Night temperature?

[Chris Barnard]

I have 3 Ts - G rosea, L para and B vagans. They are kept at around 75-79F. Would anyone advise allowing the temperature to drop at night? I tried last night by turning off the heat mats and the room temperature dropped to around 68F, it will drop lower than this as the nights get colder. I have read some posts advising a lower night temperature to mimic the conditions in the wild. Any advise would be welcome.

[Jamie Cooper]

Yeah, I've read that a drop in nightime temps also gives the T a sense of time. I don't turn my heat off altogether at night in the cold months because like you said its getting colder, but I turn the heat down to about 68 - 70. I suppose it depends on the species. I keep Avics so I don't like it to drop much lower than that.

[Mrs Linda Street]

Hi Chris, I think a rough guide is that if your comfortable around the 70F then they will be.

[Chris Barnard]

Thanks for the advice. I think I will let the temperature drop slightly at night, to around 68-70. Not sure how I am going to know if the T's are happy with that though. I haven't got a stat yet but think I may get one soon. One that allows the temperature to be easily adjusted. That way I can set different night and day temperatures. I can get away with turning off the heat mats at night at the moment as it is quite mild but think the Ts room may get too cold at night soon.

[Jamie Brady]

heat at night

I have thought about this also, I keep several Poceiltheria and one avic.they all have mats that are on all day and maintan temps of 25-26 degrees. At night I turn them of and the temp drops to 20 degs, im happy with this but as it gets colder I dont want it dropping lower. I would prefer a drop to 21-22 degs at night.
Ill be getting a stat soon myself.
Also a few of my pokies "may" be gravid so might keep their temps at a constant if sacs are made or at the least ill drop there tanks to 24 degs at night only.

[Drew Acton]

my heat mats are on a timer they turn off at around 11pm come back on at 5am and they dont seam to mind.

[Colin D Wilson]

All our spider have no heat at night, just left to cool down from their "day temps" and all are doing fine. We have the lowest night time temp here of around 18 deg (64F)
Heating goes off at 22.00hrs (ish) and gets put back on between 06.00 and 07.00 when Elaine gets up to feed the other animals

[Peter Lacey]

In my opinion a drop to the lower 60s overnight isn't an issue, for obvious reasons its not recommended as a permanent temperature.
If you think about where G. rosea come the night time temperature goes far below 60 and its reported that some species eg. A. aberrans, which also come from Chile, require temperatures to drop below freezing to realise a successful sac.
Some of the montane species of Poecilotheria also experience low temperatures, most notably subfusca and rufilata. However for breeding I think you should maintain spring/summer temperatures.

[Chris Barnard]

Thanks for all the advice guys. I don't feel quite so concerned about the night time temperature drops now, as long as it doesn't drop too low.
G. rosea has spent the last few days arranging and re-arranging her enclosure. The water bowl is now full of substrate and she has dug out all the substrate from under her cork hide till she's down to the plastic bottom of the tank! Then after all that work she spent the whole night squashed into a corner of the tank on top of the cork bark!