Hummingbird and Butterfly Gardening: My Poor Gulf Fritillary, 1 by siouxsie40

siouxsie40 wrote:
Hi all,
I just starting raising butterflies over the summer as a project with my 7 yr old son. So this is all pretty new to me. Up until this week everything has been going fine :)

I have this Gulf Fritillary that hatched yesterday. The night before while she was still hanging in her chrysalis she was thrashing around in it. Yesterday morning from her thrashing she broke off her chrysalis and I found her on the bottom of the cage still squirming around wildly inside of the chrysalis. Eventually she hatched out of it and I helped her to the top of the cage so she could hang and finish preparing herself for flight. She ended up falling a few times but was able to get up and start climbing to the top. I did help her a couple of more times as she was having trouble getting up there. I didn't touch her wings, just offered my finger which she eagerly climbed onto. She kept flapping her wings but eventually fell and couldn't stay up there on her own. So I figured by now she is probably hurt or something and I put some butterfly bush flowers in the cage near her so she could eat if she was hungry. I did see her eat .

This morning she is still on the bottom of the cage. I picked her up gently figuring she was probably dead (she wasn't moving) but as soon as she was in my hand she started flapping her wings. As you can see from the picture they are still crumpled so I am guessing the fluid that is suppose to fill them out never did and now she can't fly.

Has anyone ever had a similar experience and if so what was the outcome? Any ideas or suggestions?

I feel so bad for her and helpless ya know?

Thanks!
Lisa