The Best Foods for Scorpions

There are many different species of scorpions available as pets, the black emperor scorpion for example. Scorpions are relatively easy to keep provided they have shelter, warmth, food and water. Like any pet, the scorpion is dependent on you to provide nutritious food, and choosing the right food for your pet helps ensure it will live for as long as possible.

  1. Gut Packing

    • Gut packing is a method that helps any prey become a nutritious meal for the scorpion. The principle of gut packing is that if the prey is fed nutritious food, the scorpion will ingest this nutrition by eating the prey. Therefore, feed the prey a diet high in protein and vitamins. You can buy food from pet stores designed to keep prey food, like crickets, well fed. Alternatively, once you learn the diet of the prey, you can make your own special blends of food.

    Crickets

    • Gut packed crickets are a nutritious prey for a scorpion.

      Live crickets are one of the most common prey foods to offer to a scorpion. Crickets can easily be kept alive in a small plastic container or small aquarium and fed with cricket food from the pet store. Gut packed crickets fed a diet high in protein are excellent food for a pet scorpion. When offering a cricket as prey, the cricket should be alive and moving, or the scorpion will likely ignore it.

    Mealworms

    • Mealworms are usually available at pet stores.

      Mealworms are also available at many pet stores and are used as food for a variety of animals, including scorpions. However, some sources recommend using mealworms as a treat, rather than a regular source of food for the scorpion. Special food is available for mealworms so they can be gut packed like other prey.

    Wild Food

    • Wild insects from your yard are not recommended as food for your scorpion.

      It may be tempting to gather insects from your backyard to feed to your scorpion. This is not recommended. Just as prey can be gut packed with nutrition, they can also be packed with junk and even some toxins. A toxin in your yard that does not seem to harm a roach, pillbug or other insect may hurt or kill your pet scorpion.

    Mammals

    • Small mice can be used as food for large scorpions.

      Larger scorpions can actually eat small mice. The mouse can be gut packed like a cricket or mealworm, and may make a nice treat. Mice are, however, more expensive than crickets or mealworms so if you use mice exclusively as food, it may become expensive.