r/MonarchButterfly • u/Only3Cats • 1d ago
Question
First time raising caterpillars. Can someone advise what happened to this chrysalis? The other ones are fine.
Thank you so much!
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u/Live-Papaya-395 1d ago
Raising caterpillars? Wow, I want to do that too! Where do I start? That’s just beautiful
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u/Mythic-Fairy 1d ago
Get lots of milkweed first!!
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u/Lastofherkind 14h ago
You can likely find people giving away seeds soon enough as the seed pods mature. Figure out what milkweed is native to your area. You can plant the seeds in the fall for spring growth. They must go thru a cold stratification before sprouting.
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u/broccolista 19h ago
If you buy a bunch of milkweed plants next spring, and plant them in your yard, monarchs will find your yard and lay eggs on the underside of the milkweed leaves. And from there you decide if you will raise them in an outdoor butterfly enclosure, or let them grow in the “wild” of your garden.
I bought 20+ milkweed plants last spring, thinking I’d maybe get one or two caterpillars, but I ended up getting over 100! It has been an incredible experience and very beautiful to observe their metamorphosis. Highly recommend.🦋
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u/rebeccabrown18 1d ago
Elongation of the abdomen area that happened when the chrysalis was newly made. Could have been due to jostling of the cage while the chrysalis was fresh, or another caterpillar messing with it.
Ive had this happen only once when my monarch cage was blown over by heavy winds, I needed to put another brick in it. A freshly made chrysalis had an elongated abdomen due to the trauma from the event. I did have to euthanize mine due to the extent of the damage to the abdomen, wing pads, and head area. Yours is a lot less severe than mine was, yours has no damage to the wing pads. Your chrysalis will likely produce a normal butterfly.