Unfortunately, when your pet scorpion wants dinner, you just can't pop down to the corner shop and pick up a bag of Scorpion Chow. You can, however, go to a reputable pet shop and buy a bag of live feeder crickets.
Yup—live food. Scorpions are carnivorous hunters and seek out live prey to sting and chomp. In the wild, scorpions eat bugs, including spiders. The largest of scorpions can even eat very small lizards.
Is It Safe to Feed My Scorpion Bugs?
Grabbing the random bugs that crawl by your home and chucking them in to your pet scorpion is not recommended (unless in extreme situations). You don't know what that bug has been eating. That random beetle could be a junk food junkie. Your scorpion gets all of their nutrition from their prey, so the prey has to eat healthy in order to keep the scorpion healthy.
Treats for Scorpions
As a treat, you can offer your pet scorpion mealworms (which are also available from the pet store and sometimes fishing supply shops). Moths also seem to be a popular choice from the dessert cart.
When to Feed a Scorpion
Most scorpions seem to be most active (and therefore hungry) at night. By feeding at night, you have the best chance of having your pet scorpion actually eat. Feed every other night.Scorpions can be finicky eaters and tend to have very erratic feeding patterns. If you have a good eater, you are lucky. But even if you have a finicky eater, be consoled that the scorpion is at least acting normally.
How to Keep Crickets to Feed Scorpions
Your scorpion will probably only eat one or two crickets every two days, so you need a place to keep the extra crickets. They can be kept in an old fish tank or the plastic equivalent. Expect a few to escape. When you buy crickets, you are best off getting at least a dozen at a time in order to be sure of enough food for your pet scorpion, even after a break out by a few crickets.Keep some empty egg crates in the cricket tank and feed them cricket food. No, I'm not kidding. Cricket food is available at all fine pet stores and online specialty shops. This food is so nutritious that we could probably survive on it, although I haven't met anyone who has put this theory to the test. Some people feed chopped up fruits, vegetables and crushed dry dog food instead. Some even have their own specialty recipes made in their food processors.
How to Provide Water to a Scorpion
A shallow dish with clean water should be kept in the cage at all times. If there are any plants, give them a squirt of water. What some people like to do is spray the inside sides of the scorpion's tank with water, simulating dewdrops, and the scorpion drinks that.If your pet scorpion is really small or a juvenile, add pebbles to the shallow dish to prevent drowning.
