Can someone straighten this out for me?

[Spots]

Do tarantulas like heat or does not like heat?
I am seeing different answers from different people.

 

[m0lsx]

Tarantulas like the correct level of warmth coming from the correct direction.

In general if your room is warm enough for you to sit & watch TV in whilst wearing a shirt/T shirt, then it is warm enough to keep your T thriving within.

Heat mats can be dangerous. NEVER EVER put a heat mat under an enclosure, as T's burrow to escape warmth, so putting a heat mat under an enclosure kills T's. Warm air is preferable to a warm side to the enclosure. So a space heater, or a heating cable slightly away from the enclosures sides, rather than a heat mat stuck to a side of the enclosure.

Don't take natural environment temperatures as too much of a marker for what a T likes. Think of Arizona or Australia. Animals & people in those locations die due to the heat extremes, if in that heat for too long. T's use burrows & shade from direct sunlight to protect themselves from the heat. The temperatures a T actually lives in, in its natural environment, can be very different from what a thermometer in direct sunlight records.

 

[Arachnoclown]

One other thing to add is that Tarantulas hunt at night. I've witnessed many species here in the U..S. at night hunting in the deserts with the temperatures in the low 50s.

 

[WolfSpider]

Tarantulas like the correct level of warmth coming from the correct direction.

In general if your room is warm enough for you to sit & watch TV in whilst wearing a shirt/T shirt, then it is warm enough to keep your T thriving within.

Heat mats can be dangerous. NEVER EVER put a heat mat under an enclosure, as T's burrow to escape warmth, so putting a heat mat under an enclosure kills T's. Warm air is preferable to a warm side to the enclosure. So a space heater, or a heating cable slightly away from the enclosures sides, rather than a heat mat stuck to a side of the enclosure.

Don't take natural environment temperatures as too much of a marker for what a T likes. Think of Arizona or Australia. Animals & people in those locations die due to the heat extremes, if in that heat for too long. T's use burrows & shade from direct sunlight to protect themselves from the heat. The temperatures a T actually lives in, in its natural environment, can be very different from what a thermometer in direct sunlight records.

well put, sir!

 

[DustyD]

If you do heat one side of the cage from a distance, my experience ( just terrestrial Ts) has been that they will bask in the heat on the wall. And while it is nice to see them, I think it is a bit unnatural. I have switched from heating pads on a pane of glass to heating cable looped around my enclosure containing my acrylic T enclosures. I looped it such that it is low in some places and higher in others. They seem less likely to bask since I did this, except for my G. pulchripes who is in pre molt. She spends less time basking, but more than the others.