How to Breed Pet Scorpions: Mating, Gestation, and Raising Young

Most keepers who decide to breed scorpions picture a romantic problem: getting a male and a female together. In practice that is the easy part. The hard parts are waiting eight to fourteen months for a pregnancy you cannot confirm, surviving the birth without disturbing the mother, and then separating twenty to thirty hungry scorplings before the strongest one eats the rest.

This guide covers the whole arc of scorpion breeding: sexing adults, introducing a pair without injury, reading the mating promenade, recognising gestation, managing the birth, and raising the first generation to independence. If you have not set the enclosure up yet, start with our scorpion enclosure setup guide, and read how to feed a scorpion first — a gravid female that is underfed is the single most common breeding failure.

Is Breeding Scorpions Right for You?

Before you start, understand the commitment honestly. Scorpions are among the slowest-breeding invertebrates commonly kept:

• Sexual maturity: 2-3 years for most species, 3-4 for large emperor scorpions.
• Gestation: 8-14 months depending on species and temperature.
• Litter size: 10-40 young, depending on species, female size, and condition.
• Time to independence: 2-4 weeks on the mother’s back, then 4-6 months of separate rearing.
• The housing math: 25 scorplings means 25 individual enclosures, or dozens of doomed introduction attempts.

The honest question is not “can I get them to mate” but “where will thirty adult scorpions live in three years”. Many experienced keepers breed deliberately to produce stock for the hobby or to raise the price of a rare pairing, and they plan the space in advance. If your answer to the housing question is “I will sell them”, price your local market first — a common Pandinus imperator is not a valuable animal, and only the slowest sellers will take an accidental litter.

Do not breed: if the female is under a year old, if she has not fed well for months, if you cannot separate the young, or if you are breeding two hybrids with unknown lineage. Hybridisation between Pandinus imperator and Pandinus gambiensis is a real conservation problem in the trade — buy from a breeder who names the species, not a pet shop that labels everything “emperor scorpion”.

Step 1: Sex Your Adults Correctly

Sexing is not optional — you need a confirmed male and a confirmed female, and mixing two females is how keepers end up with a seriously injured animal after a failed “introduction”.

Use ventral photos, not guesses

Turn the scorpion over gently into a clear container with a lid and photograph the underside with your phone. Never hold a scorpion upside down by the tail or by the telson (stinger).

The pedipalp tooth (the “mating tooth”) is the definitive marker in a mature male, but only in adults. In juveniles, count the pectine teeth — a difference of two or more is a reliable indicator, and a keeper who has sexed a few dozen animals does it at a glance.

Step 2: Condition Both Animals

A gravid female’s embryos are built from the food she eats in the months before and during gestation. Underfed females produce small litters that do not thrive, and in the worst cases abort or resorb the brood.

• Feed the female well for 4-6 weeks before introduction — one appropriately sized prey item per week, with variety (crickets, roaches, mealworms) and calcium dusting.
• Confirm she is gravid-capable — she must be a full adult, not a subadult that has only recently moulted.
• Feed the male normally — a male that has just eaten a huge meal is a slow dancer, and courtship needs energy.
• Both should be near target weight — a female with a visibly thin tail has no reserves for a ten-month pregnancy.

Step 3: Introduce the Pair Safely

Courtship in scorpions is not gentle. The male grabs the female’s pedipalps in his own and drags her around the enclosure in a ritual called the promenade à deux. She can refuse, and refusals occasionally end in a stung or injured male. Most scorpion keepers do the introduction supervised, or use a divided container.

The divided-container method (recommended)

1. Use a plastic tub with a slotted divider the scorpions cannot squeeze through but can sense each other through.
2. Place the male on one side, the female on the other, for 24-48 hours.
3. Watch for signs of acceptance: calm posture, no defensive tail curling over the back, pectines actively combing the substrate.
4. If both are calm, remove the divider at night (most species are nocturnal) and watch for the first hour.
5. Separate immediately if either shows the threat posture: tail arched high over the body, pedipalps raised, or repeated jerking.

The supervised single-enclosure method

1. Introduce in the female’s enclosure, in low light.
2. Have a small separate tub and a clear container ready.
3. Watch for 30-60 minutes. If the dance starts, let it run — interruption usually fails anyway.
4. Remove the male as soon as the spermatophore is deposited or as soon as either animal becomes aggressive.

Step 4: Confirm That Mating Happened

This is the step most keepers get wrong, because they assume that a dance without a sperm packet means nothing happened, and that a quiet introduction meant the female refused. Both assumptions are wrong.

What a real mating looks like

1. The male seizes the female’s pedipalps and pulls her in a tight, jerky dance.
2. He uses his pectines to find a stable, smooth patch of substrate.
3. He deposits a spermatophore — a small, whitish, stalked sperm packet, about 1-2 mm — onto the substrate.
4. He manoeuvres the female over it so her genital opening contacts the top, and the sperm packet is drawn in.
5. The pair separates. The spent spermatophore may be visible on the substrate for a day or two.

Signs the female is not interested

• Tail snapped hard over her back, stinger forward.
• Pedipalps used to push the male away rather than being seized.
• The male retreating repeatedly to a corner.

If this happens, separate and retry in 2-4 weeks. A female that has recently moulted, or is about to moult, will always refuse — never introduce during the weeks before a moult. Read our scorpion moulting guide so you recognise the signs and do not introduce at the worst moment.

Step 5: Manage the Gestation (8-14 Months)

This is where patience is tested. Fertilised scorpions are ovoviviparous (live-bearing): eggs hatch inside the mother and the young emerge live, riding on her back until their first moult. There is no nest to check and no eggs to count, so most keepers are guessing for months.

How to tell she is gravid

• Shiny, stretched intersegmental membranes — the pale, flexible joints between the hard segments of the tail glow whitish-pink as the body expands. This is the most reliable early sign.
• Visible body swell from above, especially along the last few tail segments.
• Appetite increase in the middle months — feed her well; this is normal and important.
• Reduced activity and more time in the hide near term.
• Refusal to eat in the last 2-3 weeks is common and not a problem if she was well fed earlier.

The gestational swell must be distinguished from a well-fed female. A fat scorpion is round along the whole body; a gravid scorpion’s swell is concentrated in the metasoma and the pale membranes are visibly stretched and glossy. Photograph her every few weeks so you have a comparison — this is the only reliable method short of veterinary palpation.

Gestation care

• Keep her alone. No tankmates, no cleanup crew you cannot count — isopods and springtails are fine and will not harm a gravid female, but a surplus of crickets will harass her.
• Feed every 7-10 days until the final two weeks, when you switch to offering but not forcing.
• Stable temperature and humidity. Heat stress during gestation can abort the brood. Check your gradient with a thermometer, not by feel — our scorpion substrate guide covers humidity targets by species.
• Do not disturb the hide. Gravid females are secretive and stressed by handling. Spot-clean only, and leave the burrow alone.
• No handling at all in the last month. The risk of a drop injury to a pregnant female is not worth a photograph.

Step 6: The Birth

Birth is a 15-60 minute event, usually at night, and the correct keeper response is to do almost nothing.

What you will see

1. The female raises her front legs and arches her body into a “birth basket”.
2. One to several white, soft scorplings emerge, each 3-8 mm depending on species.
3. Each newborn immediately climbs up the mother’s legs and onto her back.
4. She carries them, motionless, for their first moult — 7-14 days for most species.
5. After the first moult, the scorplings disperse off her back and start hunting on their own.

During and after the birth

• Do not remove her from the enclosure. A frightened mother may drop or abandon the young.
• Do not count the young by tipping her over. Count them once they disperse.
• Remove any prey items from the enclosure during the birth window — crickets will eat newborn scorplings.
• Add a shallow water dish with a pebble. A dish is not strictly necessary for desert species at this stage, but humidity matters; follow the species target.
• Feed the mother lightly while she is carrying — a small cricket every 7-10 days. She will not eat much, and food left in the enclosure risks the young, so remove anything uneaten after a few hours.

Step 7: Raise the Scorplings

This is the phase that requires real space and real time.

The dispersal point — the non-negotiable step

When the young moult for the first time and leave the mother’s back, separate them immediately. Scorpion scorplings are not communal, and cannibalism will reduce a litter of 25 to a handful of survivors within weeks. Grouped scorplings lose limbs, develop stress injuries, and eat each other at every moult.

Individual housing

• Small ventilated containers, roughly 10 x 10 x 8 cm for the first few months, upgraded as they grow.
• A few centimetres of the same species-appropriate substrate as the adults, with a small hide (a bottle cap or piece of cork bark).
• One small feeder insect per week — pinhead crickets, flightless fruit fly cultures, or freshly killed small mealworms.
• Mist the enclosure wall, not the animal, for arboreal and tropical species.

Feeding schedule by age

Moulting

Scorplings moult roughly every 2-4 months in the first year, slowing to once or twice a year as adults. During a moult, do not feed, do not disturb, and do not remove the old exoskeleton — it is a calcium source the animal may eat. If a scorpling fails to complete a moult, humidity is almost always the cause. Review your species’ target in the substrate and humidity guide.

Warning Signs That Need a Vet

Breeding animals are under physiological stress, and problems surface faster. Take a breeding female or a failing scorpling to an exotic vet if you see:

• A gravid female that has not eaten in 3+ weeks and is lethargic — possible egg retention or infection, especially if the swell is hard or lopsided.
• Visible white or yellowish discharge from the genital opening — infection, and a genuine emergency.
• Scorplings with missing limbs that do not regrow at the next moult — injury from overcrowding, or a moult failure from dry conditions.
• Half-emerged scorplings still attached to the mother after 24 hours — a difficult birth; do not pull, but get advice.
• Sudden death of multiple scorplings in the same week — environmental fault (heat spike, mould in the substrate, chemical contamination), not bad luck. Check the gradient and humidity before anything else.

General illness signs are covered in scorpion health warning signs — a scorpion that stops feeding and burrows for weeks outside of a moult or brumation window is telling you something.

Breeding Checklist

1. Confirm a sexed, mature pair from a named species — no “emperor scorpion” without a species name.
2. Condition the female with regular feeding for 4-6 weeks before introduction.
3. Introduce using a divider, and separate at the first threat posture.
4. Confirm the spermatophore was deposited, and leave that corner undisturbed.
5. Photograph her every few weeks to track gestational membranes.
6. Keep her alone, stable, well fed, and undisturbed for 8-14 months.
7. Do nothing during the birth except remove prey items.
8. Separate every scorpling immediately after the first moult.
9. Feed pinhead prey every 5-7 days; do not overfeed.
10. Plan the housing for adults before the first birth, not after.

Frequently Asked Questions

How long does a scorpion pregnancy last?

8 to 14 months depending on species and temperature. Large species like Pandinus imperator run at the long end; smaller desert species at the short end. Cooler temperatures within the safe range extend gestation and increase litter size slightly.

Do scorpions lay eggs or give live birth?

Live birth. Scorpions are ovoviviparous — the eggs hatch inside the mother and she gives birth to fully formed, white, soft young that immediately climb onto her back.

How many babies does a scorpion have?

Typically 10-40, with large well-fed females at the top of that range. First litters from a young female are usually smaller and often have a lower survival rate.

Can you keep scorpion babies together?

Only on the mother’s back. Once they disperse after the first moult, they must be separated individually. Group-reared scorplings reliably end in cannibalism, and keepers who skip this step lose most of the litter.

How long until scorpion babies breed?

Two to three years for small species, three to four for large emperors. Sexual maturity arrives a few moults after the animal reaches adult size, and it is not predictable by age alone — sex them before planning a pairing.

My two “pair” scorpions keep fighting. What is wrong?

Most likely they are two females, or the female has recently moulted. Sex them with a ventral photograph, and never introduce within a month of a moult. Separate, wait 2-4 weeks, and try again in low light with the divider method.

The Bottom Line

Breeding scorpions is 10 percent mating and 90 percent logistics. Get the pair sexed correctly, condition the female, run a supervised introduction, confirm the spermatophore, then leave her completely alone for the better part of a year. The birth takes care of itself. The two things that actually decide whether the litter survives are a well-fed mother and separating every scorpling the day it leaves her back — and the space for thirty adults decided before the first one is born.