Signs of a molt?

Rosenkreuz

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 18, 2007
Messages
252
What are the signs of a molt in a P.Imperator?

I've had my little girl for about a month and a half, and she hasn't molted yet. I know one of the signs of a molt is the general fatness they get as they get ready to move on out, and she looks like a balloon (has since I got her, but she's even fatter now). But I also heard that they pretty much reject food before a molt. How soon before a molt do they do that? Mine's been actually eating like a pig. I throw in a couple of crickets, and they're lucky to survive 24 hours.

So what are the other signs of an impending molt? I'd like to know if she's close to breaking out, or if I just have a pig instead of a scorpion. Also, are there ways to encourage a molt? I think I've heard Tabor mention that he's raised the temps a bit higher than usual. Does that work for an Emperor as well?

Thanks in advance.
 

tabor

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Jun 26, 2003
Messages
1,620
Yup I like to raise both temp and humidity to encourage the little ones to molt :)

Sometimes if I have the feeling that one is coming up on a molt I actually wont feed it to see if that will induce molting, that's still in testing though :D

Just be patient all my imp's were stubborn about molting but then one morning I woke up with 9/12 molts in the cage ! .. the other ones about a week later, no explanation for that {D
 

Rosenkreuz

Arachnoknight
Old Timer
Joined
Jul 18, 2007
Messages
252
Okay, so I've been watching her for the last two days, and right now, she looks like she's going to explode. The tergites are super spread apart, and the fleshy part inbetween looks almost stretched to bursting. If she was fully mature, I'd be asking if she was possibly gravid, but she's not.

So, either I've got a super pig on my hands (which she shouldn't be, since she gets maybe 4-5 small crickets a week, and doesn't always eat all of them), or I've got a scorpion close to molting.

I'll take pictures when I can coax her out of her burrow.
 

quiz

Arachnoprince
Old Timer
Joined
Jan 27, 2006
Messages
1,189
Okay, so I've been watching her for the last two days, and right now, she looks like she's going to explode. The tergites are super spread apart, and the fleshy part inbetween looks almost stretched to bursting. If she was fully mature, I'd be asking if she was possibly gravid, but she's not.

So, either I've got a super pig on my hands (which she shouldn't be, since she gets maybe 4-5 small crickets a week, and doesn't always eat all of them), or I've got a scorpion close to molting.

I'll take pictures when I can coax her out of her burrow.
I got a really fat A.australis that should molt 1 more time to hit adulthood but it's been over a year now and they still hasn't molted. They will molt for you when they're ready. Don't stress it too much.
 
Top