Hey guys, geez seems like its been forever since I've posted. I guess RJs just been great and Cooper, well he's sure not worse, she seems a bit better. However today RJ ate a pretty good size horn worm. I held on for dear life so he would tear or bite it, no such like, he ripped it right out of my fingers. I guess it wasn't HUGE HUGE, but it was big. Any reason for concern? On the same topic. I recently gave him a bunch of calcium worms. When he pooped, it was like a pile of calcium worms. I also saw looked like a partially digested horn worm, as if it was hollowed out and he pooped the skin
The hornworms are squishy and usually no problem for them to chew up and digest.
The calciworms can be tough sometimes if they eat a lot at once and don't chew them. Then they can come through whole like that. Try offering them more slowly to allow time for chewing and see if that helps. Not really a cause for concern in either case.
OK thanks, something else real quick. I saw a spot behind RJs neck, hidden in a "fold " it looks like shed, but kinda thicker, not sure how else to explain it. But I was wondering, to be safe, how do you identify yellow fungus?
It could be a single scale shed. If you post a picture I can take a look. Yellow fungus usually shows up as a dark area that looks scabby or wounded. It usually looks quite a bit worse than just a shed area.
I thought this was June 2019, not 2018 but thought I'd comment anyway. What you likely saw was the last shed of this caterpillar before pupating. They shed 5 times, the final is when they pupate after burrowing in the ground. The "skin" gets thicker in this near final stage and less digestible. That's probably what you saw in RJ's poop