What type of feeder do you prefer?

I know everyone might have access to different feeder items. As such, I was just curious what people feed as their most common prey item to scorpions? Currently I feed a mix of Dubia and Crickets (haven't tried B. Lats ever, I've been told I should).

It seems that the B. Dubia don't trigger the same "feeding" response from my scorpions, it's also a pain to have to crush their heads prior to feeding, so they don't burrow away. I am looking at maybe trying B. Lats, but I have heard nightmares from people breeding B. Lats. I ask this as I am setting up a roach colony and don't know if I should use B. Dubia or B. Lats (crickets are out of the question, unless I feel like swinging by the store and grabbing a bag). I mostly keep scorpions (90%) with a small amount of T's.

Cheers,

Rob

P.S. - This was a cross post on to AB as well, however, I realize their are several serious scorpion keepers here, that don't really post there, as such, I wanted as many opinions as possible, I hope the mods. do not mind.

I keep lats and have never had any escape. I keep them in a smooth plastic tub and do not stack their egg crate higher than half way to the top of the tub. My emperor can't seem to catch them, though my faster hots have no problem at all. Also, all of my T's love them. They breed like crazy. I recently sold off a few hundred at a local reptile expo because I had so many. They are much better than crickets imo. I have noticed that the roaches themselves seem to be able to tolerate very dry conditions, but the ootheca are extremely vulnerable to dessication. This would prevent them from successfully reproducing in my arid utah climate. This also allows you to control population explosions in your colony if needs be. Let the substrate dry out and the ooths die off. The ooths are also very sensitive to temperature. The ones dropped on the cool side of the tub do not hatch. This is my experience with them.

Streettrash wrote:

Let the substrate dry out and the ooths die off.

What substrate do you keep for them?

I was keeping them in a tub without substrate, I guess that was the problem that lead to a low hatch rate.

I keep my lats in a clear tub with no substrate and a heat mat under. It is usually very dry and mine breed like crazy! Lats can breed in temperatures down to 19 degrees celsius so do NOT let anyone escape. I've heard of several people who got major roach problems in their houses because of this. I bought 100 lats 1 year ago and now i have like 3000. Or 1000, becuase i solf 2000 of them, lol.

Lats and dubia are my favourite feeders by far! Easy breeding, not much odor and you always have all sizes aviable

This weekend I bought some locusts, so im gonna try breeding them for my arboreal t's

Dolby, I use coco fiber, or peat. I use a lamp to keep temperatures up. Like i said, I've had no problem with escapes and have a colony of several thousand.

Scorpeace, I believe you come from a more humid climate than I. Salt lake city is basically high desert with an average humidity of 55%. My ooths dessicate quite easily. In fact, I tested this by moving fresh ooths into a separate container. I did not mist or offer any sort of humidity and all of them were dessicated to the point of crumbling within a bit over a week.

Yup.. to use substrate of not, really depends on the natural climate in your area.
Once the ideal heat/ humidity/ bin setting has been prepared, there's hardly a good reason for they not to flourish.

B.lateralis are a staple diet for my inverts. Makes up about 70% of their diet, but it's good to offer a variety.

Another 28% of their diet are crickets and 2% are mealworms will be my suggestion

Street, maybe your right and im just lucky because my room ranges between 40-60% humidity and I have never seen that happen :S I'll have to test this myself. Or maybe the ooths are laid right next to the water dish or slices of orange, etc.. Dont know :S

I was keeping mine without substrate and with a heatpad underneath the tub and my hatch rates were under 10%

Will try with substrate next time when I get my hands on some lats.