heating???????

[wesley flower]

can someone please explain?
i have kept spider now for about 10 yrs and i ahve always bought good quality heating equipment (pads, thermostats, ceramics etc etc) i am reading in alot of places now that spiders dont require such intense heating, and that room temp will do, (does this mean a heated room with no additional heating for seperate cages?)
have i wasted alot of money in the past buying all this equipment? i have always been sucessful raising slings and breeding various spp.
all the books that i have ever read on the general care of tarantulas say to keep them between 70 to 85 degrees f. i have always kept mine at 75-80 degrees.
many thanks
wes

[James Box]

i'm a bit curious about this, as well! especially since some of my t's seem almost too hyper with the heat mat.
i'd mainly be concerned about winter. our house gets really cold, so artificial heating is necessary!

[Simon Batten]

I use heat mats in winter, the house is hot enough in the summer, I have never used thermostats though, just used heat mats to heat cupboards.

[Nicola Dolby]

The trick with heat mats is to have them covering half of the side of the tank you use. That way you can regulate the temperature to suit your tarantula. If like myself you have lots which like tropical conditions you can run everything off the main thermostat, but although the initial cost of all the equipment is high heat mats are cheaper to run in the long term. If you buy thermostats to regulate the temperature with these its more money but it makes life easier.

[Harry Armstrong]

Hi wesley.
Ask yourself.
Have you ever lost a T through too much heat in the last 10 yrs?
Have you ever lost a T through it being too cold?
If you answer no to both then just continue doing it your way.
I have a radiator in my room set to 26 Degrees Cent. I also have heat mats on each housing these are also set to 26 Degs i have a thermometer in the room that varies between 25 & 28 Degs C and the room never goes below 25 or above 28. If I switch off my Rad the mats are constantly on and off, the mats very rarely come on when the radiator is on. I don't think you have wasted your money. Just Keep your water topped up. By the way my B smithi, G rosea, and L parahybana have all gone through a perfect moult. The G rosea just tonight when I got in from work.

H...

[Stanley A. Schultz]

can someone please explain? i have kept spider now for about 10 yrs and i ahve always bought good quality heating equipment (pads, thermostats, ceramics etc etc) ... have i wasted alot of money in the past buying all this equipment? ...

Simple question. Complex answer.

First, my experience with tarantulas has been in North American homes with North American standards of "room temperature." Many Europeans are gradually adopting this lifestyle, but there are still a lot of people who, for a variety of valid reasons, still live the traditional way.

Now some of you may ask, "What's this guy talking about anyway?" Well, on this "side of the pond," (I got that from one of the postings on this forum!) most people keep their thermostats turned to a constant temperature day and night, the so-called "room temperature." And, in most homes that temperature is about 72° to 74° (22.2° to 23.3° C). A small percentage use timer based thermostats that drop the temperature into the 60s at night then back into the low 70s during daytime.

I'm given to understand that many Europeans assume "room temperature" to be several degrees cooler. And, many turn their thermostats even lower at night.

Thus, if I told you to keep your tarantulas at "room temperature," we might be talking about two completely different care regimens.

Next, we don't know what you're trying to accomplish with your tarantulas. For instance, if you were merely keeping them as pets or to impress your buddies, a constant temperature of 72° F to 75° F (22.2° C to 23.8° C) would be just fine. In this case, your greatest concerns about heating them artificially might be the effect that would have on your electric or heating bill and the fact that at higher temperatures tarantulas tend to live faster, but for a shorter period of time. For Brachypelma smithi and B. emilia, two very long lived species, this might not be too important. But for A. avicularia or some of the African baboons, which have relatively short life spans, you may wish to drop the temperature a little.

But if you're trying to breed them you might want to use a completely different approach. For instance, if you were working with babies and wanted them to grow and mature faster you might keep them at a slightly higher, constant temperature, keeping in mind that there is some debate as to whether "power feeding" and otherwise forcing rapid growth and development may have adverse effects on a tarantula's ability to reproduce.

On the other hand, once they are mature, you might want to vary their temperature both on a daily basis and on an annual basis to mimic a natural rhythm to prompt them to come into breeding condition.

I've heard of one fellow who routinely keeps his spider room window open a few centimeters all day and all night, all year long to accomplish this. And, if memory serves me, he's recorded temperatures in the spider room down into the 50s F at night in winter.

You should understand that tarantulas are really quite compliant where temperatures are concerned. Almost all will survive, even thrive, if kept anywhere between 70° F and 80° F, 24/7. And, all but the most fragile, tropical varieties will easily survive temperatures into the low 60s or high 50s F at night if they're allowed to warm up the next day.

In a nut shell: I think you may have wasted your money unless you're living on the Greenland Icecap or have antifreeze for blood. Or, unless you have some special purpose in mind for maintaining an elevated temperature.

But don't be too upset. The tarantulas were comfy!

Best of luck. Enjoy your tarantulas.

[Ray Gabriel]

I use heated cabinets, i set the lowest temperature for the "winter night time low" (which would also be a rainy season) and let normal UK temperatures do the rest.

For species such as Grammastola well Uruguay can get to just above freezing point in thier winters Chile can be much colder. One of the reasons you cannot import G. rosea at certain times of the year (well used to not be able to) is that the collonies they were mainly collected from were under snow so the collectors could not find them.

Many montain sp such as M mesomelas need to be kept cold, my only breeding succsess with Lasiodorides was with a winter cool down.

Many books sugest slaping a heatmat onto a tank and there you go, they seem to forgat that in most tropical palces there will still be seasonal as well as night time changes in temp. For Avics i have no extra heating at night.

For many Asian sp i bred these in a room with a background heat from the heated cabinets, some of these were up against a cold wall in winter and they did all right.

Just me tuppence worth

Ray

[Ray Hale]

As a young and eager keeper I bought heatmats, thermostats and all sorts to keep my tarantulas warm. As the years rolled by I gathered more and mores T's and it became easier to use a heated room rather than individual mats. I now use a Dragon Oil Filled Radiator with its own thermostat ( Bought from the Homebase Superstore for around £100). This maintains the temperature in my spider room. Asians on the top shelves and South American on the bottom.
With around 200 T's its easier and cheaper to heat this way. I can appreciatte that if you only have a single tarantula then a heat mat is probably the best method.

Whatever you use is a personal choice and as Stanley says Im sure your spiders are OK.

Ray Hale
BTS Committee

[stephen bland]

was thinking of getting a heater for spids to heat room was talking to some dude at currys.
he sad was not a good idea to leave it on but it wasent a heater rad? i have a cabinet with about 51 spids.
got another coming soon need to get more heating set up in new cabinet. mats will cost me about £100 its a big cabnit? what do you think will be best?

steve

and a rad will keep me cozy too

[chris king]

well if you need to heat, cabnets/racks etc , then why not use heat cable, availble in diff lenths up to and pos more 20mtres
put on 1 themostate away you go,

[James Box]

i might splash out on a rad. the heatmats are fine at the moment, but i'm worried about winter. might be good to have one source of heat to keep the area toasty, perhaps with a thermostat as well
that heat cable sounds interesting too, though... will have to weigh the options.

[Chris Dadswell]

I use TWO 24 inch by 5ft propagation heatmats stuck to the wall you can pick them up for 70£ new from growing websites. I have it turn off from april/may to sep/oct.

[Peter Lacey]

Having found this thread (after I'd written the post below) it seemed appropriate to add to the discussion rather than create a new thread. I guess some of my fears are already answered but I'm compelled to post.

I think I'm going to have to address my heating arrangements for my T's. As the weather hasn't been too cold lately and for the most part the heating has been on enough to keep the house warm, I've been able to simply add a little heat via the heatmap.
Currently I have the heatmap and timer-switch on for 3-4hrs during the day followed by half hr off, repeated during awake hours. To imitate nature the heatmap reduces into and during the night. I'm achieving 80-85F during the day and reducing to around 70 during the night (recorded close to the source).
However its turned damned cold recently and my readings have fluctuated. I've noticed its around 80 during the day and I've found it below 70 in the morning. As I'm experimenting with changes I've found the heat reach just over 90F if the heatmap is left on constantly. I should mention the T's move away from the source in this case and interestingly move towards the source when they're cold, even if its not on!
The heat travels into my Exo-Terra for my 8" Klugi and then into my small enclosure for my 1" Rosea.
I'm now considering a HeatStat to control the heat automatically taking into account the heat generated by the house. But, before I make the purchase I wondered how others approached their heating. Am I over worrying about these fluctuations/highs/lows?
I should point out I only have the 2 T's so heating a large cabinet isn't the answer at mo. Although dare I say it, at one point I did consider whether I could keep these in my CW Dragon enclosure.

[Rebecca Norris]

I use the central heating to heat my T's during the day. It gets to about 26-28 C in here during the day (although in the summer i only use it on low if its a bit cooler outside, the rest of the summer this year they had no artificial heating) At night i turn the radiators off completely, and i'm not sure what it drops to but it gets pretty chilly! All of my spiders have been fine and i have various species at various stages of growth. When i just had a couple of T's they were heated on a heat mat, but as its winter and the heating is on anyway it is a lot cheaper and more efficient way of heating them i find. Plus when you get over about 10 it becomes difficult lol

One question though about specific species requirement. I've encountered a problem. I have a Megaphobema mesomelas juve female and she recently went downhill, death curling etc and i think it's because she was simply too warm. But what do i do now?? She's been living in her tank downstairs as it stays cool down there, but she can't stay there forever... But i don't bring her in my room as it's too warm. At night it would be ok, but during the day its too warm. My T's are in my bedroom so finding her another room is proving tricky.
Also, Pamphobeteus species. I've read conflicting info. Some say keep them extra warm and extra humid all the time, whereas others say "normal" tropical temp and a drop at night would be fine... Is how i'm keeping them now suitable? I've just had a Pampho sp. "Goliath" moult and its got through it fine so i'm assuming for now it is.. but what about in the long run??

[Oli Dodds]

Damn, NOW you tell me!
*runs and turns off all the heat mats and heat strips*
My cockroachs, snakes, scorpions, slings adults and juves have all been kept at 80F constantly for the last 4-5 months with no problems at all. Never turned the mats off at night or during the day and they have all molted properly, been eating properly etc.
Reading this thread, I think I may turn them off during the day from now on and have them coming on for a couple hours/off for an hour during the night.
Ive always been worried about temp control, but now im starting to have second thought on why Ive spent around 100 quid on heat mats and heat strips lol!
Oh yes, all tanks have been heated from underneath also may I say
Oli