When is it time to eat?

One of my emperors (the male) has not eaten for over two weeks. I understand that they can fast for ages and that there is nothing to worry about but he is very very thin and i was just wondering if there were any signs that he might show if he feels hungry?

It's called the "feed me" pose -- hanging out in the burrow with open pinchers sticking out the entrance.

binksyboy3 wrote:

I understand that they can fast for ages and that there is nothing to worry about

Then why worry? They'll eat when they want to eat.

don't worry about it man.

he'll be fine. males are quite prone to fasting, they are more focused on finding some lovin' then having a feast. I had a female fast for well over a year on me.

[quote="Mr. Mordax"]It's called the "feed me" pose -- hanging out in the burrow with open pinchers sticking out the entrance.
So does that mean my H.spin is ALWAYS hungry if he always has his claws sticking out from under his log?

probably lol. scorps like to stuff thier faces then fast for ages. I prefer to just keep them on a steady diet at a good weight.

I feed him 1 big cricket every second day.

wow, that's quite a diet. I feed my *younger* scorpions quite alot too.. they process everything pretty fast.

eat, digest, poop, eat, digest, poop.. forever..

Is that too much for him he's like 6 months old? and fairly big about 4 1/2 inches.

nothing is too much.. as long as your scorp doesnt get MASSIVE. but it will eventually fast.

ok good to know. I saw some pics of overfed emps they look hilarious but I feel bad for them at the same time.

I feed my 2 emps 1 cricket every 1-2 weeks. But now they both refuse. He is really thin and she is quite heavily gravid.

I don't think obesity affects adult scorpions to much, but I think it can cause moulting problems in younger scorps.

huh never thought of it as "feed me" position
I knew it was some form of hunting, then that means my male and newest female is always hungry. Maybe ill up there diet it is gettin warmer here

Scorps with bigger chela will typically hide and wait for food, hence the "feed me" pose. I believe they do that so they don't exert any extra energy. Scorps with smaller chela tend to hunt on-the-run b/c their chela isn't weighing them down.

I believe I read something like that on an Aussie scorp site.

That doesn't really make sense . . .

I've had my C. vittatus hang out on a piece of bark with her pinchers wide open waiting for prey. Not everything that hangs out in burrows has heavy chela.

That's what I read -- or something similar to it. I wish I could find the website. It was one that I found on AB. Some Aussie website with their scorps on it.

If it was Mark Newton, I'm a bit perplexed, as he's quite the expert.

I found that ALOT of info you get of random websites are quite misleading.

Yup.

Quote :

If you are a scorpion covering large distances to find prey, you need to be agile and have the ability to move quickly and economically. The last thing you need is a huge pair of heavy pedipalps to haul about. They would mean a larger transport energy budget for the night and increased visibility to potential predators. Natural selection favours those opportunistic scorpions with agility, low energy expenditure and decreased visibility. If you think about the physics of the pedipalps and the way in which scorpions carry them, it should be obvious that large ones are cumbersome and energetically expensive. They are fine for those scorpions that dont wander long distances or frequently climb up into bushes. It should now be clear why foraging scorpions have evolved small pedipalps. But what about the disproportionately large metasoma?

Source: http://www.thedailylink.com/thespiralburrow -> Toxicity Morphology Strategy -> 5th link down

I see then -- I think Mark explained it better than you did, though.

LOL ya I know. I suck at explaining things