Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: My BST cats progress, so exciting!!!, 1 by thea611

thea611 wrote:
Just caught the very end of the show, another chyrsalis formed!!!!!! The count now is: 6 in chrysalis, 14 pupating, 3 still eating, and 2 wandering (but I think should be pupating by the end of the day). I'm a little worried about one of the cats still eating, he doesn't seem to be growing. The others changed considerably from one day to the next but this guy just seems to stay small. Four of the chrysalises (is this the right word?) formed in the night, but yesterday morning I witnessed another one form and it was amazing!!!! I thought the little guy wasn't right, I thought something was happening, he was writhing, and then all of a sudden he was totally different looking!!!! It was just the most incredible thing to watch!!!!!
It's funny to watch the wanderers, sometimes they walk right over the pupating cats and the chrysalises. I'm always afraid they're going to dislodge them!
We moved the crate to the ground level floor, to my hobby room. This way, when they eclose, I can just point the crate out the open window, and they can fly right into the garden just below. I'm planning my days ahead around them eclosing, I don't want to miss a thing!!!
I'll put a couple of today's photos on; you'll see why this crate isn't totally appropriate: when they have their final poop, it's hard to clean it off the crate material. I don't want to use anything strong while they're in there, but it probably won't even come out later. Plus with just the one zippered door at the end of it, it's hard to reach to the other end to clean, especially now that there are a few cats hunkering down right around the entrance! I'm being so careful not to disturb anyone. So next year, I'll hopefully have a better housing solution!
This is THE GREATEST FUN!!! I'm LOVING it!!!!! Especially with ya'll to talk to!