So I find this cat....

16 years ago

I found a baby cat on some milkweed yesterday. It was hanging out in the buds, so I snipped off the top of the milkweed, wrapped it in a wet paper towel then wrapped that in aluminum foil and propped it up in my critter cage. It's really tiny, and all I can tell is that it has black and white stripes. How do I know what I have? Monarchs aren't the only butterfly that uses milkweed as a host plant, or are they? Also I found, what appeared to be tiny yellow eggs all over some milkweed near the flowers. Anyone know what those might be?

Sort by:Oldest

Comments (9)

todancewithwolves
16 years ago
I wonder if it's a Queen?

I don't know of any other Butterfly that lays eggs on milkweed.

The yellow eggs could very well be oleander aphids or lady bug eggs.

Can you post a picture?

Edna
kek19
Original Author
16 years ago
LOL I'll try, but my dig cam sucks. And I just took the last pic on my slr catching my new hummingbird friend feeding in my daylilies. Getting that developed tomorrow.

Ok, couldn't get a pic of the cat, just looks like a shadow in the pics. Here's the best I could do w/ the yellow eggs. It's blury, I know. So you probally wont be able to tell much. There's probally about 10 total combined on the 2 big leaves.

{{gwi:483036}}

{{gwi:483038}}
Related Discussions
I don't have a cat, so why am I buying cat food?
Q
Comments (10)
Thanks so much for the help! See .. I thought feeding all of those cats out of one big feeder is very wrong too. Thanks for validating one of my concerns. We have the five dogs and there is no way I'd feed them out of one big dish, they all have their own dishes and a few their own eating areas due to when they were strays it caused food aggression issues with other dogs ( not people ). If left to their own being fed out of a large dish, the food aggression dogs would drive the others out and fights would ensue to regain the bowl .. basically everything that's happening to this cat. So, I do blame the people for not getting involved on her behalf. She's an adult cat, my DH ( who had cats as a child ) thinks she's maybe 6 - 8 years old ?? I think right now I'm going to try to get her back into shape, she's eating for me and she seems very content to hang out down here now. As we sat on the porch last night, she hung out on my DH's lap and soaked up the attention. We live in NC and it's been one of the hardest states hit by unemployment, the papers are filled with people giving away their animals. The rescues and humane socities are also filled .. we went through the whole thing with trying to find Daisy ( the Basset my DHbrought home last year ) a home or into rescue and never could, so we just kept her. I'm also going to call and talk to our vet about a dewormer for her, they'll be able to give me an idea how much it would run and if they need to see her first. They are pretty good about giving us a break when the animal is a stray, they did with Daisy and her whole heart worm treatment. Thanks again everyone, hopefully we can get her looking a little better soon :)
...See More
Ever put your cat on a 24 hour fast? I feel so guilty.
Q
Comments (13)
paulines - thanks for asking. I'm not sure. I gave them chicken which they didn't like. They both ate some though. Then stupidly I put out the kibble (the high quality brand) around midnight. I hope this wasn't a huge mistake. Bosco hasn't gone poo yet. I fear that I should have kept the chicken going for a few days more. Oh well. Should I take away the kibble and only let them eat the chicken? Or just see what happens? I don't think Bosco's feeling very well, he purred when he ate the kibble, and is now sleeping in his hiding place.
...See More
I'm so lost! I want to find forum discussion on Dishwashers.
Q
Comments (2)
Here's a direct link to the Appliance Forum. http://ths.gardenweb.com/forums/appl If you look at the top of this page you'll see a link to GardenWeb Topics - all the old GW forums are there under either Garden or Home.
...See More
I need to brainstorm and find a way to move the cat with us
Q
Comments (18)
Thanks handmethehammer. The house we will build is about 25 miles from where we are now, so not that far. Every time I've had the cat in a cage in the SUV, he has cried and yowled the entire time. I think it would be even harder to get him into a pillowcase than into a carrier. Although, I did see something about pickup up cats by the scruff of their neck and it made even the wildest cat docile. I plan on trying that the next time I have to take him someplace and don't have a week to prep for it. The vet thinks he is about 9 years old. He said it was hard to tell because the cat was so scarred, at least where he shaved his leg, and he had broken teeth and ragged ears from fighting. One of my worries about moving the cat is that he can never roam free again, and that will make it even more stressful for him. But in the rental, we'll be in a town with neighbors who might not like visiting cats and there are probably leash laws. Where we are now, that's not an issue. In the permanent home, it will just be too dangerous for him, but there I plan to build an enclosure on the side of the garage. I hope you are right that his attachment for us will be stronger than his need to run off. I think one reason he stayed here after he was neutered is that while he was under anesthesia, I held him and petted him. Before and even after, he wouldn't let us pet him anywhere but the top of his head without trying to bite or scratch. Now he loves being petted but he doesn't like being held or cuddled.
...See More
MissSherry
16 years ago
It's unlikely that queens would be as far north as Michigan. Maybe they're milkweed tussock moth eggs?
MissSherry
kek19
Original Author
16 years ago
Since the eggs are yellow, and look nothing like what I've seen online, I think we can agree they are not monarch eggs, right?

What about the cat? I just finished reading about Queen's, and I agree w/ misssherry, that I'm way to far north for them, plus the cats are described to have more black on them to make them appear darker. This little guy (maybe 1/8 th of an inch, if that) looks primarily white, w/ thin tiny black stripes, possibally a hint of yellow next to the stripes. I think I need to find a pic of very young monarch cats, or I could just wait for it to grow big enough to get a pic.
todancewithwolves
16 years ago
Well, I'll be! I never heard of moths that eat milkweeed, Miss Sherry. How cool is that. I learned something new today.

They are cute little fuzzy cats.

Edna :-)
kek19
Original Author
16 years ago
We get the moth cat all the time, they like to live around the foundation of the house where we've let the weeds take over, before I started planting. The kids loved finding them. Black ones, green ones, yellow, and brown. They are EVERYWHERE here!
monarch_girl
16 years ago
If the little white/yellowish spots are over one of the leaf veins that was broken it could be from dried milkweed sap. The milkweed sap beads up and then dries into little yellowish white round balls that sort of look like eggs. If they are eggs, all of the spots would appear the same uniform size. You can experiment yourself on a fresh milkweed leaf by poking little holes and see if the sap dries the same as the other leaf you found. Other than that it is difficult to tell from the photo.

And usually when you find milkweed tussock moth eggs, they are found in large groups of something like 3 million plus eggs...... LOL!
cecropia
16 years ago
I think they are monarch eggs,and the cat sounds like a monarch too.I find lots of 1st instars eating the flower buds.
kek19
Original Author
16 years ago
So I find this other cat...... LOL My son an I went to get some fresh milkweed for the cat we had, and low and behold, another one! Except this guy was stuck under a garden spider and next to a ladybug. That spider wasn't gonna give him up, I thought for sure he'd already paralyzed it the way it was gaurding his food. But I got him away, unharmed (I'm a spider lover, so it was hard for me to steal his food, but I did anyways) I took the leaf he was on, and grabbed some extra milkweed. He wasn't bitten, started moving around as soon as I got him away from the big bad spider. Same kind of cat as the first, but about 3 times the size, still really little though. I'm pretty sure they are monarch cats.

Oh, and remember I said I felt guilty about mowing down a bunch of milkweed when i first got here, This new guy happened to be on one of 3 that I just happened to skip over and never got around to going back to mow it. I find that kinda ironic.

So I find this cat....

Comments (9)

todancewithwolves

kek19
Original Author

Related Discussions

MissSherry

kek19
Original Author

todancewithwolves

kek19
Original Author

monarch_girl

cecropia

kek19
Original Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

So I find this cat....

Comments (9)

todancewithwolves

kek19Original Author

Related Discussions

MissSherry

kek19Original Author

todancewithwolves

kek19Original Author

monarch_girl

cecropia

kek19Original Author

COMPANY

BUSINESS SERVICES

GET HELP

CONNECT WITH US

kek19
Original Author

kek19
Original Author

kek19
Original Author

kek19
Original Author