Mutant Monarchs Revisited

They hatched! It was a lovely day in the neighborhood...woke up a little bit later than usual and ended up missing the part where they came out of the cocoons. *sigh* Oh well, we were able to watch their wings start to straighten and dry. After 4-ish hours, they were starting to take short hops around the butterfly enclosure, so we took them out to the front yard and let them loose.

When the monarchs made it up to the top of the enclosure, they were willing to climb up on our fingers. And, of course, upon seeing that there were two monarchs (alas, one of the other caterpillars in the enclosure ate through the third cocoon...ewwww), each of the bigger nomads claimed one as their own. So, Capt'n Crash's monarch took off after just a couple seconds of being perched on his finger, while Pumpkin's monarch took so long in taking off that Pumpkin even got bored of it being perched on her, and I got a turn. Then I got bored and tried to put it on a bush, and that is when it finally took off. Here's hoping it found an energy source quickly!

Pumpkin wants me to order caterpillars to put in her enclosure. I am just not keen on the idea though: bunch of caterpillars eating prepackaged food out of a cup and growing until creating their cocoon and eventually flying away as butterflies...but what type of plant do they eat? Are they suited for the area, or are they going to hatch out and not find the right kind of food? Plus, there is not as much caretaking in the prepackaged caterpillars, and my nomads would get bored with seeing a bunch of caterpillars hanging around a cup. Woohoo. So, not this year dear.