Heating/ Humidity Issues

Hello, I've been trying to think of ways to keep the temperature in my cage at least 80 degrees for my cobalt blue. It requires 80 to 90 degrees. I've tried many methods including misting, covering the top halfway with a towel, and a lamp on top, but it stays at 70 degrees every time. I've heard about heat pads, but dont know which one to get or how to to even use them! I have a burrowing T, so yeah. If anyone could post a link to a good heating pad, but not insanely expensive, that would be great. Or if you could also suggest some other ways perhaps? I try to keep it simple, but thats just not the case. Any help appreciated ;thanks!

I have an H. lividum and there is no need to keep the temperature at 80 degrees. My house is always some where between 67-75, and she does just fine. She has an awesome burrow and eats like a champ. And if you are having problem with humidity, just dampen some of the substrate every now and then. But temperature is not as big a deal as some think. I keep all my Ts, including tiny slings, at room temperature and they are all thriving. As long as you have provided her with deep enough substrate to make a burrow, probably about 8", she will be a happy lividum.

Build a micro climate. Use heat pads/ heat tape and a thermometer on a tank/ tub that's bigger than the tank your T is in. Tweak it till the temp is where you want it then put your T's tank in the micro climate. Adjust the thermometer as needed to get the temp where you want it. Just don't put your T's tank ontop of the heat pad. I'd suggest putting it on the side of the micro climate not the bottom

haplopelma's do not need to be in 80 degree temps I keep all mine in the mid to low seventies. I use a space heater during the winter periods to achieve this. as far as humidity I pour water directly into the substrate.

thanks, that really calmed me down @FoxtheLviola

---------- Post added 04-07-2013 at 10:40 PM ----------

Appreciate it much

noelr said:

Hello, I've been trying to think of ways to keep the temperature in my cage at least 80 degrees for my cobalt blue. It requires 80 to 90 degrees. I've tried many methods including misting, covering the top halfway with a towel, and a lamp on top, but it stays at 70 degrees every time. I've heard about heat pads, but dont know which one to get or how to to even use them! I have a burrowing T, so yeah. If anyone could post a link to a good heating pad, but not insanely expensive, that would be great. Or if you could also suggest some other ways perhaps? I try to keep it simple, but thats just not the case. Any help appreciated ;thanks!

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This website is a godsend. (Thank you Mr. Schultz)
http://people.ucalgary.ca/~schultz/spiders.html

Oh, & read the temperature link.

noelr said:

thanks, that really calmed me down @FoxtheLviola

---------- Post added 04-07-2013 at 10:40 PM ----------

Appreciate it much

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No problem. I used to worry about my L. violaceopes for a couple months after I got her. Always worrying about humidity and temperature. But I realized that Ts really do need pretty minimal care. Room temp, crickets once a week, maybe overflow the water dish every now and again. And done! That's why I love them.

noelr said:

Hello, I've been trying to think of ways to keep the temperature in my cage at least 80 degrees for my cobalt blue. It requires 80 to 90 degrees. I've tried many methods including misting, covering the top halfway with a towel, and a lamp on top, but it stays at 70 degrees every time. I've heard about heat pads, but dont know which one to get or how to to even use them! I have a burrowing T, so yeah. If anyone could post a link to a good heating pad, but not insanely expensive, that would be great. Or if you could also suggest some other ways perhaps? I try to keep it simple, but thats just not the case. Any help appreciated ;thanks!

Click to expand...

YOU'VE BEEN READING THOSE @#$%^! CARE SHEETS AGAIN!

:wall:

I can't tell if you're a newbie or not, so just in case, I'm going to offer my Newbie Introduction. If you aren't a newbie, maybe you should read it anyway. If you are a newbie...


[SIZE=+1]WELCOME TO THE HOBBY!

:biggrin:

WELCOME TO THIS FORUM![/SIZE]

:laugh:

DID YOU HEAR THAT? THAT WAS THE NEWBIE ALARM!

Ah! So we're newbies. We've done what everybody else does: Read all the Internet care sheets. Listened attentively to everything the expert down at the local pet shop told us. Wasted a lot of money on things we shouldn't have. Incorporated a lot of things that were useless or even dangerous. Stressed out over meaningless details while ignoring the real issues. Way overkill. That's not a criticism; I'm just delineating the problems. It's just the way humanoids are, I suppose.

We can deal with all that.

There's nothing wrong with being a newbie as long as you do something about it. After 45 years of keeping tarantulas, I still consider myself a newbie. We can trace a tarantula's ancestry back over HALF A BILLION YEARS. They've had that long to develop and fine tune their lives and lifestyles. They're incredibly complex and detailed creatures. We're gonna be playing catch-up (that's the newbie part) for a long, LONG, LONG time!

The first thing you need to understand is the KISS principle, not to infer that you're stupid. Inexperienced, maybe. Stupid, I don't think so. As proof, you can speak, read, and write English (arguably one of the more difficult languages on Planet Earth), and use a computer just fine. But, I digress. As long as you supply the basic necessities of life for your captive tarantula, the less you incorporate into its cage and care regimen, the less there is to go tragically haywire. KISS, indeed!

The second thing you need to understand is that tarantulas are like no other creature you've ever kept or even heard of before. All the ingrained assumptions and prejudices that you've been taught since childhood don't apply, and may even be dangerous to them. They're neither tropical fish, reptiles, canaries, nor gerbils, and you don't take care of them like any of those animals. One of the biggest problems with newbies is trying to get them to abandon all their prejudices and begin to look at the world from the vastly alien perspective of a huge, fuzzy spider.


Because tarantulas are so bizarre and unique, you have a lot of homework to do. To begin, you need to read the following webpages.

1) Stan's Rant. ESPECIALLY, READ THE PART ABOUT NOT TRUSTING ANYTHING A PET SHOP TELLS YOU! AND ESPECIALLY, [Strike]READ[/Strike] STUDY THE FOUR RECOMMENDED BOOKS.

2) Myths.... Read the entire webpage tree.

3) Care and Husbandry of the Chilean Rose Tarantula. IF YOU HAVE A CHILEAN ROSE TARANTULA (Grammostola rosea) YOU NEED TO READ THIS WEBPAGE! If you don't have a Chilean rose you can safely ignore this one for now. Just remember that it's here for whenever you do get a rose. Or, you can read it out of curiosity. It contains a lot of hints applicable to other arid species.

4) Substrate. Because you need to know about this very basic, underlying part of a tarantula's existence.

5) Growing Your Own. This is a global, game plan for caring for your newfound little buddy. You need to figure out where it is in the vast scheme of growth and development, then start taking care of it properly from that point onward.

6) If you can possibly spare the time, at least skim through the entire Spiders, Calgary website.

Lastly, be aware that this system is not the only one available. Neither is it necessarily the best one. You'll see and hear all sorts of other ideas as you go along. But, Marguerite and I have spent decades selling tarantulas to all kinds of people of all ages, and fine tuned this system so as to make it pretty much as bullet proof as it can get. Use our system at first, until you begin to understand these weird animals. Then maybe you can experiment with some of the not-so-conservative approaches recommended by others.

You need to learn to look at the world from the vastly alien perspective of a huge, fuzzy spider. READ THE BOOKS! READ THE WEBPAGES!


Hope this helps. Best of luck. Remember, your little 8-legged Yoda is going to be giving you pop quizzes daily!

Hello Pikaia, yes I have received your newbie introduction before, and read it again considering I'm still pretty new!

Some of my Haplopelmas haven't had it much warmer than 60F this 'cold season' which lasted for about 5 months now, all of them are molting, eating and doing everything else spiders do perfectly fine and there is barely any difference between them and the ones I kept warmer.

Kazaam said:

Some of my Haplopelmas haven't had it much warmer than 60F this 'cold season' which lasted for about 5 months now, all of them are molting, eating and doing everything else spiders do perfectly fine and there is barely any difference between them and the ones I kept warmer.

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Tough little buggers! Pretty much bullet proof unless you get carried away trying to pamper them too much.

One of the most basic rules of tarantulas: GO AWAY! LEAVE THEM ALONE!

(That wasn't for Kazaam, who already knows all the rules. That was for all the rest of you who are still struggling to understand these enigmatic creatures!)


Enjoy your little 8-legged tough-as-nails buddies!