Hello Everyone I am Autumn

[LilBuggie]

Hi everyone my name is Autumn, I live in Los Angeles area in California. I am only 7 years old and have been collecting buggie friends since I was 2 years old.

My mom is helping me type on here. I fell in love with having Mantis Pets when we found Bugs in CyberSpace website. My mom and dad are helping me get a nice collection of different species for all of us to enjoy watching grow up. I have just a few now but we are waiting to get more and more and more soon.

I have dozens and dozens of living bugs, lizards, frogs and more. I also have 2 pet chickens named Rosie and Zebra which are only pets not to eat for dinner. I also have lots and lots of dead bugs I collect; I try to collect all the different instars / stages. I raise Butterflies with my mom and all kinds of moths. We collect hundreds of Butterfly eggs a week and raise them inside until they chrysalis. My dad built me a 20' x 20' outdoor habitat where I keep all my Butterflies, I get to plant all kinds of different flowers for them. My friends and me can go out in the Butterfly house and sit and feed them. I think the praying mantis dead leaf is my new favorite pet. Thank you for letting me introduce myself and I look forward to meeting many new friends on here from around the world. 

 

[rudebega]

Oh my gosh! Welcome!  I used to love raising butterflies and moths as a kid, too. Mostly boring stuff like eastern tent caterpillars and painted ladies, but I once successfully raised a Hickory Horned Devil to a moth. What's your favorite lepidopteran to raise? 

 

[LilBuggie]

Thank you Rudebega. I love them all but my most fav is the Black Swallowtail, Buckeye and right now my Gulf of Fritillary are going to be mating very soon. I raise the painted lady to I love them because they are very calm and let you hold them longer than others. I also love our Nymphalis Antiopa they are so bright the colors around the black really stands out makes it look electric. What is your favorite? 

I LOVE the Hummingbird Hawkmoth (Sphingidae) my favoratie part is that the proboscis is up to 14 inches. Also I love how when they are cold they slowly flutter their wings to get warmed up and revved up to fly. I just had new babies hatch a few days ago. I know some people dont like them because they confuse them with the tomato worm and plus my mom and I dont release them into the wild I raise the worms for food and to watch the flyers fly and hover. It is so much fun to watch them. Thank you Rudebega  

 

[hibiscusmile]

How lovely you are and so brave, most kids fly backwards when they see a bug, including myself!  :lol: Welcome to the forum.

 

[Rick]

Welcome Autumn!

 

[CosbyArt]

Hello Autumn and welcome to the forum

Very impressive list of pets, and you even have a huge butterfly habitat (very nice). Sounds like you keep yourself and your parents really busy helping with them, it is great to have someone else to share hobbies with.

It's the first time someone mention chickens that I've seen on here. I'm curious what species are Rosie and Zebra?

My family use to keep about a dozen chickens for eggs, and my mom kept trying different species through the years. We had Plymouth Rock, Dominique (very close to the first), Catalana, Rhode Island Red, and some breed I can't remember that had feathers on their feet too. The only bad thing I remember really was one rooster we had seemed to crow only at night, and loved to wake us up at 2 AM.

 

[LilBuggie]

Hi CosbyArt I love chickens. Rosie and Zebra are sisters and they are Brown Leghorns (the Italian Chicken hehehe). Rosie has become broody over the last few weeks so my mom is ordering me 3 silkie fertile eggs for her to hatch. Maybe that is what you had they have feathers all over their feet and face and everywhere. They are very soft and plush almost like a kitten.

Did you hold your chickens a lot when you had them? My mom says I carry mine around like mini dogs and they even come when I call them to eat. They get fresh made food everyday when I get home from school. They are mostly free to wander the garden but when I am at school I have to keep them in the mansion coop they have so they dont tear and dig up all my mons veggies.

Thank you hibiscusmile my mom runs that way hahahahaha I laugh at her all the time telling her that little bug wont hurt you. We have lots of fun collecting and raising all my pets. 

Thank you Rick I am very excited to be on here. I have been looking at all the pretty pictures on here and have read all the care sheets with my mom. We are learning a lot and I love to meet new people. I cant wait for mine to grow up so I can share pictures to.

 

[Sarah K]

Welcome Autumn! You sound a lot like me when I was your age.  I loved collecting all sorts of little critters (mostly I would catch them outside) too, and learning how to raise them. For me it was bugs, then frogs and lizards.  When I got to middle school, I even joined 4-H and had some pet chickens too! I raised 4 hens from 2 day old chicks, they were so fun! I used to handle and hold mine all the time too, they were so tame, people were surprised you could tame chickens that much!

Anyway, you are lucky to have found this place. I wish forums like these existed when I was you age, that would have made my hobby even more exciting!

 

[CosbyArt]

Hi CosbyArt I love chickens. Rosie and Zebra are sisters and they are Brown Leghorns (the Italian Chicken hehehe). Rosie has become broody over the last few weeks so my mom is ordering me 3 silkie fertile eggs for her to hatch. Maybe that is what you had they have feathers all over their feet and face and everywhere. They are very soft and plush almost like a kitten.

Did you hold your chickens a lot when you had them? My mom says I carry mine around like mini dogs and they even come when I call them to eat. They get fresh made food everyday when I get home from school. They are mostly free to wander the garden but when I am at school I have to keep them in the mansion coop they have so they dont tear and dig up all my mons veggies.

Thank you hibiscusmile my mom runs that way hahahahaha I laugh at her all the time telling her that little bug wont hurt you. We have lots of fun collecting and raising all my pets. 

Thank you Rick I am very excited to be on here. I have been looking at all the pretty pictures on here and have read all the care sheets with my mom. We are learning a lot and I love to meet new people. I cant wait for mine to grow up so I can share pictures to.

Nice, the species looks great too with a great pattern. The Silkie is neat, and very fluffy looking, never would have thought a chicken could look like that. I did some searching and it looks like the one we had was the Brahma chicken.

We did hold our chicken as kids, and I have a few photos in a box in the attic (maybe I'll have to see if I put a few on sometime). One hen we had in particular a Rhode Island Red was really friendly and thought she was a dog. She would like to be let out of the chicken coop to play in our yard with us, follow us around, and wanted into the house but I don't think we ever could let her inside.

Yeah they do love to scratch the ground and dig things up, and if they can get a hold of some fresh veggies they will be gone before you got home from school.

 

[MantisGalore]

Welcome!