Uncle Milton Butterfly Farm Live Habitat – Observe Caterpillars Transform Into Butterflies, STEM Toy, Great Gifts for Boys & Girls Ages 6+

Fun and informative
Our kids absolutely loved watching the butterflies come to life.

Great Gift Idea
I thought that this would be a great gift idea. Super cute, and easy to put together. However once you have everything assembled, you need to stretch the screening around the awkward dome shape. In my case it kept on popping off, and eventually torn a little from trying to stretch it to stay around the base. Given it is suppose to be tight-fit so that your critters cannot escape, but I think it is made a little bit too small. Just a fair warning. Have a plan B planned, just in case your netting rips too much, or you cannot get it to stay around the bottom base.

Crippled sick butterflies and cage that injures them
My 4 year old was so excited to get this for his birthday. Now we are all sad and disgusted. Of the 6 caterpillars, 4 turned into crysalids. The other 2 caterpillars were CANNIBALIZED when they ran out of food. (The instructions say there’s enough food that comes with them and have no instructions for giving additional food. Caterpillar body parts were everywhere and the bottom of their container was full of poop. You could tell what poop was from the cannibalized caterpillars because it was darker. So gross. The first two (partial) chrysalids were attacked by remaining caterpillars, so they fell into the poop. Once the other two caterpillars hung from the lid and turned into chrysalids, I scooped the two that were laying in poop and moved them to the bottom of the butterfly enclosure, just in case. To my surprise, both emerged as butterflies…..or tried. One got stuck, half in and half out. Unable to move off its back, and with one wing still stuck in the chrysalis, I placed a piece of fruit next to him so he could at least eat something until his slow, pathetic death arrived. He lasted 2 days like this. It was very sad to see. The other butterfly that had been laying in the poop as a chrysalis emerged with shrunken wings and legs that don’t work well, so he can’t really walk or fly. It’s sad to see. As for the two that had hung properly at the top, they are both deformed too. One is missing eyeballs and doesn’t seem to have full use of its legs. It’s wings are curled in, unable to move/open. He stumbles around blind, often crawling ontop of the other crippled butterflies. The healthiest butterfly can walk around, but it’s wings are also curled and don’t function well. It’s pathetic to watch these butterflies hobble around the cage, and they clearly won’t survive outdoors. I emailed about the cannibals and only 2 hanging crysalids, and Uncle Milton’s said they said new ones. I don’t think we can even handle another set after watching this pathetic crippled farm. We did everything perfect, as the instructions stated. We watched the tracking of the caterpillars and my son sat outside, waiting for the mail person to deliver them, so they were immediately brought inside and into the described correct temperature environment. They still ended up dead or crippled.The butterfly enclosure has also been awful. The net that goes around is kept on by elastic. If you try to get your hand in to add fruit or sugar water, or help a crippled butterfly that’s struggling on its back or glued to the ground, the whole thing starts coming off and slingshots any butterfly that might be on the net. It’s awful. Speaking of glue to the ground…the butterfly enclosure has a shiny photo paper on the bottom to make it look like green grass or plants. When two of the butterflies emerged, their wet meconium was on this photo paper, which their wings touched, and it caused them to get stuck to it, like glue. One butterfly must of tried hard to get off, because i found part of a wing still glue down in the morning after it emerged from its chrysalis. One of the others must have gotten sugar water on its wing and then fell on its back onto that paper, because I found it stuck there. So I grabbed a water dropped and added a few drops of water to his wing until he was able to unstick himself. This whole experience has been awful. These poor butterflies are just hobbling around and it’s so pathetic and sad. DO NOT buy this for you child. You’re better off doing the ladybugs. I wish I could return this and get my money back, but I bought it several months ago for my sons birthday and we waited until temperatures were appropriate around here for caterpillar delivery, so now it is too late to get a refund.

Nice Product!
Amazing! My students love it