Powerfeeding question

I am currently "hot boxing" my LQ, and I am not quite sure how often I should be feeding him, he just molted a few days ago, I always have 1 cricket in there a day and its gone within a few hours.

He is as fat as he was a week ago before the molt.

4i LQ prolly an inch and a half long.

He is inside a deli cup, which is also inside a 2.5g with a 25w red bulb shining down on there, temp is around 95 24/7 in there.

How often should he be fed? I feed him small 1/4 inch crickets that he takes down with ease.

Depends on your trip bro


Powerfed so it can boost its molting process. Thats what powerfeeding does to scorps.


And did yah just give it food after it molted? And you could turn off the red light when evening comes for a cooler temp

Sorry I don't hot box my scorps so no real experience with what your doing but,

I feed mine as much as they'll eat , but mine are all adults and I also have a communal setup.
Pretty sure it will stop feeding when it is full. So if your trying to get it to adult as fast as possible I'd say keep doing what your doing and when it's full it'll stop. Pluto tested the theory that scorps will eat them selves to death by feeding his as much as it would eat and eventually it stopped ,it looked fat as s h i t but still alive and healthy just not hungry anymore.

Hope this helps a little and good luck bro

Well I am hotboxing to get him to the 5th instar possibly 6th depending on his size, so yes I am powerfeeding him purposely.

I just wanted to know how often I should feed him and if too much was an issue? I means hes super fat right now, large as he was right before he molted a week ago, and he just ate another cricket lol.

I would only hotbox a scorpion during its early development stage (from i2 to i4) tbh with you. After that, I think it is a waste of its lifetime and at instar 5 the risk of losing it because of a bad moult is somewhat 0.

I would drop the temp at night though, 95 is also a REAL hotbox but ok it is instar 5 so it can handle it. If you do that with i2 scorps they're toast I might think.

I dont turn the heat over 29 degrees Celsius for my i2s. Rarely do I push my adults past 33 degrees celsius.

You have to remember that they can search the gradient they want in nature, even if it is 50 degrees on the surface it might be 30 degrees in its lair and this is where the scorpion will be if it can chose.

Also, i feed my i2 almost every day, and they eat it too.. they will stop when full so thats something to not worry about! Hope it helps

+1 to leirus and pluto


They should stop eating when they are full just like us


They turn into walking sausages ;P

he is 4i right now, just tying to get it to 5th instar MAYBE 6th (thats adult right 6th instar for lq?)

so how will i know a molt is coming up soon if he just eats and eats? I fill grab a pic tonight when I get home and post before his molt, after his molt, and pic of what he looks like now.

He eats 1-2 crickets a day

Like I said before I am purposily feeding him and hotboxing him just to get him to molt sooner, cause I hear these guys take a long time in between molts, he turned a year on 6/22/2011, and was only 3i at the time.

When she's super fat and stops eating, appear sluggish most of the time and often in its hide

well he is super fat, but none of the other 2 lol, he comes out a lot actually and runs around trying to climb the walls all the time.

when he first molted, he actually molted outside of his hide (piece of corkbark)

I heard a guy got his Andro Mauc from 2i to 6i in 4 months doing hotbox/powerfeed technique, but I am sure Andros grow faster then LQs?

I am hoping/guessing if I keep this up he will molt again within a month?

I have Androctonus Bicolor from May, arrived as i2, one is still instar 2 the other one went instar 3 2 weeks ago. They are kept as hot as the adults (30+ degrees) and fed a small cricket dailey!

Andro Mauritanicus i2 from end may/june still at i2 and no real signs of moulting yet... They're kept WELL fed too..

That is almost 2/3 months for just 1 instar.
Maybe that guy gives them steroids or something and maybe it is possible, but from my own experiences let nature do its stuff. Hotboxing makes the difference between moults larger I believe. You just get bigger scorps. Not necessarily faster (a little).

Dont rush it mate and enjoy your scorpion.

+1 to bro pluto


Just make it just the way they are Sounds like a song


Btw bro pluto, do A bicolors have fast growth rate or medium?

Andros are considered to be average to fast growing. I do think Centruroides etc grow even a lot faster... so if you want a fast growing scorp that would be the ones.

Look at Gs' Hottentotta! Pretty fast too if you ask me, 6 months (!!!) No way an Andro can do that.

yeah I just want him in a bigger container then a deli cup, I didnt realize he was this small when I first got him, despite being next to a ruler, I think I will be happy with his size when hes 5th instar, should be around 2 1/4 inches by then i think

I bought a 12x12 for him orignally thinking i was gonna get a full grown one, but then things changed and I got a 3i for 10 bucks, little did i know he was that tiny :p.

I am just trying to get him big enough for the 12x12 or at least a 2.5gal.

I hate deli cups :p

EDIT:

As promised here are before, after and current pics of the LQ
Safety first

Taken before he was shipped to me:

A few days before he molted:


After molting a few days ago:


Now, I added more sand for him to burrow under and another piece of cork bark:

pluto wrote:

Andros are considered to be average to fast growing. I do think Centruroides etc grow even a lot faster... so if you want a fast growing scorp that would be the ones.

Look at Gs' Hottentotta! Pretty fast too if you ask me, 6 months (!!!) No way an Andro can do that.

I want Andros!!!! \m/

The same goes for my HH They grow extremely fast!!

Judging from the last picture I think she's on pre-molt stage now


But if she still feeds, maybe the molt will happen in 2-3 weeks from now



woahhhh wish I had an LQ

pre molt already within a week of the last molt?
molted 6/28

yup can be


If you see her still eating beside of eats fat body. It may not molt atm

hmm, dono if they can go premolt 'that' soon that be crazy

theres 2 crickets and i found 2 dubia roaches buried in there right now, so plenty of food

Roblicious wrote:

pre molt already within a week of the last molt?
molted 6/28

Not likely that soon to be in pre-molt my friend
Usually a freshly molted scorp will take about 7-12 days before starting on his eating regime again. (Again there are exceptions like my Centruroides margaritatus which starts eating on the 3-4th day after her most recent molt)

Once they (i couldn't say for all scorps but in this case, LQ, Androcs, P.Trans etc) started eating, mostly likely they'll eat all they can and reach the same "FATNESS" that is similar to premolt within about 1 week of "power-feeding". Therefore "FATNESS" does not equates Pre-molt.

Once they reach this "FATNESS", they'll slow down in their eating intervals but will still continue to munch on a cricket/roach as and when they feel the "thirst".

They can remain in this "FATNESS" untill they are in premolt to the next instar. When i say Pre-molt, it means within the next 2-4 weeks, most likely a molt can be expected..

Cheers,
GS

he started eating 2 days after, at least 10 baby crickets since then :p

That is fast! while he's in the "Hotbox" ?
This is a true "hungry wild bore"

yeah I have had him in the hotbox ever since I got him, cause he was so small and yeah kinda nerve wrecking when its the most dangerous and its that tiny, I just wanted him a little bigger, at least 2 inches so I can get him into either the exo terra or even the 2.5g and not a deli cup :p

this hobby is for me I like looking at my terrariums that I designed and the creatures that dwell in them lol

Yeah you hate deli-cups

Come to think of it.. this hobby is an awesome training ground for many factors..

Creativity.. when designing the enclosure

Diligence.. for regular tank maintainence/ feeding regime/ humidity upkeep (for those who needs it)

Vigilance.. to ensure no escapees.. especially for those Hots.

Patience.. while waiting for molts/broods

i am a new scorpion owner... and i notice that i could put several baby imp crickets in the housing, and a week later they are still there. now i read that they can sometimes go for a month without eating. and they should have a variety of food.... (when i put baby meal worms in the housing, they just bury themselves in a matter of seconds.) for this reason, would it be advisable to take him out of the housing, and put him in a tuperware container with a meal worm so they can "be alone"? thus guaranteeing the meal worm will not escape?

GS wrote:

Roblicious wrote:

pre molt already within a week of the last molt?
molted 6/28

Not likely that soon to be in pre-molt my friend
Usually a freshly molted scorp will take about 7-12 days before starting on his eating regime again. (Again there are exceptions like my Centruroides margaritatus which starts eating on the 3-4th day after her most recent molt)

Once they (i couldn't say for all scorps but in this case, LQ, Androcs, P.Trans etc) started eating, mostly likely they'll eat all they can and reach the same "FATNESS" that is similar to premolt within about 1 week of "power-feeding". Therefore "FATNESS" does not equates Pre-molt.

Once they reach this "FATNESS", they'll slow down in their eating intervals but will still continue to munch on a cricket/roach as and when they feel the "thirst".

They can remain in this "FATNESS" untill they are in premolt to the next instar. When i say Pre-molt, it means within the next 2-4 weeks, most likely a molt can be expected..

Cheers,
GS

+1 here on bro GS ,

ukeaddictify wrote:

i am a new scorpion owner... and i notice that i could put several baby imp crickets in the housing, and a week later they are still there. now i read that they can sometimes go for a month without eating. and they should have a variety of food.... (when i put baby meal worms in the housing, they just bury themselves in a matter of seconds.) for this reason, would it be advisable to take him out of the housing, and put him in a tuperware container with a meal worm so they can "be alone"? thus guaranteeing the meal worm will not escape?

Feeders should be removed after 24 hours if not eaten bro. Yeah you could put mealworms on a separate contaienr or deli cups and you could choose whether to put substrate or not but I suggest that dont put any substrate anymore coz MW would just burrow and would make mess and I find it difficult to dig em

Btw, what scorp do you own?