Advice on heating

[Gillian Patton]

Hey! I was just wondering if anyone could give me a little advice on heating my tarantula's tank, she's my first one so I'm still pretty much a noob


So here's the story - when I first got Mia (my beautiful pink-toed tarantula ) I was sold a heat mat to keep her tank warm but after getting everything set up it was pretty clear that it wasn't nearly enough to keep her warm, the temp wasn't even getting up to 10 degrees. So I went back to the shop where I bought her (an exotic pet specialist) and was advised to buy a heat lamp to give her an extra boost. All well and good I thought, so I got it all set up and she was nice and toasty .

Later I went and did some research online and was shocked to discover that pretty much every site I visited had dire warnings stating that tarantula + heat lamp = certain death but by this point she'd been living quite happily with me for 3+ months!

I was wondering if anyone with experience in this matter could give me some help because I really don't know what to do now, she seems absolutely fine but I'm pretty terrified incase she keels over one day when I'm not there lol I do keep the tank at around 70-80% humidity because she's a tropical species so I don't know if that makes it ok to use a heat lamp?!?! Help!

[Richard Shah]

I've never had a T. before, though this Thursday, Ice Cube, my B. Smithi will be coming via delivery from the tarantula shop!
Anyway regarding heating, I dnt think you would need to have a heater if it is kept in a just above room temperature area; though if you did need heating, I probably wouldn't use what you are using, although from what I can see your T. is quite content and fine with the heater.
You will be getting better opinions than mine though that is for sure, give it time...
Thank you,
Rich!

[Toran Tanner]

here goes. ok here is all you need to worry about temp wise put her some were were the temps are at room temp and she will do fine. if you want her to do really well put her in an airing closet were the temps can get higher best temps to keep spiders IMO are between 80* & 85* degrees. humidity just make sure the substrate is wet. once a month maybe every 2 weeks lighty mist her web. she will thrive.

cheers hope this helps

[jason holland]

unless i missed it, you didnt say where your heat mat was on the tank. now if it was on the bottom, and the substrate was damp, it would take along time for the heat to really show,

if it was on the bottom, attach it to one side of the tank. (on the outside) this keeps one side cool, and one side warm which i think most people will agree is best when using heat mats. it give the T's a choice in what to do depending on how hot or cold they are.

also another thing that might have meant the heat wasnt too great would be the size. how big is the tank and how big is the mat?

did you leave the mat for a few hours to properly heat up? mine took a good hour before the heat was at the mats maximum.

ive never used a lamp, and at the moment dont intend to as i find mats much easier to use, but if those questions i asked helps then cool, if you answer them then some other peeps shold be able to give you further help.

[Toran Tanner]

did I forget to mention heat mat throw it away you don't need it unless your house is freezing

[SylviRigden]

I use heat mats. My house is not freezing though. The area the T's are in is about 20 c (68 f ) during the day and evening, thats below the recommended T temperature of 80 and 85 ( 27 - 29 c ) which is a hot house. The T's are very inactive when I turn the mats off, all of them live on the mat side of their tanks except for the H schmidti which comes from a cold climate.

[Clinton Hogben]

Hi Gillian
Heat lamps are really designed for reptiles who like to bask in the heat a lot rather than spiders as you say everyone will say DONT USE ONE they tend to dry out the air and remove any humidity and if your spider goes climbing she may come into contact with it "ouch"
As Jason mentioned you need to leave the heat mat on for a few days for the heat to be conducted through the glass and warm the substrata
only heat one end (the end away from the spiders hide) that way they can burrow if it gets a bit warm for them I use a heat mat of about 12 x 8 inches in a tank of 30 x 15 inches that gives me a temp of 70-80 degrees as the tank lives in a cool office

just another thought to get the heat into your tank from the heatmat you could put some polystyrene block outside the mat to insulate it ie make a glass/heatmat/insulator sandwich that will direct the heat inwards towards the tank and not into the room

[Gillian Patton]

Hey everyone! Thanks alot to everyone who's got back to me- I really appreciate the help!

Unfortunately my house is positively FREEZING most of the time (it's not unusual to be able to see your breath!!!) so keeping my poor wee T at room temp really isn't an option lol we also dont have an airing cupboard otherwise that would have been a brilliant idea!

In the first few days I had her I did try to only use the heat mat but I don't think the temp got above about 6 degrees C, and as she is a climber she wasn't really getting any benefit from it at all - she just sat curled up in a wee ball looking pretty unhappy I hadn't thought of sticking the heat mat to the side of her tank at the time, and I would move it now but I've already stuck insulation to all 4 walls of her tank in an attempt to keep the heat up!

The heat lamp actually sits above her tank and so she's separated from it by mesh which should avoid her getting burned I think, and overall she seems like a pretty happy wee T to me (she made short work of yet another locust this morning ). Also, because of the design of the bulb, one side of the tank is a bit darker than the other and she does prefer that side, I'm considering putting a wee shelter in (a bit of bark or something) that she can hide under up near the top corner, do you think that would make her a bit happier?

I think what I need to do is strike some sort of balance between not letting her freeze while preventing her form drying out!

[Peter Lacey]

Pink toes = Avicularia Guyana (previously known as Avicularia avicularia)
These are arboreal tarantula which stay off the substrate, prefering to climb. They're used to moist and dry conditions as well as flooding, which helps to explain why they're so hairy. They can swim, jump, and they squirt poo! Avics are one of the only arboreal Ts to possess urticating hairs.
If your house is as cold as you suggest you'll be much better off with some kind of heat and your experience suggests this is the case. However, your light may become too much for the T and you therefore should take a few precautions.
1. Make sure there's a large shallow bowl of water and/or regular misting.
2. Maintain the moisture in the air by blocking some of the mesh - if this is set at the back where the Avic webs it will help humidity and provide an area for the T to retreat from the heat.
3. Provide some upright cork bark or bamboo so that your T can hide and retreat from heat.

I'm presuming you have an Exo-terra in which case blocking some of the mesh will be easy and still maintain air circulation because of the other vents. You must ensure there's adequate ventilation for Avics.


Providing insulation (polystyrene) to the enclosure on the 3 main walls will help keep the heat up because glass is not a good insulation of heat. Deep substrate is unnecessary but having a heat mat underneath for arboreals is quite effective.
If you're really worried about your heat you should have a good temperture guide and could invest in a HeatStat dimmer which will control the heat should it get too hot.

[Colin D Wilson]

Pink toes = Avicularia Guyana (previously known as Avicularia avicularia)

I believe they're described Avicularia sp. avicularia (pet trade) now Peter. (for how long? him upstairs only knows!! )

[Peter Lacey]

Really? dam, I thought I was getting the hang of this
Thanks Colin

[Richard Shah]

I believe they're described Avicularia sp. avicularia (pet trade) now Peter. (for how long? him upstairs only knows!! )

Pretty sure to from what I've seen, unless a lot of sites are out of date - which they may well be!

[Tom Forman]

Well most things have been mentioned already so I will just confirm things based on my experience.

Heat lamps completely dry out the surrounding air so your enclosure could potentially dry out easily which can be very bad for your spider.

As long as you keep the enclosure very humid, a heatlamp can be used but most people and so would I, would not recommend one.

When I first got my heatmat I was surprised at how little it did at the back of an open aquarium. Temps in the tank rose by maybe 0.5 degrees (since you are using wire mesh as cover you essentially have an open aquarium too )

I then placed the heatmat in a comlpetely isolated styrofoam box and temps went up to 35 degrees within minutes.

I basically found out that to use the heatmat effectively you just need to insulate your tank more, not so much with styrofoam on ths sides, much more imprtant is to close off excess ventilation holes, this is where all the heat is escaping (in your case out the top through the mesh)

Most tarantula cages have far too many ventilation holes and all the heat just escapes. Ventilation holes are of course very important but there is no point having too many.

I basically do not use a dimming thermostat, I just try and add as many ventialtion holes I need to get the right temp going...

Try and place your heatmat at the back of the tank, or have you glued stuff to it already? Can you really not get it off anymore?

Heatlamps use about 5-10 times more electricity than a heatmat too and your heatmat would do the job as long as it is placed at the back of the tank and the vents closed a bit.

Try placing a piece of cardboard on the top with the heatmat attached to the back and see if things get better.

If yes, next idea might be getting a glass top as a lid. You can place something as a spacer between the top and the tank to create a little ventilation gap. I would draw you a picture but I hope you can understand what I am trying to say here...

Always place something heavy on the lid so teh spider cannot push it away...

[Gillian Patton]

Thanks

Thanks alot again everyone, I think I'm going to need to keep using the heat lamp because even with all the main walls of the tank insulated and a large portion of the top vents covered the temperature only gets up to about 6-7 degrees C without the lamp.

But I'm going to take your advice Peter, and put in a little shelter for her to keep out of the light. Other than that I've already done everything!

[Richard Shah]

Thanks alot again everyone, I think I'm going to need to keep using the heat lamp because even with all the main walls of the tank insulated and a large portion of the top vents covered the temperature only gets up to about 6-7 degrees C without the lamp.

But I'm going to take your advice Peter, and put in a little shelter for her to keep out of the light. Other than that I've already done everything!

Your house must be colllllllllllllllllllllllllld!!