messages
293
Temp

Agree to the temp issue because I put an extra 25W red light close the one side of the cage this morning and tonight I started to see a much more active scorp'ling.

Temp has never fallen below 65F and is at an average of 75 - 80F.

I have a warm air heater in there so air is really easy to boost up as this is also my "T room".

I have a lot of venting going on in there ( mostly for my Avics. ) , but I compensate by misting every day and refill every waterdish as soon they seem to go dry.:)
 

Wade

Arachnoking
Old Timer
Joined
Aug 16, 2002
Messages
2,929
Your room temps sound about the same as mine. I never used to bother with additional heat (beyond the ambiant room temperature)for any of my invertebrates, but after participating in forums like this one and various lists, I've decided to try to up the temps for my scorpions (tarantulas seem fine in the high 60's to low 80's). I've relocated my emperor cages to the highests shelves in my animal room and attached flexi-watt heat tape to the wall behind them. I'm also in the process of converting an old wardrobe into a heated cabinet for scorpions.

Wade
 
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