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Anonymous
hey /an/

I'm thinking of getting a scorpion as a pet, I can easily get a hold of all the necessary equipment to get one, just need some good pointers!

pic realted: im leaning towards getting an emperor
>> Anonymous
FINE THEN! DONT ANSWER!
>> Anonymous
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Patience, young one, this is the slowest moving board on 4chan.
>> Anonymous
>>224409

Like all insectoids: a good combo of heat, moisture and mould-free environment. You need the moisture, especially during moulting, so that the shell doesn't dry out mid-moult and kill it. What you need to do is get one of them spray bottle thinghies you use for ironing your clothes, and mist your emperor tank every day.

Water dish has to be extremely shalllow, otherwise they tend to drown in it.

Emperors are good starters - they're large and look impressive, and their sting is relatively harmless, but keep one of them epipen thinghies handy in case.

Diet? Mealworms, crickets, moths, and if you are able to catch them, once every two months a tiny lizard once it gets to 5 inches and can actually kill one. This can be completely omitted if you buy one of them scorpion nutritional supplement powders to dust over the mealworms and crickets.

Don't listen to the faggots who claim to feed live baby mice for "nutritional value". Pinkies are NOT part of an emperor's diet, and your emperor is not equipped to kill a pinkie and actually eat it.
>> spiderman !!Q+JluTncCte
emperors (Pandinus imperator) like moisture! don't keep your enclosure bone dry. they're pretty easy to care for..the main things you'll have to watch for are mites and mold. they are attracted to moist conditions coupled with decaying matter. (usual suspect: left over food remains) be sure to clean the food remains after feedings. you may have trouble finding the remains at first, but they are there!

for young scorplings, i'd put a few pebbles in the water dish so they don't get stuck in there. adults have no trouble with larger bowls. in fact, if you look around you tube, you can find several videos of adult scorpions submerging themselves in their water dishes.

as for food..no need for an occasional lizard. they can survive just fine on a diet of crickets alone..but it's definitely not a bad idea to offer a variety of prey. roaches and mealworms are also great prey items. for small scorpions, you can find miniworms.

is>>224438talking about dusting prey? or gut loading? gut loading prey is the way to go. you can feed your crickets/roaches/worms fruit or vegetables..just save a little from what you are eating, or buy some specifically for them. if you want, you could always buy stuff like those fluker's orange cubes. they're kinda pricey though.

i wouldn't worry about the epipen injector. while a sting isn't unheard of, emperors will most likely give you a good pinch if anything. scorpions with larger chelae (pincers) tend to rely on them to crush their prey rather than sting. scorpions with slender chelae usually rely heavily on their venom and sting readily.

http://home.mindspring.com/~drrod1/ has some basics.
>> spiderman !!Q+JluTncCte
>>224490
http://www.pandinusimperator.nl/EN/mainpage_EN.htm here's another one.
>> spiderman !!Q+JluTncCte
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>> spiderman !!Q+JluTncCte
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>> spiderman !!Q+JluTncCte
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here's one of my old ones in a burrow i made using a small piece of aquarium tubing.

they like to burrow, so give them plenty of substrate..or even a flat rock/piece of cork bark/wood so they can dig out a scrape.
>> Anonymous
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While they don't use their stingers often, it would still be a good idea to eventually invest in an autoinjector, more for your friends/family's benefit if you know that you've never been sensitive to bug stings. Suppose your scorpion got out and a friend accidentally mishandled it while trying to place it back in its home, or if you were handling it, it fell onto your friend's lap and became addled as they tried to brush it off in fright. It's not a HUGE OMG concern, but better safe than watching someone you know go into shock.

A second on the lizard/pinkie thing, they don't need them, aren't missing them, and it's just satisfying your own bloodlust by feeding these to them. It's fun enough to watch them kill insects. Also - some sites say it's okay, but there is some danger in catching a live insect from the outdoors to feed to your pet, you never know if the bugs have been in contact with pesticides or herbicides (and I'm not sure if scorpions are susceptible to parasites but that would make me paranoid too).

Good luck with your scorp.
>> Anonymous
i used to own one of these, until my mom forgot to put water in it when we went on vacation, yeah, i was in 5th grade.

ive always wondered, if their venom isnt removed, how dangerous is a sting? otherwise, ive heard its like a wasp sting
>> Anonymous
I used to keep and breed Hottentotta judaicus but can't say I'd recommend them, or any other 'hot' species. Personally I prefer the smaller desert species like Scorpio maurus or the North American Vaejovis species because you don't need to worry about balancing humidity w/ventilation to prevent mould and respiratory illnesses, plus you can accomodate a pair in a smaller enclosure and they tend to be slightly more active at night. On the other hand I don't know of any species that can be taken-out and handled as safely as the Pandinus species; most species are nowhere near as docile.

I would seriously advise against 'dusting' any food items, as spiders and scorpions don't 'eat' the exterior of their prey. They liquefy and drink the insides; powdered supplements are just a useless nuisance to arachnids and most wouldn't be of any nutritional benefit to an invertebrate anyway.
>> Anonymous
I personally keep Pandius cavimanus. Their care is very similar to Pandinus imperator. Just make sure they always have water, feed once every week to two weeks and make sure their is 60-70% humidity. I personally use the TropicAire humidifier coupled with a heating pad on the side of the tank. I recommend EcoEarth for the bedding.
>> Anonymous
>>224508

Most of the time it is just like any other bug sting, it welts up and stings and may make your hand/foot/wherever you're stung uncomfortable for a while. But some people, especially the same people that are allergic to bee stings, have very bad reactions and can go into shock. There's also the disturbing notion that -anyone- can suddenly get an allergy at any time, so even if you're not allergic to it now, you could be someday.

But for the most part, pet scorpion venom shouldn't kill you.
>> Anonymous
>>224508
>>if their venom isnt removed

Uhh.... what?
>> Anonymous
I would think these things would sting you the moment you got your hand within range. Can you actualy pick them up and stuff?
>> Anonymous
>>224611

It is possible to remove the venom-producing sac of scorpions, I think. I don't know. Never bought such scorpions in my life.

>>224490

I personally prefer to dust the prey because well, I'm a lazy fucker. I buy a cageful of crickets, probably dust the first few, and if the rest survives long enough, I would feed them. Mostly I find that the damn crickets don't survive all that long and have curiously cannibalistic tendencies.


Also, even though everyone says an emperor's sting is "just like a bee sting", it's still a nasty shock to be stung, and I have many clueless people in this house. I actually have an epipen taped to the side of the glass, just in case.
>> Anonymous
>>224827

The emperors are actually docile enough to be picked up - easiest way is to sort of scoop them up by getting them to walk on to your hand, or you can pick them up by the traditional method of grabbing tail up.

Handling them is generally not a good idea though. Scorpions should be kept like fish.
>> spiderman !!Q+JluTncCte
>>224851
i've never heard of anyone removing the venom glands before. snakes are a different story.

dusting prey for an arachnid is a waste of your time and money. the best thing to do is gut load the prey. by feeding them a nutritious diet, the arachnid will benefit from the nutrients rather than discard them with the exoskeleton (which is made of cuticle) that they don't eat.

>>224852
mine was actually a feisty little bastard! i never handled any of my scorpions, though only two i would've even considered it. the rest were all either Centruroides spp. or Lychas sp.

for animals with limited understanding of what your intentions are, i find it best to let them walk onto your hand rather than force them into being handled. as i said, i never handled my scorps, but i did handle some of my tarantulas. of all the spiders i had, only one of them was docile enough to the point where i could scoop him up. the rest of them were a bit more skittish or downright unfriendly. with the skittish ones, i would usually wait for them to be climbing out of there enclosure while i had the lid off. then i'd just stick my hand in their path and let them climb onto my hand. it's a lot less stressful for the animal.
>> Anonymous
>>224851
>>It is possible to remove the venom-producing sac of scorpions

>>I personally prefer to dust the prey

>>many clueless people in this house
>> Anonymous
you can't remove the venom sac of the scorpion. That would involve removing the entire telson and stinger thus resulting in a bleeding scorpion. They have hemolymph that does not clot like mammal blood and will bleed out and die. If you are nervous about the venom of an emperor then don't touch it. Handling only results in stressing the animal out anyway.
>> Anonymous
Another thing. DO NOT CALCIUM DUST THE CRICKETS!! The calcium hardens the chitin, what the exoskeleton is made of, and creates heinous molting problems.
>> Anonymous
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Emperor scorpions glow teal under black light.
>> spiderman !!Q+JluTncCte
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>>225058
you sure about that? dusting crickets means the dust is outside the exoskeleton of the crickets. scorpions don't ingest the exoskeleton. some may get mixed in..since by the end it just looks like a tiny ball of dirt almost. also..for the most part, i gut loaded all my feeders with calcium rich food..and never had any molting issues with scorpions.

>>225080
all scorpions do.
>> Anonymous
Pretty sure. I frequent arachnoboards.com where it's been stated and I've also had previous experience with tarantulas that had the problem. Any animal can OD with too much calcium. Scorpions just don't need any.
>> spiderman !!Q+JluTncCte
>>225127
too much of anything is bad for you. i frequent AB too for the past few years, and there is that whole calcium debate. however, i have yet to see anything other than people saying it's true. i've never seen any published scientific journal about it.

i used the fluker's orange cubes almost exclusively for all my arachnids and have only had a couple minor molt issues with a few spiders..T. blondi (which is already known for that sort of thing), a tiny N. chromatus..i think it was too dry for the sling...and one X. sp. "white" that had half of one fang not there after a molt. it came back though after a molt or two and was good to go. (with the same diet i might add) :P

long story short..there is a lot of fact there, lots of opinion too though.
>> spiderman !!Q+JluTncCte
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>>225147
forgot to mention..where i said "i've only seen people say it's true" (on AB about the calcium thing)..i've seen people disagree as well. still, it could've been a number of things. sometimes it just happens, maybe the conditions weren't right..who knows.
>> Anonymous
That is true.
>> spiderman !!Q+JluTncCte
>>225535
there's a number of people from AB on here..only know of one other that frequents /an/ oddly enough.