Urgent help needed: Desert Hairy lying on it's back

~Abyss~ wrote:

Humidity. It plays in important role I'm molting with this species. I'm tempted to get a bunch of juvs to experiment with some humidity set ups.

Do you know whats the safest humidity level it should be at?

Not level per sé, but I've share what I've done to successfully help them molt.

Sorry Varanis. This is one of my favorite species, so I feel for ya. Please know that you did everything to help it out...they are notorious for not surviving molts in captivity. Your thread did help educate some of us...I, for one, had no idea that some species can molt on their back. I hope you get another one. Your enclosure set up looks great from what I can see. Anytime I've ordered a Hadrurus I call or email the dealer and request an adult. Most online dealers should be getting these in over the next few months. Sorry it didn't make it. You're gaining experience.

If you do get a sub-adult you could try a set up with a water table underneath. Shebeen has a really good tutorial on his enclosure for a haddy. An upright 20 gallon set up that way could create a decent moisture gradient. I don't want the risk of mycosis, so I keep it dry and stick to adults.

So after 20 hours of it being on it's back I decided to gently flip it over as it clearly wasn't getting anywhere by being on it's back. Since flipping it, it has moved up and down the tank a little but is very sluggish. I'm hoping it might try molting right side up, but it's not looking good.

It's still alive!!! Good luck.

Do you see tail dragging at all? What's the temperature at?

Temp is at 28c. Tail was upright the last time I checked but that was a few hours ago. Gonna leave it till tomorrow before checking again.

Any progress?

Is it ok??

In my experience some desert scorpions do molt on their back. All my Lq babies molt on their backs. Or at least end up on their backs at some point from the struggle.

I would agree with what everyone else has said up to this point. Raise the humidity and keep the temp up. i would go so far as to moving it onto a moist paper towel if it's been at it for more then a few hours now.

Keeping fingers crossed!

I hope it's ok.

Yames wrote:

In my experience some desert scorpions do molt on their back. All my Lq babies molt on their backs. Or at least end up on their backs at some point from the struggle.

I would agree with what everyone else has said up to this point. Raise the humidity and keep the temp up. i would go so far as to moving it onto a moist paper towel if it's been at it for more then a few hours now.

Can it go on the paper towel just to molt without getting mycosis?

No movement and tail is completely flat. Pretty sure it's dead =[

@ Patcho: yes mycosis takes time to develop so to get young Ha's through molts I would add the moist towel then take it out as soon as he/she is free of the old exoskeleton. Also young scorpions with small amounts of mycosis will usually shed it away at the next molt so unless your scorpion is mature it's really a non issue.

I'd rather accidentally keep my Ha's too moist during a molt and accept the chance of mycosis finding the right conditions temporarily then leave them dry and absolutely loose them to dying in their inescapable exoskeleton.

Bummer Varanis.

I'm sorry for your loss you did everything you could and this was a great experience

Are you sure???

Sorry to hear man, RIP Haddy

Sorry Varanis. Hope you stay active in the forum and have many future successes.

Sorry to see this.