1instar or 1 cm hottentota molting?

hi, my hottenttota is only about 1 cm small and analyzing her in a naked eye is very difficult. How will I know if she is about to molt? lately, she is not going out of her hide so I dont know what is happening on her inside her cave. I gave her 1 lat nymph and after 2 days, i cannot see the lats anymore. Im not sure if the lats were able to find a hide for himself or he just got his fate.

i read that during molting, i should not offer food or move the house. So i wanted to lift the rock roof(cave) to check her out but im afraid it might cause her damage.

any advise?

Hi isko, GS posted a thread about this, 

https://allscorpionarchives.forumotion.com/t10-how-to-understand-molting-identify-a-premolt-scorpion

Identifying a premolt scorp is mostly based on visual observations. If you're unsure if it's in pre molt and if you're worried that the lats might hurt it in the process, I recommend you give him a disabled Lats roach, try removing a couple of feet and it should do your scorp no harm. 

Hope this helps! ^_^

thanks for the advise, i will do that. by the way, is there such a thing as over feeding? I read here that 2 instar should only be fed 3x a week but mine is eating everynight. I always give him 1 lats everyday and then last night I gave him 3 lats (the 2 are disabled and lying on the rocks like sunbathing), in the morning, no more lats can be seen on sight. :S

is that alright or should I only feed him 3x a week regardless...

thanks!

jinjo wrote:Identifying a premolt scorp is mostly based on visual observations. If you're unsure if it's in pre molt and if you're worried that the lats might hurt it in the process, I recommend you give him a disabled Lats roach, try removing a couple of feet and it should do your scorp no harm. Hope this helps! ^_^

Good advice there jinjo

isko wrote:thanks for the advise, i will do that. by the way, is there such a thing as over feeding? I read here that 2 instar should only be fed 3x a week but mine is eating everynight. I always give him 1 lats everyday and then last night I gave him 3 lats (the 2 are disabled and lying on the rocks like sunbathing), in the morning, no more lats can be seen on sight. :S
is that alright or should I only feed him 3x a week regardless...
thanks!

There's no hard and fast rule when it comes to feeding. Especially when someone tells you that you should be feeding a young scorpion 3 times a week and did not give you any guidelines on the size of the feeder in proportion to the scorpion's mass.

Generally, from juvenile to sub-adult stage of a scorpion's life-cycle, I would offer as much food as possible and only come to a stop or a slow-down in the feeding regime when the scorpion starts to reject food and slowly goes into a pre-molt state.

In my experience, there are no issues with "over feeding" but there is a danger of a defenseless scorpion up against a aggressive feeder when the former is going a molt or if it's entering the premolt stage which makes it vulnerable to threats.