Butterflies

Grandma Beck sent Ollie a butterfly kit. The kit came with a butterfly mesh cage and a coupon to send in for caterpillars. We sent in the coupon and then we got caterpillars in the mail! Ollie was so excited to get them. He ran all over the house and talked non-stop about his "first ever pet".



We read all the papers about how to take care of them and Ollie listened very carefully. He then got to pick a spot in his room for them to grow. He picked to put them on top of his bookshelf because they needed to be out of direct sunlight and in a spot where they would not be bumped. We moved his stepstool right by them so he could check on them. They came in a little clear plastic container with their food on the bottom so taking care of them was super easy. :)
Ollie was super good about checking on them. Sometimes he would yell "Ollie" and then he would run into his room and check on his caterpillars- he checked on them anytime they called and every few hours.



The caterpillars grew and grew and grew. They spent a little over a week growing and eating. They crawled all over their little cup. They had green poop which fascinated Ollie.



After about one week of eating and growing they crawled to the top of their cup and hung upside down. This was amazing to see them just hanging there.



After hanging upside down for about 1/2 day they turned into chrysalids. I always thought that they spun a cacoon but they really just sort of morphed into a chrysalid. Another interesting thing is that while in the cacoon they can shake. It's their defensive system against predators.



After all the caterpillars changed we moved them into their mesh cage. The cup that they grew in had a paper disk in the top of the lid. We took the paper disk out of the lid and pinned it onto the side of the mesh cage. We were worried that they would all just fall off but they hung on really well. One did fall off so we laid it on the bottom of the cage on a paper towel. Then we hung the cage up in Ollie's closet.



After around 10 days they broke out of their cacoons and were butterflies! As butterflies they eat nectar so we bought them some flowers and put sugar water on the flowers. We also put orange slices in the cage for them to eat. For the first few days they didn't fly much but after a few days they flew more. We kept them for a few days and then released them at the Botanical Gardens.



The finished product. A beautiful Painted Lady butterfly. (We had four out of the five caterpillars make it all the way to butterflies.)