Grow real butterflies right in your home... doesn't that sound incredible! Thanks to Live Butterfly garden from Insect Lore, and thanks to Tushar for spotting it, we were actually able to do this. The process of metamorphosis is definitely one of nature's finest miracles, and when you can witness that right at home, it is just simply wonderful!
Our little girl was absolutely delighted when 10 caterpillars arrived home in little containers. These containers come with all the special food that they need to grow into stunning painted lady butterflies!
Over a period of the about 5-7 days, the caterpillars ate a lot of the food and grew to almost 10 times their size. It was a good time to read Eric Carle's 'The very hungry caterpillar', though I got questions like why the caterpillars were not eating healthy food like leaves or apples! ;-) This is how our fully grown caterpillars looked like..
Once they were fully grown, they attached themselves to the top of the container, ready to form the chrysalis. At this stage, they curl up a bit into a J shape!
And then after a period of another 5-7 days, they fully formed into chrysalis. One thing I learned during the course of this was that butterflies come out of what is called as chrysalis, and not cocoons. It is moths that come out of the cocoons.That's the fully formed chrysalis..
At this stage, we had to remove the chrysalis from the container and transfer them into the butterfly hatching habitat. And then the wait began to see the butterflies emerge. This is one beautiful picture where the painted lady butterfly colors started showing through the chrysalis, and so we knew the butterfly was going to emerge soon..
And finally there it was, our first butterfly! :-) Look at the excited little pudding..
Many more emerged one after the other, and it was a sheer delightful experience! We had 9 butterflies at the end..
We left pieces of fruit in the habitat each day, so that the butterflies could suck the nectar. Our little girl almost had started treating them as her pets. She had names like 'Gaga', 'Bobo', 'Pencils' for them! :-) When it was time to let them go, we were not sure how she would take it, but surprisingly she was okay and completely seemed to understand that they need to fly away into the natural habitat and make new homes for themselves, awww!
It was an amazing experience, and I would highly recommend it for 3+ yrs old children!
You can get your own at http://www.livebutterflygarden.co.uk/
Our little girl was absolutely delighted when 10 caterpillars arrived home in little containers. These containers come with all the special food that they need to grow into stunning painted lady butterflies!
Over a period of the about 5-7 days, the caterpillars ate a lot of the food and grew to almost 10 times their size. It was a good time to read Eric Carle's 'The very hungry caterpillar', though I got questions like why the caterpillars were not eating healthy food like leaves or apples! ;-) This is how our fully grown caterpillars looked like..
Once they were fully grown, they attached themselves to the top of the container, ready to form the chrysalis. At this stage, they curl up a bit into a J shape!
And then after a period of another 5-7 days, they fully formed into chrysalis. One thing I learned during the course of this was that butterflies come out of what is called as chrysalis, and not cocoons. It is moths that come out of the cocoons.That's the fully formed chrysalis..
At this stage, we had to remove the chrysalis from the container and transfer them into the butterfly hatching habitat. And then the wait began to see the butterflies emerge. This is one beautiful picture where the painted lady butterfly colors started showing through the chrysalis, and so we knew the butterfly was going to emerge soon..
Many more emerged one after the other, and it was a sheer delightful experience! We had 9 butterflies at the end..
We left pieces of fruit in the habitat each day, so that the butterflies could suck the nectar. Our little girl almost had started treating them as her pets. She had names like 'Gaga', 'Bobo', 'Pencils' for them! :-) When it was time to let them go, we were not sure how she would take it, but surprisingly she was okay and completely seemed to understand that they need to fly away into the natural habitat and make new homes for themselves, awww!
Letting them go..
It was an amazing experience, and I would highly recommend it for 3+ yrs old children!
You can get your own at http://www.livebutterflygarden.co.uk/
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