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 - Great educational item....BUT......We ordered this for my daughter's 4th birthday and it was a fantastic gift! The environment is high quality (perhaps a bit small...I'd go for the larger one next time to give the butterflies more space to soar) and easy to clean. All of our butterflies lived and actually laid eggs. We placed a lantana plant inside the cage for them to eat on and lay eggs on. It was a beautiful thing to witness. NOTE: the baby caterpillars that came from the eggs our butterflies laid, if you want to do this all again, DO NOT LIKE TO EAT lantana and they died. I'll be doing thistle, hollyhock or malva next time once they hit the big caterpillar stage. Last night I ordered my new 5 caterpillares, nutrient, manual, and new supplies *for $7*. I ordered this from www.carolina.com which had the least expensive pricing around. INSECT LORE will rape you on this ($15!!!!! for the same thing, actually just the cup, nutrient and caterpillars nothing else) after the first coupon is used (if you do this again). I HIGHLY rec. using carolina.com to order supplies after your first go-round. Insect lore's CEO communicated with me personally and she was rude, unhelpful and uncooperative when I emailed the company in regard to the uncompetitive high pricing for refills (if you will). I was surprised by her curt response and non-helpful attitude. So, in sumnation, go ahead and buy the kit from them but if you decide to do the butterflies again after you release the first ones, buy them from carolina.com! :) Rating:  - disappointing-had to purchase caterpillars for the initial project.Very disappointing. When my granddaughter received this gift, she found that there were no caterpilars to watch, and infact had to wait to purchase the crystallis before she could do anything! Very disappointing! Rating:  - Excellent experienceThis was great fun for the kids. It was quite simple to do and even the contractor working in our house followed the growth of the butterflies! Rating: - Really InterestingI thought that this product was a great idea. There are a couple of issues that I had with this item. To order the catapillars cost an extra fee, that while it was minimal, it was unlisted in the product description. The other thing is that the kids, (ages 9 & 5) were disappointed that they couldn't touch the caterpillars. All in all this was a educational product that can be used again, and would be great for a science fair project. Rating: - live butterflysMy almost three year old son loves bugs. So we thought this would be a great toy for him. I think I like it more than him, he is more hands on, and of course you cant really touch the catapillars, you just have to look at them. But they are just now beginning to turn into cocoons. I will for sure be ordering more catapillars and doing this again!!
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