Caterpillar update...

Our caddies (as we have nicknamed them) are doing pretty well right now. In fact, we have our first cocoon!!! We are learning quite a bit.. namely, our caterpillars are feeding mostly at night. They are relatively quiet during the day, they chill on their branches and rarely eat. Around 8pm, they start getting active and before I go to bed around 11pm, they will all be chomping their leaves. We can tell how well they are doing by how "firm" they feel. Ones that tend to later die or act lethargic are mushy but ones that have little firm bodies are the active ones that thrive in their home. Here's the latest caddie pics:


Our first cocoon! I have it in a seperate jar now so we quit picking it up everytime we clean the habitat. I have seen a couple others start making their cocoons, but none completed ones. I don't know if this is a good sign or a bad sign.


Our fat caddies. We put them in here briefly every day so we can clean their home and give them new leaf branches.


Our caterpillars in their clean home. They used to eat all night and I would find the branch completely stripped of leaves in the morning. Last night, however, I found two caterpillars with threads under them (but no cocoons in the morning) and the leaves weren't touches very much. Maybe they stop eating right before they make cocoons? I'm not sure. I guess we will see! Let's hope they all survive.