So yesterday I became a scorpion grandmother.

Thanks so much for replying to my questions about P. imperator babies on the other thread.
It was definitely a surprise to find Dwayne carrying babies on her back when I checked on her last night.

I just got home, removed her water bowl, and made sure the humidity is okay.
I'll wait until tomorrow to try feeding her a pre-killed cricket.

Since I had to bring down her enclosure to remove the water dish, I took 2 quick pictures.

Here is my girl with her babies.

Tremendous! I was never able to get decent pics of my babies. Aren't they neat!?

Nice! That's always exciting to see.

That's so cool! Great pictures, too.
Congrats on the new grandchildren

Abby you don't want to mess with her at all. Don't feed don't water don't touch! Emp moms are notorious for stressing out and making a meal of the babies at this stage. Wait until they've darkened before doing anything else.

Congrats by the way.

Ack!

I threw in a prekilled cricket last night, and she got it right away and ate it.
I just checked on her now and al the babies are still there....phew!
I'll leave her alone until the babies molt and darken.

Thanks Patrick

I don't think the act of eating alone would cause her to turn cannibal, the problem would be multiple live prey items in there agitating her. Prekilled should be fine, but not if it means disturbing her to offer them. She's fine without food for a long time, so Patrick's advice is a safe bet!

Wade

Thanks Wade

I definitely don't want to disturb her so I'll leave her alone until the babies molt.
I can't believe I got baby scorpions without having to go through the breeding and waiting process

Very cute babies, congrats.

UPDATE:
I checked on the babies last night and it looks like they all have molted.
I see discarded molt pieces all over the area where the momma usually hangs out.
I also see that most of the babies are off their momma's back, and hey are al huddled up in one corner close to the heat mat, only about 2 or 3 are still on her.
Should I start feeding them? Should I add more hiding places? Should I separate them? Or should I rehouse everyone to a bigger home?

I currently have them on a large Kritter Keeper with deep substrate since I only had Edwyna by herself.
I have the kritter keeper inside a 10 gallon tank which has a heat mat on one side, so they can get warm by being next to the side where the heat mat is, but the heat mat is not on their kritter keeper itself so there is no danger of burnt scorplings

Thanks so much for the advice,

Abby

Are they darker now, and do the babies seem to be highly mobile?

If so, you may be able to offer food, but I'd try pre-killed first to see how they react.

Wade

Hi Wade

The babies are a bit darker now, and their segments are more defined, they don't look so soft and squishy anymore.
I see them walking around a bit, some more than others.

Last night I saw the momma out of the burrow, and she seemed to be on the hunt.
I threw in a few small/medium prekilled crickets near her, and she stuff them all in her mouth right away
Since she was busy eating I took a picture of her and babies under the cork bark.
About two babies came near her but she didn't offer to share her meal.

Here is their picture

How are the babies doing, Abby?

Hii, *hugs JFLetch*
thanks for asking about them.
I've been meaning to do an update but one thing or other gets in the way.


*UPDATE:

Edwyna had a total of 15 babies.
One of those babies didn't make it to even the first molt, and one passed away last week for no obvious reason

So I currently have a total of 13 babies.
I separated them about a month ago into separate deep containers because I wanted to monitor who was eating, and who wasn't.

Some are bigger than others, but they all seem to be doing well.
They eat pinhead crickets and they spend most of their time under their cork bark

Here are some pictures of some of them.



This is their basic set up, you can see his molt behind his cork bark.
I will need to rehouse them soon, they are growing like weeds




This baby is one of the smaller ones.


Their molts are so perfect and adorable



It's been over two months since they were born, and I am enjoying every new thing they do
Oh, and Edwyna is loving the single life again...eating and chilling most of the time.

Abby

Nice to see they're doing so well! There always seem to be a few runts that don't seem to get as big as their siblings. Sometimes these seem to be a little less hardy than the others, but that might be because I rear them in groups and maybe the smaller individuals just can't compete. Raised individually maybe they have a better chance.

I hope they continue to do well for you, the world needs more captive bred (or at least captive raised!) emps.

Wade

Ohh and I forgot to mention that I did a presentation for the kids and adults at the Nature Center where I volunteer on Saturdays.
I talked for about 20 minutes about tarantulas and scorpions.
I brought the daddy scorpion, and one of the babies.

I asked the kids in the audience to name him/her...and after taking a vote the baby's name is "Crackers"

I'll be doing more presentations and I'll bring a baby each time and we'll see what names the kids come up with

Crackers is a great name! At the nature center where I used to work we had a box turtle named that, but that was because it was a rescue that had been injured by a car...

Wade

Glad to hear the survivors are doing well. And good job on turning them into little educators! Cool way to get names for them, too.