What a fun and exciting update today!

Last year on the college campus, in the Fall of 2009, we came across the biggest, most bright green caterpillar we had ever seen. We took it home with us to find out more about this unique critter as a potential science project. As Whimsy says, "We homeschoolers are a curious bunch." After researching on the internet, we discovered that the little guy we found was a Polyphemus Moth caterpillar. It is a type of silk moth, and in the same family as the Luna Moth (a family favorite).

In our research, we also found that the caterpillars of this type of moth go through 5 different molt stages (or instar), and our caterpillar was in its final stage! It must have been wandering around the campus looking for a place to build its cocoon. So we set up a terrarium for the little critter, and within hours it had created a cocoon. 

Months later, it still hadn't hatched from its silk cocoon. We were beginning to think that perhaps it wouldn't hatch at all... until today.

We had nearly forgotten about the Polyphemus caterpillar when Whimsy pulled out the terrarium that it had been housed in. There it was, sitting in all its splendor, a full-fledged moth. 

After refreshing our memories with a bit of additional research, we determined that our now grown moth is a female. (Males have "bushier" looking antennae, whereas females' are thinner; females also have larger abdomens.) Adult Polyphemus moths do not eat, and therefore only live less than a week, during which they find a mate and lay eggs.

Polyphemus moths are not an endangered species, but certainly are rare. We intend to return this beautiful girl to the campus where we found her as a caterpillar, so that she can hopefully attract a mate and carry on the "circle of life" as nature intended.

To learn more about the Polyphemus moth, check out the Wikipedia page:

http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Antheraea_polyphemus

...16, 17, 18, 19!! We have 19 chinchillas looking for new homes! It's been an incredibly busy month here! Just this weekend alone, eight more fuzzbutts came in. The sad thing is, none of them were abused or neglected. ALL are much loved pets whose owners, whether it be life changes, allergies, or unemployment, simply could not keep their beloved pets any longer. These guys and gals need the same loving attention they received previously. Most of our available chins are paired in same gender groups of two. We also have some singles, who just don't play nicely with their own kind. We even have a trio or two. Check out our "Chins for Adoption" page to see some of the chins that we currently have available for adoption. Won't you consider opening your heart and home to a few of these? :)

A while ago, we took in a chinchilla who had excessively chewed his fur. When he came to us, in fact, he had chewed off every bit of fur that he could reach-- in some places, down to his very skin. We constantly commented on how he looked-- like half a chin, like a kangaroo, and so on. We dubbed him Buffalo Bill.

Now, three months later to the day, Buffalo Bill is beginning to show his improvement. He enjoys hanging out near the boy chin in the next cage over. He has stopped chewing his fur and you can see it's growing back in tufts. This pattern of fur growth is completely normal. In just a few more months, he will look like a regular, fluffy chinchilla again. Check out how he's coming along!

Last week Whimsy found out that a fellow chinthusiast had to get out of the chinchilla business. Adult onset of allergies is to blame for this one. It's sad, but worked out well in the end. He just happened to have two chins that Whimsy had had her eye on. One is a white sapphire carrier and the other is her daughter, a sapphire. It looks like we're getting into that mutation after all. :)

(The sapphire girl, enjoying one of our hand-made bridges.)

Two others that came along for the ride are sister to the sapphire, a little standard grey girl, and an ebony boy named Spencer. They are both teeny tiny, but the ebony especially. I've not seen a full grown chin this small before. Whimsy tried pairing Spencer with Chip, a rescue who came in with Doby. Doby had turned aggressive, and poor Chip has been without a good buddy for a while now. It looks like Spencer has become his new best friend. They get along great! Both are total sweeties and super passive. What a perfect boy pair. 

(Chip to the left, Spencer on the right.)

We're working with the sister chin (standard) to get her acclimated and accepted into the community cage with the other girls. Since this community is growing so nicely, it may be time to either split the herd, or get a larger cage.

Oh! Speaking of larger cages, I forgot to mention how much the chin room continues to change. It has gotten to the point where the chins have kicked Whimsy's office out of the room. Now she works from the laundry room right outside the chin room door! My how we've grown!

So today was cage cleaning day for the Aunties in the "community cage." After vacuuming out the used bedding and wiping everything down, we usually sprinkle some dust in the bottom of the cage and let the girls roll around in it. This time, we let all of the kits join in the dust party fun! Everyone had a blast, popcorning everywhere and running around. Take a look at these fun clips we took:

As a side note: no, the kits do not live in the same cage as in the video. They all have separate, baby-safe homes with their mommies.