Scorpions as Pets Australia

Another animal falling into the look but don't touch group of pets is the scorpion. Contrary to popular belief most scorpion is have a sting that packs no more punch than that of a wasp sting. Australia is home to more than 100 species of scorpion with species covering almost every part of Australia living in cold and hot climates rainforest and desert.

More recently scorpions have seen a surge in popularity as pets is popularity surge being quite understandable. They are relatively affordable but the purchase and to look after. They require little care in fact you could probably leave your scorpion to 10 days without food without feeling any ill effects. Don't require a lot of space, they are not noisy (though their food is). And of course there is nothing more impressive than watching a scorpion at its prey and feed. But before you rush in and buy a scorpion is a pet there are a few points should know.

• Scorpions need to feed only once every week or two. Don't get a scorpion as a pet thinking that life with your scorpion will be one big splatter-fest. Your scorpion will spend most of its time in its burrow hidden underground and only very rarely venture out to dinner.
• The environmental requirements of your scorpion will greatly depend on where your scorpion has been sourced from. Large desert varieties require extremely dry environment and in the wild they may burrow down as deep as 2 m. Keeping such scorpions is likely to be most difficult as you simply won't be able to mimic the low humidity environment if you live on the east coast of Australia. It is also unlikely you will be to have a two half metre high enclosure in your home.
• A better choice of scorpion the Western Australian desert scorpion would be a scorpion is more used to the high humidity climate of the east coast (that is of course unless you live in a desert area). Before buying a scorpion from your local pet shop (and yes these days most pet shops will have them) find out what species they are and research the species. Some species spend more time roaming around and thus more interesting to observe, others may in fact never leave their burrow, their burrow itself acting as a trap with a weight below are insects to fall into their lair.
  
  If you get a rainforest variety you will need to keep their environment moist a quick spray from mister daily should be sufficient but be careful not to let the ground actually get wet or become mildly
• Australian scorpions are unlikely to deliver a fatal sting to human that they are venomous and stings will hurt so don't tempt fate and try and handle your scorpion.
• Scorpions only eat live food much like a spider. A dead fly is of no use and no, they won't it dogfood. My scorpions it a variety of critters that are small enough for them to overpower such as insects by crickets and cockroaches, grasshoppers, small lizards with larger varieties even tackling mice. You can set up an insect trap in order to catch insects to your scorpion, or otherwise obtain crickets, cockroaches or Pinky mice from your pet shop. In most cases they will not use their sting to kill their prey which they will use only as a last resort and more often suited to protect themselves. Scorpions instead rely on their pincers to overpower their prey and would be very rare for a scorpion to take on a creature larger than itself less it had no choice.
• Desert species will require no water at all rainforest species will drink from a cotton wool ball is being dipped in water. There is no point or requirement in placing a water dish in your scorpions enclosure.
• Scorpions are nocturnal generally staying hidden completely during the day. As such there is no requirement to provide them with any amount of light, unlike reptiles do not require a UV light source to maintain health.
• My scorpions are ambush predators in the wild and does they don't spend a huge amount of time wandering about other than to find a mate. The tended to sit in one place and wait for dinner to come to them. As such a large enclosure is not required, a 45 cm long, 25 cm high fish tank is all it required to even the largest scorpions (assuming you are not trying to keep a deep burrowing desert variety). Do make sure the enclosure is well secured. Scorpions are good climbers and though it is unlikely they will be on the scale a glass fish tank will get their sticks or other material resting against the side of the tank expect your scorpion to make use of them.