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A few days ago I was washing my greens and noticed nothing out of the ordinary. Cut them up and put them in the pot, then noticed something move. A tiny green caterpillar about 1/4 inch long! Well thank goodness I hadn't already added water to the greens. I fished him out and put him in a big tupperware container (which I found in a field, had washed, but hadn't yet found a use for. Then I put a nice green leaf in there.
He was happy with that and started chomping.
Next day I put another little green leaf (from the Spring Greens.) They are still looking fresh, and he has chewed holes in them.

I knew if I'd tipped him outside he might have not made it at this time of year....though he survived the fridge!

I am hoping he will keep going, and do what a Caterpillar has to do, and I will be able to set him free as a Butterfly!

I am impressed with Tesco's greens though. They can't have too much pesticide on them for him to be so healthy. They weren't the organic kind either.
Tobi, it never ceases to amaze me the type of pets you find.
LPC it never ceases to amaze me the type of how to pages you can find on the internet.

The article was very interesting and I may rescue some caterpillars in future. 
Tobi, do you have any idea what kind of caterpillar it is? People find lots of things in bags of greens. I wonder how far he traveled.
Here we find baby lizards on imported plants. It takes time, but they can be raised. 

Yes your produce must be clean and chemical free if a little caterpillar was able to survive on it. That is reassuring when you are eating it. You know it is safe.
Those greens are very tasty too, and they only cost 69p for a huge bag full.

He's a Cabbage Looper:
And this is the Moth; the Silver Y Moth:
http://www.wildlifeinsight.com/british-m...pha-gamma/

So that is my little Caterpillar friend!

Thank you very much indeed for that link above, LPC. It helped me a lot.
I have given him a new fresh leaf from the greens, and cleaned out his tupperware container (poops! haha)
I also found a stick with some bits protruding, and cut it to about 3" and put that in the centre of the container. He likes to be underneath the cabbage leaves most of the time but when it's time to pupate, he will have something to climb on and hang from. He doesn't seem able to climb the sheer sides of the container. I watched him. But he is curious about his temporary home.
You were able to identify the species! That is good because now you have set him up better. It looks like you can get him to the pupa stage. This is going to be interesting.  You are going to have to keep us posted.  I have never raised a caterpillar.

Can you start some plant seeds now in pots so the moth has something to feed on or at least land on. Will spring be early enough to release the moth? Or will it be too cold?
It doesn't look like he is ready to pupate quite yet but he has definitely grown in the last few days.
I am hoping that when he does pupate he will hang there at least until Spring. I had a butterfly pupa once hanging from my window-frame and it was there for weeks and weeks before it emerged. I am fairly confident that (if he survives of course) -he will be ready to go well into Spring, so I'll just let him go outside.
With any luck your caterpillar should be ready just in time for spring.

You are going to end up with a fat caterpillar. He is getting all the food he could possibly eat. How big is he now and how big does he have to be to pupate.

This is fun. We are in the middle of winter and you have a caterpillar in your kitchen. How cool is that. Smiley16
Caterpillar update!

About a week ago, the caterpillar stopped eating and doing "business", and started long explorations of his enclosure.
I had built a central area consisting of sticks, put up in such a way that he might like them to hang to pupate. The caterpillar examined every detail of these sticks, but moved on.

He then set about weaving a ladder of silk threads, and climbed up the side of the tupperware container. There is a tiny "lip" just there and it seemed he chose that to hang from. There were lots of webs attached which he had created.

But the next day he was down from there and on the floor of the container. He had woven more webs there.

I watched and waited but didn't disturb him.

Two days ago he was beginning to change. He was twitching slightly, and turning a different shade of green.
Then yesterday I looked and now he is a black pupa. He is on the floor of the container and is in a horizontal position. I don't know if this is right for him or not but it was his own choice. I offered him the sticks and he didn't want them. And he seemed to reject any other place to pupate. I hope I haven't been ignorant, and missed something he needed....

So now we wait and see what happens. Sometimes I hear they can die as a pupa. Let's hope he doesn't.

But one thing this has shown me is -it took so much energy for him to weave those webs. If "Silk Worms" are doing the same thing, then it is very cruel indeed to rob them of the webs they build, in order for humans to create "silk".
I wouldn't have anything to do with silk. I knew that before, but watching that caterpillar work so hard and his webs being so necessary for him to make, made me feel a lot of compassion for those silk worms.
Your baby is growing up and who knows if he is doing it right. I guess you just have to trust that he knows what he is doing. After all, he did look his space over and choose where to spin his silk. He has made it to the pupa stage. That is something. Now all you can do is watch and wait. I hope spring comes soon enough for him. If not you will be mixing up some kind of honey nectar to feed a butterfly.

Now that you mention it, silk is cruel. They let the silk worms do all the work of spinning the silk and pupating, then they kill them for the silk. For one tiny silk scarf probably dozens, maybe hundreds of silk worms were killed. They kill them when they are their most vulnerable. I think it is time we quit using real silk.

Your little caterpillar has taught us something and made us aware.
Yes, Tobi, the poor silkworms have a sad end in traditional silk farming. Here is a page which explains things very clearly:
http://earthdivasblog.com/2010/04/12/the...-silkworm/
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