Minifridges and tarantulas

Stylopidae

Arachnoking
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Has anyone ever used a minifridge for a cooling period?

I'm thinking if I set it on it's warmest setting, it could be OK to use but I don't really want to buy a wine cooler...you know?
 

cheetah13mo

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What species. I know the A. hentzi that are local here do not dig very deep burrows and can handle very cold temps. BrainS (here on the boards) lives here and he's bred them sucessfully by putting the female in his garage. He told me in real bad weather, it can get around the upper thirties, low forties inside so I imagine some Ts can handle quite a bit.
 

Tony

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I 'wintered' B klaasi at 54 or so for weeks..When she returned to the spider room she dropped soon after. Did a bad job though..
 

Talkenlate04

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Thats an interesting idea. I have not considered that only because I like to let the seasons here in Oregon dictate how I try and breed. I let my T room follow the general temps out outside, avoiding the extremes ofcourse.

I might have to try that out. :D :D
 

funnylori

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Is a cooling period that necessary? I would think that a mini fridge would cut out too much air and the thing would sufficate. In my room there is a large temperature difference between the level I keep my T's at on top of dressers, and the floor. I am 'cooling' my female G. rosea on the floor.
 

Talkenlate04

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Cooling period is something that is kinda new to the mainstream breeder but it really does work. If you think about it seasons dictate what the T is going to do. There is a breeding season, a high food intake season which would be spring early summer when the food is abundant.......ect..... ect..... So by cooling them you make bred T think its winter..... certain things happen. Then you raise the temp and the T thinks its spring and other things happen as well.

But with the mini fridge the more I think about it might be a bad idea..... just like lori just said airflow might be an issue, stagnate air can kill Ts just as fast as anything else. It is more of a controlled temp drop, but I just use my garage..... I might test this out eventually to see if its any easier or shows any better results.
 

Windchaser

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I believe some folks who have been doing this use wine coolers. They generally are more controllable than a refrigerator and they don't get as cold.
 

Stylopidae

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I believe some folks who have been doing this use wine coolers. They generally are more controllable than a refrigerator and they don't get as cold.

Wine coolers are expensive, aren't they?

Lori...Ts don't have that high of oxygen needs, so suffocation isn't an issue. If you opened it once a week to check on it, then that air exchange would be enough..
 

Windchaser

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Cooling period for what exactly? The cold is not good for a T.
To stimulate the seasons which in turn stimulates the breeding drive. There has been some work don erecently that shows that cooling periods can increase the success of breeding attempts with some species.
 

Brian S

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For some species a cooling period makes a huge difference in breeding. I have produced a few sacs without cooling somes species (P murinus, P pulcher,C bechuanicus to name a few.) Aphonopelmas really seem to benefit from this. Just last week it was around 25F at night in my garage and the A hentzi survived with flying colors. I normally dont cool them off as long as I have this one. Usually about a month will do.
As far as the fridge goes, I would want to monitor the temps for awhile before putting some species in it. While Aphonos could take alot of cold, some of the tropical species probably would not survive very cold temps
 

Windchaser

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As far as the fridge goes, I would want to monitor the temps for awhile before putting some species in it. While Aphonos could take alot of cold, some of the tropical species probably would not survive very cold temps
This is where a wine cooler is handy. They usually have better control over temperature and allow for warmer temperatures. Though I don't have one. My house is so drafty I just let the Chicago winter take care of my cooling period. :D
 

Brian S

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This is where a wine cooler is handy. They usually have better control over temperature and allow for warmer temperatures. Though I don't have one. My house is so drafty I just let the Chicago winter take care of my cooling period. :D
LOL sounds like my garage. It would be pretty cool to have a way to cool one off in the case if you had an adult male in the Summer with a ready female. What are the temps of the warmest setting on a wine cooler? That may be a good investment for someone seriously into breeding.
 

Windchaser

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LOL sounds like my garage. It would be pretty cool to have a way to cool one off in the case if you had an adult male in the Summer with a ready female. What are the temps of the warmest setting on a wine cooler? That may be a good investment for someone seriously into breeding.

I think you can set them as high as the mid 50's. Possibly a little warmer than that. I haven't really looked into them myself but I do know that wine cellars are typically kept in the 50's. In addition, wine coolers will be set by temperature as opposed to some arbitrary number like a refrigerator. Here was one link I just found that lists several models. A quick look through the list and it looks like another benefit of the wine coolers is that at a minimum they monitor humidity and possibly even allow some control over it.
 

Talkenlate04

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So I have one question...... is there any air flow in the wine cellar fridge deal?
 

Crunchie

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I had a huge adult female G.pulchra moult in July sometime and then was mated early winter. I've been cooling her in my spare room which has no additional heating so it's significantly colder.

Anyway I was wondering how long I should leave her there? I put her in at the start of the new year!:)
 

Talkenlate04

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You can start bringing up the temps middle of Feb. 4-6 weeks is good. I usually go for 6. But then find a place that brings the temps half way back to normal..... leave it there for week week and a half.... then back to the T room.
If you have not practiced flooding I recommend doing that with this species.
 

Crunchie

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No sadly the only other spider I have that produced an eggsack was my B.vagans and she did that without flooding. How do I go about flooding my pulchras tank and how often should I do so?
 
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