my son bought me a Blondie, heat lamp question

[Smotzer]

So what you are saying is you and others are quite happy to keep things in less than ideal conditions.

I really don’t understood where any of us including myself have said that

 

[Wolfram1]

Who keeps things in a small box other than slings ??
Enclosures should always be large enough for a heat gradient.
There again we are back to the box of dirt and cooking mentally.

honestly, i have seen and continue to see newcomers here in eurooe with horrible keeping practices, easily explained deaths, etc. that stem from misunderstanding this "european way", mostly from incomprehensible heat lamp usage, so not saying you are wrong but the amount of people that just can't make heads or tails of how to use heating elements correctly makes the saying "roomtemperature is fine" a 1000x safer!

Nor is there really a need for heating in most cases. I also very much disagree with the "less ideal" point you made, most species are kept too hot, at least when you compare the temperatures listed in european forums they usually recommend the summer temperatures but make no adjustment for the colder seasons ....

 

[Dry Desert]

honestly, i have seen and continue to see newcomers here in eurooe with horrible keeping practices, easily explained deaths, etc. that stem from misunderstanding this "european way", mostly from incomprehensible heat lamp usage, so not saying you are wrong but the amount of people that just can't make heads or tails of how to use heating elements correctly makes the saying "roomtemperature is fine" a 1000x safer!

Nor is there really a need for heating in most cases. I also very much disagree with the "less ideal" point you made, most species are kept too hot, at least when you compare the temperatures listed in european forums they usually recommend the summer temperatures but make no adjustment for the colder seasons ....

By European forums I take it you mean YouTube and Facebook both complete garbage references regarding correct husbandry.
Regarding temperatures for the cold season I would imagine turning the stat down could work !!

 

[Wolfram1]

By European forums I take it you mean YouTube and Facebook both complete garbage references regarding correct husbandry.
Regarding temperatures for the cold season I would imagine turning the stat down could work !!

no, ofc not i don't use those, what i am referring to is good quality caresheets on german or swiss forums that go into detail about humidity and soil temperature measured, sometimes even in the specific burrows etc. the problem i see is that most use the summer/warm period average temperstures, as well as the corresponding day/night temperatures, rather than giving an acurate range across all seasons, ...

and in terms of bad practices i refer to new people joyning my lokal invert-club, that do use those bad resources and get wholy confused.
Often overwatering and using heatlamps to "dry" the enclosure whith the spider in it and the like.

To be honest newcomers are often heavily influenced by the reptile hobby as well as social media and i doubt most ever read a book about spider husbandry...

so to me that's a more accurate reflection of the current european hobby, a hopeless mess much like we see here as well.

the oldtimers like yourself are usually very capable, but i feel that you really seem to disregard putting simplisity first, despite the sharp drop in failures it produces.

you can always try to improve on your husbandry later, add heating etc. but first you need to learn how to keep things alive!

 

[fcat]

Who keeps things in a small box other than slings ??

1. Pet shops, who will say anything to sell
2. Newcomers who haven't yet learned the best practices

 

[cold blood]

this species can easily handle 60s, heck it can withstand 50s for periods of time.....so basically if you live inside a house, and not in a tent, you will absolutely not require additional heat for a chalcodes.

 

[Smotzer]

this species can easily handle 60s, heck it can withstand 50s for periods of time.....so basically if you life inside a house, and not in a tent, you will absolutely not require additional heat for a chalcodes.

But Coldblood, the sun is just a heat lamp and life can not exist without it........

 

[cold blood]

But Coldblood, the sun is just a heat lamp and life can not exist without it........

**facepalm**

 

[jrh3]

You can set things up correctly,the European way, or you can take the hit and miss and hope for the best American way and rely on the jolly old " room temperature will be fine ".

Until your thermocouple fails, which they do, even those amazing european ones, and you “cook” your tarantula with a heatlamp. If your space heater fails there is a highly less likely chance of “cooking” because it would take longer to superheat the enclosures. I could explain the concentration of heat that the bulb puts off versus a heating source that heats the whole room but we all learned that in elementary science class.

 

[Tbone192]

Room temp, warmer side. Space heater in the winter if temps are too unstable, my T's have been very active and healthy under these conditions.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

But Coldblood, the sun is just a heat lamp and life can not exist without it........

Still no pics of this t hopefully it’s not a t blondi … and these lamps are for basking ? Aren’t they? I suppose kept to 70 degrees f there safe for Ts .

Until your thermocouple fails, which they do, even those amazing european ones, and you “cook” your tarantula with a heatlamp. If your space heater fails there is a highly less likely chance of “cooking” because it would take longer to superheat the enclosures. I could explain the concentration of heat that the bulb puts off versus a heating source that heats the whole room but we all learned that in elementary science class.

do heatmats thermostat fail eventually?

 

[jrh3]

Still no pics of this t hopefully it’s not a t blondi … and these lamps are for basking ? Aren’t they? I suppose kept to 70 degrees f there safe for Ts .

do heatmats thermostat fail eventually?

They do, but do not put off heat like a heat bulb does, Generally heat mats are less wattage but they are still not as safe as heating the room.

 

[Dry Desert]

They do, but do not put off heat like a heat bulb does, Generally heat mats are less wattage but they are still not as safe as heating the room.

"Generally heat mats are less wattage "

A 6x6 inch is 4 watts.

A 75 watt ceramic on a QUALITY pulse proportional thermostat would probably only use 10/15 watts pulsing.

Oil filled radiator 1000-3000watts.

I've had 11 BRITISH MADE thermostats for over 20 years now and not one has ever failed.

If you must purchase heat mats, heater tape etc. with built-in thermostats from Asian countries you probably will have failures

**facepalm**

Where do you think Photosynthesis comes in then.

Or every living thing using the sun to synthesis d3. ??

 

[cold blood]

Where do you think Photosynthesis comes in then.

Or every living thing using the sun to synthesis d3. ??

the sun and a heat lamp are not remotely the same thing

 

[Brewser]

Learn something new everyday.
I didn't know Tarantulas produced Chlorophyll or Oxygen?
lol

 

[Dry Desert]

We

Learn something new everyday.
I didn't know Tarantulas produced Chlorophyll or Oxygen?

Well now you do - smart ass.

 

[Brewser]

We

Well now you do - smart ass.

I prefer to be addressed as Acute Donkey.

I mistakingly thought , "Blondie" was Terrestrial by Nature.
I didn't realize it was a "Tree Spider"

 

[MorbidArachnid]

Not a single person in any of these discussions ever acknowledge any bit of nuance. I don't like saying "room temperature is fine" because I know some people think "room temperature" is 63F. If you live somewhere cold as hell where it will get cold in your house, you should have some sort of supplemental heating. This could be a heat lamp or a radiator, it depends. Do you have one single large tarantula enclosure that's big enough for a temperature gradient? Put a CHE on one corner of it (or a heat matt on the side) with a thermostat and monitor temperatures. Do you have an entire room with hundreds of slings? Use a radiator, also with a thermometer. In any of these scenarios you should have a thermometer attached to your heat source and I personally have an ambient thermometer in my bug room and an infrared spot thermometer that I used to check on things. Can a heat lamp dry out an enclosure? Yeah, depends on how you use it. Do you have a 100w Halogen sitting right on top of the lid pointed directly at shallow substrate? Of course you're gonna dry it out. If you lift it up higher, have deeper substrate, mind how much ventilation you have, or even just point it near your tank without placing it directly facing it you wont dry out your substrate as much. Obviously any warmer temps will cause water to evaporate more, get better substrate, mist more, figure it out. And yeah, temps can get cold in the winter, but as pointed out before dirt is an extremely good insulator and your T should have enough substrate to make a decent burrow. That's basic care requirements. You can talk about "most of these care guides are using summer temps" and "the dirt is more insulated" but no place on earth is a constant 70-75F year round either. If your temps never get above 75F, you're going to have a slower growing animal that's more likely to have molt issues. Honestly regardless of how you provide heat, or if you do nightly temp drops or seasonal temp drops, if you're keeping your T below 75F it's whole life you're going to run into more problems. They do get heat, even in a burrow where it's more insulated, the ground does seasonally warm up. Like that example of the soil temps in Flagstaff, how hot's the soil temp when its 110F outside? Yeah looks like they get up into the high 80s.

 

[Ultum4Spiderz]

Learn something new everyday.
I didn't know Tarantulas produced Chlorophyll or Oxygen?
lol

I object my Tarantulas are not plants 🪴 or lizards and they hate bright lights so a lamp is a nogo.

"Generally heat mats are less wattage "

A 6x6 inch is 4 watts.

A 75 watt ceramic on a QUALITY pulse proportional thermostat would probably only use 10/15 watts pulsing.

Oil filled radiator 1000-3000watts.

I've had 11 BRITISH MADE thermostats for over 20 years now and not one has ever failed.

If you must purchase heat mats, heater tape etc. with built-in thermostats from Asian countries you probably will have failures


Where do you think Photosynthesis comes in then.

Or every living thing using the sun to synthesis d3. ??

I used an Oil filled radiator one month once then was no longer allowed because it raised electric bill like $100 a month. So I’m lucky my average temps are 70 I never needed it just wasted money . Ages ago I watched a YouTube video were a popular poster from Canada said Ts were supposed to be kept at 80-85 degrees. Prior to joining this site ofc.

 

[Brewser]

I object they hate bright lights so a lamp is a nogo.

How about the soft flicker of candle light... ? Mesmerizing ... Romantic ... ( Helpful for those late night Pairings )
Not much of a Heat Source, but " every little bit counts "