Did you know ...

that caterpillars stink? Well they do! It's probably got something to do with their extremely large poops and also today's smell was worse because one of the caterpillars had died during the night (I think it had been pecked by a bird before I picked it up :-( ). I also didn't really think about cleaning their container when I collected them! Having a caterpillar (or 3) as a pet is a serious business! :-) Their cage needs to be cleaned every day ... and yeah I guess that's my job!

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So this morning we discovered one caterpillar had died during the night and another had started spinning cocoon fluff all over one corner ... not sure if you can see it in this pic or not. It's the hazy stuff.

The caterpillar didn't seem to be wound in it at all though and because the container stunk and had several piles of debris in it (including dead one) I pulled it all off so I could clean it thoroughly. The interesting thing was when when I pulled it off the side of the container it (the web stuff) went lifeless straight away. It was very interesting. Kind of changed colour as well, wasn't bright white anymore. The caterpillars were very well behaved while I cleaned their container this morning and didn't roam about all over the place! ;-)

This time I put a jar in there with water for the leaves so they don't wilt so quickly.
Here's the smallest caterpillar munching on a leaf ... they are machine eaters I tell you! They devour a leaf so fast!
Maddison asked to take them to school today ... was quite cute to see her with her friends studying them :-) I asked the teachers to text me if one started doing it's cocoon thing again because I want to take photos :-)

Hope the caterpillars enjoy their outing today and don't get stressed by so many little eyes watching and fingers bumping the container! ;-)

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Thanks for visiting.