My adult male emp isn't eating, advice.

Hey everyone,

I'm new here and new to scorpion keeping in general. I may just be having new parent jitters but my Emperor scorpion, that I just got a week ago, hasn't eaten a thing since I have him. I picked him up last friday and tried feeding him on and off since then. I tried leaving 2 crickets in there for 24 hours, no luck. I tried feeding him using tongs, no luck. I continue to try and put crickets in there and he wont eat. I even tried tong feeding him a superworm with out any luck as well. He actually pulls the worm (or cricket) off the tong and tosses it aside.

He doesn't seem scared, and he is sometimes active around the tank (usually hiding in his cave though). The tanks temp is at around 80 and humidity is between 70% and 80% the majority of the day. I know emps can fast for quite some time, and chances are he ate before he was shipped to the place I picked him up, but still I'm a little concerned.

Is there anything else I can try, a different type of food perhaps, more heat or humidity etc. Or should I just leave him be?

He is probably still adjusting and settling in to the new home. Mine ignored food even if I tried tongs when I first got them, but now they grab anything that moves, even the tongs if they are empty haha. I would just leave some food in there and let him be for a little while.

Just leave him be. They can go ages without food, so don't worry about it. Just offer a cricket every few days and if he refuses it, remove it and try again 4 days later.

Ok thanks. I guess I'm just adjusting as much as he is.

emps may starve them selves for up to a year. The will not eat before a moult or after and sometimes the will not eat fot no apparent reason. If you just leave him alone for a few days because he will still be settling in, this has happened with both of my emps and heterometrus. you dont have anything to worry about it sounds to me like your doing everything right.

Quick question,

I just checked on him in the tank and he was hiding but I found the empty shell of one of the two crickets I put in there. Could have eaten the insides of the cricket our do they usually eat the whole cricket? Maybe the other cricket fed on this one?

CNova wrote:

Quick question,

I just checked on him in the tank and he was hiding but I found the empty shell of one of the two crickets I put in there. Could have eaten the insides of the cricket our do they usually eat the whole cricket? Maybe the other cricket fed on this one?

It's possible. it's anyones guess really. I tend to find that they eat it in its entirity but leave the large back legs. cannibalism in crickets as far as my experiences go is low, so its more likely that your scorpion fed on it imo.

Ok thanks. The only reason I ask is because I've seen cannibalism in crickets before when my bearded dragons were young and I used to keep a lot of them at a time. The whole body seems to still be intact, except for a huge hole in the middle of the crickets underside. Basically a hollow shell.

Crickets molt. That will be it's old exo.

binksyboy3 wrote:

Crickets molt. That will be it's old exo.

could be possible, I don't see the crickets in the tank though.

CNova wrote:

binksyboy3 wrote:

Crickets molt. That will be it's old exo.

could be possible, I don't see the crickets in the tank though.

Maybe it got eaten as soon as it finished haha

andrew saken wrote:

CNova wrote:

binksyboy3 wrote:

Crickets molt. That will be it's old exo.

could be possible, I don't see the crickets in the tank though.

Maybe it got eaten as soon as it finished haha

Yup. It's very likely that it either got eaten after molting (most likely) or is still in your tank somewhere, hiding, perhaps near the heat source.

I finally caught him eating. I fed him a superworm using tongs. It took him a while to really grab it and figure out that it was food (it seemed like he didn't know what to do with it at first, waving it around in his pincer), but then he started eating it. Took him about an hour and a half, maybe a bit longer, to finish it. I didn't realize that they ate so slow.