Butterflies as food - a few questions

[Mr Wilson]

I saw someone post about Mulberry Farms having butterflies, but when I went on the site, they only had butterfly food. So now I have a few questions for you all because now we are curious about using them as feeders once in a while. We really think our chameleons would go nuts for them!

1) Has anyone ever successfully fed their chameleons butterflies before? If so, what kind?
2) How did you store the butterflies and what kind of food did they eat?
3) What is the nutritional value of them? I clicked a link someone else had posted but I did not see any information about butterflies and their nutritional value.

Thanks so much in advance.

 

[pssh]

Painted ladies and cabbage white butterflies are awesome feeders. The butterflies themselves eat nectar from flowers. I don't have any nutritional information on them right now.

I plan to have many painted lady caterpillar cups for sale in about a month, so check back with me! You can watch the life cycle of these super cool little guys all in their own pod that has enough food for the cats until They pupate. I'll have the (and I really mean it!) lowest prices on cups with 13 or so cats in them. I'll also have disolvable butterfly food that you just mix with water. Soak it up with a cotton ball and your butterflies will love it. Or you can just put the pupae (chrysalis) in the chameleon enclosure and let your chameleons eat them as soon as they emerge and dry out their wings.

 

[Ellron]

Keep me posted on the Pssh!
Butterflies are great feeders!

 

[kongchi]

I've been wanting to try butterflies as a feeder aswell! I personally think they would look nice flying around in a 4 foot enclosure and seeing my cham hunt for them is equally as neat.

As for experience I have none but I've been searching for them online and you can get monarch butterflies in kits from various learning websites that sell them to families and schools as "fun" projects for kids, but they are usually very expensive.

 

[Berg]

Painted ladies and cabbage white butterflies are awesome feeders. The butterflies themselves eat nectar from flowers. I don't have any nutritional information on them right now.

I plan to have many painted lady caterpillar cups for sale in about a month, so check back with me! You can watch the life cycle of these super cool little guys all in their own pod that has enough food for the cats until They pupate. I'll have the (and I really mean it!) lowest prices on cups with 13 or so cats in them. I'll also have disolvable butterfly food that you just mix with water. Soak it up with a cotton ball and your butterflies will love it. Or you can just put the pupae (chrysalis) in the chameleon enclosure and let your chameleons eat them as soon as they emerge and dry out their wings.

WOw thanks for the info i might order some too!!

 

[kongchi]

Painted ladies and cabbage white butterflies are awesome feeders. The butterflies themselves eat nectar from flowers. I don't have any nutritional information on them right now.

I plan to have many painted lady caterpillar cups for sale in about a month, so check back with me! You can watch the life cycle of these super cool little guys all in their own pod that has enough food for the cats until They pupate. I'll have the (and I really mean it!) lowest prices on cups with 13 or so cats in them. I'll also have disolvable butterfly food that you just mix with water. Soak it up with a cotton ball and your butterflies will love it. Or you can just put the pupae (chrysalis) in the chameleon enclosure and let your chameleons eat them as soon as they emerge and dry out their wings.

SEND ME SOME NOW!!! ILL BE YOUR BETA TESTER, I MIGHT EVEN DRIVE UP THERE TO PICK SOME UP! (the caps locks show my seriousness)

 

[Ellron]

Ill be a beta tester too.
These things have been know to kill, so I will test them on myself first

 

[chameleon884]

are they ok to feed wc?

 

[Ellron]

Yah, but you shouldn't feed Monarch because of they're toxic natural diet.

I wouldn't feed any WC, but its your choice.

 

[DGray]

butterflies and moths

I feed all I can catch: I catch Cabbage Whites (actually a day-flying moth) all the time by hand. Painted Ladies and Admirals are a little harder to catch; for those I usually need a net. Bigger moths are easy at night by the house lights.

The quads love 'em.

If you don't know much about butterflies, you might just learn to recognize those three; they're pretty safe and are found all over (North America).

 

[pssh]

I'd love to send some now, but I have to build my stock first you dont want to know how expensive they would be if I tried to send some now. Later I may start to breed the cabbage white guys and send out cats every now and then. They would be much cheaper than painted ladies as food is easier to come by.

WC are usually okay to feed off (or at least they are around my neck of the woods.) just a pain in the butt to catch.

 

[Kbullock]

I would love to buy some as soon as you have them ready to go..

 

[astroprojector]

Yah, but you shouldn't feed Monarch because of they're toxic natural diet.

I wouldn't feed any WC, but its your choice.

Chameleons know not to eat toxic insects. One time I caught a white butterfly and a Monarch butterfly. I placed both in the cage. The cham immediately ate the white one and would not even look at the Monarch.

 

[AESara]

Pssh~ If you have any tips, I think I'd like to breed cabbage whites for Napoleon. I see them all over the place, but I would wait until the first generation captive-born to feed them to him, since there are a lot of farms nearby and I never know what pesticides those guys are carrying. He needs some variety and he just won't eat worms.

I'm going to try to catch some and if that doesn't work, I'll order a strip of eggs online.

 

[Mr Wilson]

Pssh - DEFINITELY keep us updated on this! I would absolutely love to purchase a cup from you. We're always trying to think of new things to feed our chams! Other than yourself, where do you purchase these butterflies?

 

[Mr Wilson]

No one on here knows where to purchase butterflies or their larvae? We did a lot of google searching and could only come up with classroom kits that are insanely expensive.