Tame emperors?

[Rmcm2424]

I was reading some stuff at the LLL Reptile site and in their emperor scorpion care sheet http://lllreptile.com/v2/content/info/care/care-sheets/invertebrates/emperor-scorpion.txt they say that emperors will become tame with regular handling. Do people here handle their scorps regularly? I did a search on posts and most advised strongly against anything like handling scorpions or trying to make them hand tame...I have yet to pick up my emperor scorp but the pet store was holding them with no problems.

 

[rainman]

yeah, thats after they've been stung a few hundred times to not know what the hell they're saying anymore. i only held my emp from years ago only to clean out the substrate matter and that was it. on all other ocassions i use forceps. dont hold them unless it's absolutely necessary.

 

[skinheaddave]

Hehehehe. I'm sure at least one of those warnings was mine. It is not recommended you hold any scorpion, as it causes them stress and there is always the chance you will be stung or pinched. That being said, I was at a shop yesterday picking out some juvie P.imperator and I just scooped them up with my hands. What I would recommend doing is trying to get a real grasp on the risks invovled etc. and also getting to know your scopion's reactions and tollerance to disturbance. Only when you really know what you're doing and what you are risking should you be handling scorpions. Past that point, it is really up to you.

Cheers,
Dave

 

[rainman]

davie davie davie. scooping them up is very safe to be honest. pretty much observe the defense mechanisms for ur scorp, watch it's behavior when disturbed, only then will u know how it'll react to being picked up. stress is guaranteed when u pick them up. i'm sure it'll shave a few years off their life span. davie, have u noticed that when pet employees pick out ur scorp, they usually get them by the stinger and act all fast. they get too aggressive with them almost and just plop them in the cup or w/e it is they put them in and say, here u go. they need to be safer with them i think. those bastards prbbly piss them off anyways before selling them. good luck on ur juvies, davie

 

[rainman]

oh, one more thing. i highly doubt that any scorp can be hand tamed or tamed period. any scorp can lead u on to think it likes being held, then BAM, right in the finger goes the stinger. then u wonder what just happened and ur in pain for a few hours. or depending what scorp it was. i wouldnt take the risk of finding out whether or not mine like being held, or anyone elses for that matter. maybe wear some gloves at first for a little cushion i guess. let us know the outcomes.

 

[Frank]

I'm pretty sure that there's not many gloves that can let you move your fingers correctly, and protect you from any sting. IMHO they're pretty much useless, because if you want them to be sting-proof, you won't be able to move your fingers correctly, and it can be more dangerous, as you will be able to do less movements than normaly, and you'll do them slower than without the gloves. (because the gloves will be hard so the sting can't pierce the glove)

Correct me if I'm wrong about the gloves. Frank

 

[Kugellager]

Ummmm...I wouldn't call Dave(skinheaddave) 'davie'...someone called him that once before and it got him quite "annoyed"

As far as 'taming' a scorp goes...they can become habituated to a behavior but I would never call them tame. Just as some T's can get used to being handled so can some scorpions..but as with T's they can still unexpectedly sting when disturbed even if you manage to habituate one to being handled.

That said I personally do not handle my scorps.

John
];')

 

[Rmcm2424]

I don't plan on handling mine either he seems pretty mean. I used a piece of metal to scare him back into a little box to keep him in while I added some spaghnum moss to his tank today and he pinched the hell out of the metal like 10 times and he hung on for a while one time. I'm glad that wasn't my finger. On another note regarding that same care sheet it says to feed a scorp every 5 or 6 days. How often do you feed your scorps? I was feeding mine every other day but I may wait a little longer in between feedings.

 

[Kugellager]

I feed mine 3-4 appropriate sized crickets once per week...sometimes more for the big scorps...for instance...my 3 5" H.spinifers get 5-7 large crickets each per week because they are quite a good size and crickets only get so big. My 2.5" H.trilineatus get 3-5 (1/3") crickets per week.

Occasionally a species fasts during the winter such as H.arizonensis or H.spadix...then they may get only one or none for a few weeks.

You emp if it is full grown would need 4+ large crickets per week to maintain a healthy size ...temperature does comtroll how much all scorps eat though.

I hope this helps some.

John
];')

 

[Rmcm2424]

I had been feeding 2 crickets every other day and he ate them all I have not fed in two days though but I was thinking about feeding tonight...will he stop eating when he's not hungry or will eat as much as I will feed him? DO I need to control his eating or will he know when to not eat, etc.?

 

[wsimms]

I've got four Emps, two adults and two juvies who cohabitate peacefully. I handle all four of them regularly, and have never been stung or pinched, but if they did, so what? They're animals, after all, and I wouldn't hold it against them. I can tell you, without anthropomorphosizing too much, that they each DO have their own unique "personalities", with my adult male being the most docile and juvie male the most skittish. I think a lot of the admonishments against holding arachnids is at least partly a manifestation of our (American) societal phobia regarding legal liability. I would certainly not handle any venomous animal if I had the slightest hint I might be allergic (at least not without an EpiPen close by). I've yet to see any scientific studies on the subject of "stressing" and it's relationship to mortality in captive invertebrates. Arachnids are certainly "stressed" in the wild, though to what degree no one knows, due to predation, lack of food, temperature and humidity fluctuations, etc., which they do NOT experience in our tender, loving care. You tell me which conditions YOU would find more stressing. As to feeding, I dump in about 6 gut loaded crickets every other night and take out any survivors (and remnants of nonsurvivors) every morning. Whew!W

 

[Poecilotheria]

The smart petshop salesman once again! Anyway, I was buying a big emp scorp from a petshop. Theres a worker talking to me about scorps, says he got stung from emp scorps 9 times, then stopped counting. Then I was talking to him about Androctonus, bicolor, australis. He said"Yeah, the yellow fat tail would be a good handling scorpian". Hahahaha, funny as hell, just thought i'd share.
Steve

 

[rainman]

the guy had to be saying that sarcastically. either that, or he's been stung to many times. crazy bastard. thats just settin up some little kid that goes in there and buys one and gets tagged right away. kinda dangerous when that happens.

 

[Frank]

If you get tagged often by the same species (not dry tags), you can become allergical to the venom, which can be very dangerous.

Frank

 

[wsimms]

Believe it or not, there are not a lot of studies on immediate hypersensitivity (allergy) to scorpion venom. Leyandier, et al, studied 39 Algerians aged 5 to 63 years who had been previously stung by A. australis (23 of whom had been stung FROM 2 TO MORE THAN 8 TIMES). Only 10 of these 39 demonstrated ANY hypersensitivity by skin test, and , of these, only 4 had a significant response. Keep in mind the study population's selection bias in that these were people who SURVIVED their first sting. Demain found skin test positivity in only one of 7 patients previously stung by C. vittatus. Lovecchio reported immediate hypersensity reactions to Centuroides ANTIvenom in 4 of 116 patients, but a whopping 61% developed serum sickness to the antivenom itself. Sometimes the cure can be as bad (or worse) than the disease.
W:8o

 

[Godzilla2000]

I do not handle my Emp, Destroyer at all. She's an extremely vivacious, feisty, assertive scorpion who does not like to be touched. She even gets into a defensive posture when I open the lid to feed and water her. She attacks her feeder crickets with the veracity of a fierce predator. So it's safe to say that she cannot be tamed easily.

 

[wsimms]

My juvie male will do that too...some of his "poses" would make scary photos. Nonetheless, I still just prod him with my finger and scoop him up. He sometimes keeps that routine up while he's in my hand, but usually he figures out the jig is up and calms down.

 

[Godzilla2000]

My adult female P. cavimanus is perhaps my most defensive of the scorpions I own so far. (That might change when I get my Scorps from Bill at Invertepets soon. I'll be getting a Hadrurus arizonensis, Heterometrus longimanus, and a Scorpio maurus.) My little Sasori struck threat postures like they were going out of style as I was crunching away on an apple when I checked on my arachnids after coming home from work last night.

 

[wsimms]

I'm only brave (stupid) enough to handle Emps so far. I figure the odds are long on getting stung, and if I do, so what? I would probably handle Hadogenes too. I have been interested in getting H.longimanus or H.spinifer for awhile. Let me know how he/she does.
W

 

[Godzilla2000]

Originally posted by wsimms
I'm only brave (stupid) enough to handle Emps so far. I figure the odds are long on getting stung, and if I do, so what? I would probably handle Hadogenes too. I have been interested in getting H.longimanus or H.spinifer for awhile. Let me know how he/she does.
W

Well I'll be sure to let you know about my Asian Forest when I get her. Just by looking at the pictures I can already tell they're quite an interesting species. I had read though that there are a few subtle color variations. But maybe I should start a whole new thread for Asian Forests eh?