Nope, it is not a cat nor is it a rabbit. Too conventional lah. We have a pet caterpillar!!! And Aiden named it Fungus. *krik*krik* Well, you wanna try explaining to a 6 year old what a fungus is? Cos I tried and in the end I gave up and settled with calling it Fungus too. *chuckles*
In case you're wondering, this is not a cacing nor an ulat bulu. Naive me had to google caterpillar in Malay okeh! This is an ulat beluncas. (Did you just learn something new here today? Hehehe!)
To be perfectly honest, I have never seen a caterpillar up close and personal. So here are close up pictures of our new pet. I was absolutely in awe over it's smooth texture, the legs, its cute eyes and those adorable spots!
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| Check out those captivating eyes! |
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| This is truly a magnificent creature. I never knew caterpillars had white spots on them! |
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| Caterpillars also produce green poop... that thing on the right. |
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| And thanks to Fungus, habis gondol this bush in our garden. Apparently caterpillars are 'eating machines' and can eat voraciously! |
Aiden had this whole dream of waiting for Fungus to spool a cocoon (yes, he specifically said cocoon) and turn into a beautiful butterfly. So instead of leaving it with the bush, we took the caterpillar in and fed it with plenty of leaves plus tender loving care. Unfortunately, it didn't last long. Just a few days after Fungus made our home his home, it shriveled up and died. I guess I need to read up on how to raise caterpillars!
But Aiden wasn't sad for too long, because just a few weeks after that, we found another caterpillar. As I am typing this, Fungus V2.0 is sleeping beside me in a microwaveable plastic container, content and full after his fresh batch of leaves. Let's pray hard that this one lasts!
Update: We found 4 new caterpillars the day after I wrote this post, to make a total of 5! And overnight, somehow two baby caterpillars sprouted in the container (how did that happen???) to make a grand total of 7! A neighbour enthusiastically volunteered to take them in, as she wanted to expose her kids to the beautiful life cycle of a caterpillar to butterfly, so I quietly donated them all (and told Aiden that they all died). *chuckles* But fret not, we now have Fungus V3.0, which Aiden just rescued from our garden. Wow, they sure multiply pretty quickly!!!
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| Some of the 7 caterpillars that we gave away. |
Do you know that Ebay sells Butterfly kit which includes the caterpillars and habitats for it upto its butterfly stage. Not sure if we can get this here. Really likes the activity as it is quite good for kids to learn abt science at home.
ReplyDeleteHello! Wow, I did not know that. Yeah, it would be so exciting to see the caterpillar morph into a butterfly. Such a cool science experiment too! Thanks for sharing ;)
DeleteHi Lizzie,
ReplyDeleteI have friends fro the States who bought the kit mentioned above. I think it would be more adventurous to have "wild" caterpillar haha. Found this online http://www.wikihow.com/Care-for-a-Caterpillar but pretty sure you must have read it already :p
All the best!
Hello Leila! I actually have not read that one. Hahaha so thanks for sharing too. Fungus 2.0 has since been joined by 6 other friends, so I have donated them all to a neighbour who was keen to raise them caterpillars. Today we found Fungus 3.0 so hopefully this one will morph into a beautiful butterfly! ;)
DeleteSalam Lizzie,
ReplyDeleteFungus 3.0 by the time I comment? What happened to 2.0? LOL. Looking forward to seeing a cocoon/butterfly soon.
Cheers!
Hehehe V2.0 was spawning like nobody's business so I donated them to neighbour who wanted to adopt hehehe. We're at V3.0 now!
Deletehahaha omg 7 by the time i read! yes yes can we fast forward to butterflies phase please coz i'm the geli type when it comes to this kind of creatures hehe. i hope my boys wont ask for caterpillars as pets otherwise i pengsan! :D
ReplyDeleteHehehe I agree, 7 is a bit too much. Now I only have 3 and they are at the cocoon phase and I pun geli nak amik gambar. Hahahaha
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