whew....she finally took some sugar water and let me put him/her down....how do you tell the gender? and how do you care for the disabled BFs? I'm sure she/he has needs i am not aware of.

Michelle

Michelle,

I had a monarch with wings that did not straighten out either. I just did like you are doing, feeding her sugar water and cutting up slices of juicy types of fruit like watermelon etc and letting her drink from the juice of the fruit. If the bottoms of the wings are some what straight you can tell if it's male or female. Males have a spot on each of the hind wings right on the vein, females will have no spots and thicker veins on their wings.

Hope this helps.
Denise

Thanks Denise...wings too crumpled but so far cant see any spot. How long can "she" live like this. If I dont keep her in sight, she will flop around and fall on her back and just stay there. How often do I need to feed her? I think I woke her up earlier. How long do captive BFs sleep in a day? I know, these are weird questions, but i gotta know.

Michelle

I had one with a crumpled wing but could fly a little. I put her outside on my red pentas but she kept falling off into the grass. For two days I kept putting her back up where she would be able to nectar and stay sheltered but she would fall out into the open area and not be able to get up to fly. I finally brought her back in and kept her another 5 days, making sure she nectared from fresh flowers and she would take some liquid from watermelon. I would just replace the flowers several times a day and kept enough in the aquarium so that she didn't fall onto the bottom but stayed up on the flowers. The last day, she didn't want to feed and kept her proboscis curled up. The next morning she was gone. I don't think she would have lasted that long outside but I felt guilty for leaving her to fend for herself the two days.

From what I have been told they don't have to nectar the first 24 hours so you know they can go a while without feeding.

This girl cant even really "walk" properly cuz her back leg steps on her wing and she cannot recover. So, i dont feel i can rely on her to stand at or even on the food to feed. What special feeding set up would you try?

Michelle

Michelle,
I was using the palm of my hand or a tea spoon to hold the sugar water or juices from the fruit. You could also try soaking a small clean sponge in the water or juice. This would give her something to hold onto while eating. You may still need to watch her though because if she falls into the juice that could make her wings even worse. The monarch that I took care of lasted a week with me feeding her this way.

Good luck taking care of her.
Denise

I had about 2 out of 100 do this this spring...best I can tell is if they fall when they eclose....they lose their ability to pump that fluid in their wings....I fed mine best as I could ahd put them on a flower outdoors....I did have one eclose with a folded wing, I put her in a glassine envelope overnight, and she was straight enough to fly away. Remember, as hearbraking as it is, your help raises the odds way in their favor as opposed to mother nature.

msrpaul,

a glassine envelope held the wing in position all night and it stayed straight the next day???? I would have cared for her for as long as she needed but she only ate once. She died last night. I was very sad.

michelle

Well, my first experience raising Monarchs has been a roller coaster of emotions. Ten of them have flown away just fine but today was heart breaking. One of the ones adopted by a 4th grade class must have fallen when it eclosed because it was just as you guys said... crumpled wings. It made us all very sad to see but we think they understood that most of these BFs were not going to make it if we had not rescued them from the wasps that were feeding on them when we found them. I just wanted Michelle to know that my day was really ruined but I did feel a bit better when I read this post. These things just happen.
Carol

So sorry Michelle. It breaks your heart, but take comfort in knowing that you've done the very best that you could have done.

Every little bit we do helps. In nature, accidents happen as do disease.

Carol, glad to know that our communications here can make someone feel better...Especially nearly 10 months after the original post.

How did you find the orginal post? were you researching and came across it?

Maryann

I'm helping a sixth grader write a report on Monarchs. The adult life cycle is only 30 days long, at best. If disabled butterflies were out in the wild, they would die or be eaten withing the first day or so. So give yourself a pat on the back for helping her live longer than she would have without you!

I wish Tdog would read this thread, as she would certainly have something to say about crumpled wings and the parasite OE (Ophryocystis elektroscirrha)... which this butterfly may have been infected with. I'm sure you and others responding to this post already have thought of this, though.

If this was the case it's best that it was not released as it may have only spread more spores and infected future populations of monarchs.

Of course not all infected butterflies will show such deformities... for more info (and how to participate and check your own butterflies for this parasite) see the link below! :)

Hope this helps,

Sandy

Here is a link that might be useful: U of Georgia OE Info