My Pandinus imperator Popped

I had 3 Pandinus imperator living communally in June of 2012. They were all purchased form a communal enclosure at a local pet/reptile store. A few months ago it became apparent that one of the females was gravid.

At that time I separated her into her own enclosure and started the waiting game for Emps (oct 10th 2012). They take a while. So the waiting game sucked and I played hungry hungry hippos. Earlier this weekend I noticed she was stilting and arching to get as much warmth as possible to her embryos. I took this picture of her half under a hide but posing awkwardly to ensure everyone inside her got nice and warm.

As I was getting to bed around 1 AM last night I noticed new behavior from her and thought to watch for a while. She would stilt in the warmth and use her telson to itch or rub at the sides of her tergate and carapace alternating between the left and right side. The tip of her stinger would actually hook under her legs at times. During that time I noticed distinctly that her back was more shinny in appearance. At 2 AM I was sure I noticed a small white forum under her body but I didn't want to do anything to disturb her so I went to bed. I happily awoke and crept into my scorpion lair to find this.

We are at 5 so far but she is still in that birthing posture so I will leave her be and check again in a few hours. As a note she ate her last cricket meal less then 8 hours before the birthing process started. But I have noticed she took almost an hour to complete the meal. She was similarly slow in eating at last weeks feeding as well. Going forward I will note if that is an indicator of emps getting close to birthing.

So to keep track although I don't know exactly when she became pregnant originally we can determine a minimum gestation period of at least 10 and 3/4 months