Sitting at the mouth of her current den

Alright, so here's the scoop of today.

I got an IR bulb and heat lamp, and it's working great. Morgana's temperature is between 90-92 F.. I now just need to keep it humid. I may or may not invest in a fogger.

I also got some other things but that's for another topic.

So i got the heat lamp situated, and her temperature is now up where it should be (as far as I know.. I hope it's not too hot.. some confirmation on that would be appreciated). She chose to dig a den under a rock I set into the soil. But now she has come up and is just sitting at the mouth of her den. Is she too hot? Is she basking? Is she just saying hi to mommy? What's the deal?

88-90 would be better, but 90-92 is not too bad if you have a colder end in the enclosure too.

I wouldn't invest in a bigger, there are cheaper ways of keeping your humidity up. You may set up a fake bottom (browse around in the How To section to get some ideas), or simply pour a glass of water in the substrate when needed.

I agree that it's best to have the heat one one side of the cage to give a heat gradient. If you are using coco fiber (or something similar) and can barely squeese a bit of water out of it when you squeeze it hard the substrate should have enough moisture to provide humidity at the scorp's level. After a bit you will learn to stick your finger in the substrate to check for proper moisture. It should be moist but not soggy.

Should I, then, invest in a light dimmer thingie? I wouldn't know what to get.


And what about her sitting at the mouth of her den? I still have no idea why she did that. lol

I think a dimmer would be a great idea because it would allow you to adjust the heat as the temp in hour house changes.

I wouldn't worry about her sitting at the mouth of her den. Some of my scorps do strange things or just don't use their hides even during the day. She might be hunting for prey.

Okie awesome. I shall look into a dimmer. and I shall also consider that false bottom humidity method.

Scorpions dig to get away from heat. If you're scorpion is out of her hide and under the IR lamp it's because she wants to warm up for a bit.

Thank you, Yames



Little update, I just got home a few minutes ago and attached a newly bought dimmer. I feel much more in control now. Big relief.

Good point Yames. She's probably soaking up some IR rays!

The dimmers are great. You can really fine tune the temp.

Scorpions are ambush predators and typically just sit at the mouth of their burrows waiting for prey to walk by. If you Emperor looks the one below, you have nothing to worry about; it's normal Emperor behavior. They can sit this way for hours.

Emperor in waiting:

shebeen wrote:

Scorpions are ambush predators and typically just sit at the mouth of their burrows waiting for prey to walk by. If you Emperor looks the one below, you have nothing to worry about; it's normal Emperor behavior. They can sit this way for hours.

Emperor in waiting:

She had her claws extended and was just looking out, then would calmly retreat back down. I think she was just checking out what I was doing around her tank after I was done? Or maybe basking like the others said.

Hard to say. Scorps tend to explore their cage at night when everything is dark. You might see her "climbing the walls" of her tank and moving around at night. She may have been catching a few rays, and then she detected your presence and moved into her hide.

Aaw I hope she wasn't hiding from me. lol!

As long as she's in good health, she may do as she wills. Finally got the temperature steady at 88 degrees f. I'm just ignoring the humidity thing from now on. It doesn't read for the tank as a whole. So I'll just stick to feeling the moisture of the substrate with my hands. More effective.

I agree about the humidity. I find it very hard to measure it. I find a lot of the gauges at the pet stores don't seem to work well. For tropical ground dwelling critters I just keep the substrate slightly damp.