Pet Caterpillars

While Dave was away, one of the things the girls and I did, was get a pet... we found some caterpillars in the garden and decided to keep them... actually there were LOTS of caterpillars but we caught 2 and put them in a jar with some holes int he lid.

Sara showing Taliese the caterpillars

The next day I decided the jar was too small for the 5 caterpillars we now apparently HAD to have (believe me it was a hard bargain getting Sara to be content stop at 5!) So the Caterpillars moved home to a more spacious plastic container with a pair of bloomers for a lid (with the pants bit tied up! I think it also made a prettier house!



I did not realise not much these small creatures both poop and eat - the bigger space was definitely a good move! I also did a bit a research on Google (this blog, this other info) and learned that caterpillars are actually very picky eaters, so we needed to give them the type of plant they were on to eat everyday - they won't eat just anything and they won't eat anything that's not fresh! I unfortunately wasn't able to work out what type of caterpillar they are, so we are not sure weather to expect a moth or a butterfly - I'm guessing a moth)

Well there was one busy weekend when I forgot to feed them, leading to an incidence of cannibalism of a smaller caterpillar, after which I convinced Sara to let the little caterpillars go and just concentrate on the two original inhabitants "Jack" and "Alisa" (sometimes "Talisa").


Two and half weeks later we are enjoying feeding our very hungry caterpillars and watching them get very FAT! (Hmmm reminds us of a favourite book!)


We are really hoping to see a metamorphosis take place - How cool for the girls to experience the reality of this transformation take place as they build cocoons and emerge a completely different creature!

In other cool caterpillar news - last night Dave noticed that one of out shrubs was absolutely COVERED in caterpillars - maybe the news got out there wasn't a lot of squishing going on in our yard? We have not dubbed it the caterpillar tree! (not sure if you can see in the picture?)


I will keep you updated when we have further developments in this little adventure. What an amazing thing it is to enjoy children's wonder and joy at things I would otherwise overlook!

ADDIT: Unfortunately while one caterpillar did form a cocoon, no moth or butterfly ever emerged (prob due to some rough handling) and we had to release the other caterpillars when we went on holidays! Will try again next year!