Adult Asian forest scorpions (Heterometrus species) do well eating two to three times per week. That’s a reliable baseline, but the right schedule depends on your scorpion’s age, size, and whether it’s approaching a molt. These are forgiving animals when it comes to feeding, and understanding a few key patterns will help you keep yours healthy without overcomplicating things.
Feeding Frequency by Life Stage
Scorplings and juveniles are growing fast and benefit from more frequent meals. Offering small prey every two to three days keeps up with their energy demands during this rapid growth phase. As your scorpion reaches adult size, you can space feedings out to twice a week, or even once a week for particularly large, well-fed adults. There’s no rigid rule here. Scorpions are opportunistic predators that can tolerate irregular feeding far better than most pets.
One useful guideline: watch the size of your scorpion’s abdomen (the segmented tail section behind the body). A well-fed scorpion has a plump, rounded abdomen where the segments look filled out. If the segments appear sunken or the gaps between them are clearly visible, your scorpion could use more frequent meals. Conversely, an overly distended abdomen means you can back off for a few days.
What to Feed
Asian forest scorpions eat a variety of live insects. Good staple feeders include crickets, dubia roaches, mealworms, and superworms. For occasional variety, you can offer waxworms or hornworms. Crickets and dubia roaches are the most popular choices because they’re easy to find, nutritious, and appropriately active enough to trigger a hunting response.
A key sizing rule: prey should be smaller than the span of your scorpion’s pincers. Anything larger can be difficult to subdue and may stress or even injure your scorpion. For scorplings, that means pinhead crickets or small mealworms. Adults can handle full-sized crickets and adult dubia roaches without trouble. Offering one to two appropriately sized prey items per feeding session is plenty.
Gut Loading Your Feeders
The nutritional value of a feeder insect depends almost entirely on what that insect has been eating. Gut loading means feeding your prey insects a nutrient-dense diet for 24 to 48 hours before offering them to your scorpion, so the insect’s digestive tract is packed with good nutrition when it’s consumed. Dark leafy greens like collard greens, kale, and mustard greens are excellent choices. You can add brightly colored vegetables and fruits like carrots, sweet potatoes, squash, oranges, and apples for additional vitamins. Grains such as wheat germ, baby rice cereal, or alfalfa round out the gut-load diet nicely.
If you’re buying crickets from a pet store and tossing them straight into the enclosure, your scorpion is essentially eating an empty shell. Even a day of quality feeding makes a meaningful difference in what your scorpion actually absorbs.
Removing Uneaten Prey
If your scorpion ignores a food item, remove it within 24 hours. Live crickets left in the enclosure will roam, and they can nibble on a resting or molting scorpion, causing real injury. This is especially important with crickets, which are more aggressive scavengers than roaches or worms. Getting into the habit of checking the enclosure the morning after feeding keeps things simple.
When Your Scorpion Stops Eating
Asian forest scorpions are famously known for going on hunger strikes, and premolt fasting is the most common reason. When a scorpion is preparing to shed its exoskeleton, it will typically hide in its burrow for weeks or even months, showing no interest in food at all. This is completely normal. Research on scorpion behavior shows that even outside of molting, scorpions commonly stay hidden for extended periods after eating, sometimes not surfacing for over two weeks while they digest a single meal.
If your scorpion refuses food, check the basics first. Is humidity adequate? Is the enclosure warm enough (around 75 to 82°F)? If the environment is fine and your scorpion is simply tucked away in its burrow, it’s almost certainly in premolt. Leave it alone, keep the water dish full, and wait. Do not leave live prey in the enclosure during this time, as an uneaten cricket can harass a vulnerable, molting scorpion.
After a molt, wait several days before offering food again. The new exoskeleton needs time to harden, and your scorpion won’t be ready to hunt until that process is complete.
Water and Humidity Alongside Feeding
Hydration matters as much as food. Always provide a shallow water dish. Asian forest scorpions can drown if the water level is too high or they become trapped, so keep the dish shallow. For scorplings, a small bottle cap works well, as long as the dish is no wider than the scorpling’s leg span. Adults can use a slightly larger shallow dish.
Placing the water dish on the warmer side of the enclosure serves double duty. The evaporation helps maintain the tropical humidity these scorpions need, and overflowing the dish slightly keeps the warm side of the substrate damp while the cool side stays drier. You don’t need a misting system. Simply keeping the water dish full and occasionally dampening the substrate is enough to meet their humidity requirements. Check the dish regularly since the warm environment causes water to evaporate faster than you might expect.
A Simple Weekly Routine
- Adults: Offer one to two prey items, two to three times per week. Adjust based on abdomen fullness.
- Juveniles and scorplings: Feed every two to three days with appropriately sized prey.
- Gut load feeders for at least 24 hours before offering them.
- Remove uneaten prey within 24 hours.
- Refill the water dish daily or as needed.
Asian forest scorpions are low-maintenance eaters. They’ll tell you what they need if you pay attention to their body condition and behavior. A plump abdomen and an active nighttime presence mean you’re on track. A scorpion hiding for weeks on end is almost certainly preparing to molt, not starving. Relax, keep the routine simple, and your scorpion will thrive.