Overfeeding?

I see a lot of people here saying 2-4 crickets a month, and I must ask why.

Mine are willing to eat way more than that, why limit it?

To keep them at a healthy weight.

Although there has been no records of a scorpion dying from eating too much, it can be detrimental to them as they do not need to feed in large quantites. It is unlike their behaviour in the wild and so will fast when they need to.

Remember they have a very low metabolism.

I don't really limit mine, that's just more than he will eat. He usually manages to go through about 1 adult male dubia roach a month or so, sometimes less, so that's how much I generally give him (it's probably the equivalent of 2 crickets).

I was at a conference in January where I met a man that keeps scorpions for research (that was an interesting presentation for me I can tell you!) and he said that generally, the scorpions that you find in captivity are grossly obese compared to their state in the wild. However, we don't really know how ad lib food affects scorpions so can't categorically say that it is be bad for them or anything.

So I guess how much you feed your scorpion depends on how much they're prepared to eat and your personal preference.

i feed my male adult emperor 5 crickets every two weeks and they're usually gone within 48 hours.
ive tried pinky mice, but he hardly eats any of it, and its not really healthy i guess you could say.
ive also tried roaches, and he wont go near them.
the two main things ive had the greatest luck feeding him is crickets and anoles (i know its kinda cruel, but he only gets the best)

i guess just mixing and matching foods to see, like i said mines real picky so just go with what works.

I feed mine mainly crickets, and locust from time to time, and that seems to work pretty well for me.

lol i actually saw a locust outside the other day and i wasnt paying enough attention to grab it...
is there anywhere in the lower United States i could order locusts from without having to worry about parasites or pesticides?
i live in a neighborhood where the landscaping company is constantly walking around saturating the ground with pesticides...so im pretty picky about what i get from outside...

any rocks and stuff i usually grab get a pretty heavy rinsing before i even think about adding it to the tank.

Cus they get fat and look ugly.

ive had my female emp now for 3-4 months and i only ever saw her eat once:(

i usually catch mine in the middle of eating and she usually eats once or twice every 2 weeks...
i figure the time frame i give her in between meals will keep her aggressive enough to actually want to eat that often...

feed mine about 1 cricket each every other day.

i accidentally dumped all 12 crickets i got from the store in my emperor scorpion tank. i also had super meal worms that were in there a day or 2 before but when i put it in, it all burrowed except for one that got snatched up by my scorpion. i have 2 emperor scorpions and they seem to be feeding on the crickets and meal worms whenever they please. i was surprised to see my big emperor scorpion feeding on a meal worm this morning tho, i guess it dug out the meal worm?

Wow dude doing that is asking for either lots and lots of mites, or you must want lots and lots of baby crickets. you NEVER dump that many into there. All the female crickets will lay there eggs inside of the coco fibers then your either going to have tons of little babies and then the lovely mites will follow.

yeah dude...
keep your crickets in a separate container or something, and just grab like 2 (well maybe 4 for you, you have 2 scorps) at a time and throw them in when they either eat them all or like every 2 weeks...

my personal preference for mine is 3 crickets a tank every 2 weeks...
but i just do that cause i think (or hope) they'll build up an appetite, and they usually destroy the 3 cricks in about 2 days

like i told you dude...trial and error...

Don't worry guys, he said it was an accident

lol im not worried...worst comes to worst, pick em out

Well depending on how long he waits, he could of already screwed up. If he waits long enough for those crickets to lay there eggs in there, he will need to change the substrate.

very true

whats an easier way of getting them all together instead of having to pick all of them 1 by 1..

lmao...thats a really good question...
and i cannot answer that, cause i dont know dude...
when i take the 2-3 crickets my scorpions didnt eat, i do it one at a time

yeah I know the feeling I order 6 cricks every 2 weeks 3 for each but I think the guy cant count and he always gives me about 15 Last time I just took em and dumped them all in. then got my pliers and took the extras out and killed them(crushed their heads), and threw em away. By the time I got my pliers out I saw the females laying eggs in my strate so now I wait to kill the young ones. I wonder if my rollie pollies will eat them?

Lol u guys are funny. There isnt a very easy way. I think i remember someone telling me of this trap but i cant quite remember. But i never put in too many. Gotta get em picked up.

Yeah If they did (I think they did) I will be pissed. but oh well if they did.

Hmmmm this is some sorta parallel universe but over here, 1 ringgit get you like 30 crix at the pet store... so even if you have a H. spinifer that stuffs 3 crickets in its chelicerae, holding one in each chela and can't decide how to catch the 6th one you just threw in.... you still got capital to setup shop.

Eventually I acquired enough scorps and t's to take 30 crix in one feeding without waste... now I have to buy 6 ringgits worth just to accommodate, and stash some in a huge cricket bin so I don't cause global warming from driving to the pet store too often...

self-defeating purpose...... but I remember the days when one would find entertaining ways of utilizing the leftovers.... yummmm

Sithis wrote:

yeah I know the feeling I order 6 cricks every 2 weeks 3 for each but I think the guy cant count and he always gives me about 15 Last time I just took em and dumped them all in. then got my pliers and took the extras out and killed them(crushed their heads), and threw em away. By the time I got my pliers out I saw the females laying eggs in my strate so now I wait to kill the young ones. I wonder if my rollie pollies will eat them?

how can u tell if the females are laying eggs? and would they have to be adult crickets? all the crickets i bought were little baby ones im assuming 1/2 inch? but what is tripping me out right now is that this morning i had about 7 crickets in my scorpion tank. they were hopping around and stuff doing the usual stuff they do then i went out for half the day. when i came back all the water in the water bowl had evaporated and i couldnt spot a single cricket? im not sure if my 2 scorpions ate them all or something because i am reading around here and people are telling me they rarely feed their scorpions and will only feed like 2-3 times a week. well my scorpions have been eating the past 2 days so i highly doubt they ate the crickets. the question is.. where did the crickets go??

1) Adult crix are about 1" and the males have under developed looking wings. The females grow wings the length of their boy, and on the rear they have a needle looking appendage that sticks out between 2 shorter ones. they use that thing like a syringe injecting eggs into the soil.

2) As for the missing ones they probly did get eaten. Scorpions will just gorge if given the chance. Or maybe they could have escaped?