-->

The babies and their bottles "The panda nanny's diary"

The babies and their bottles "The panda nanny's diary"

By Wu Kai, panda keeper at the Bifengxia base of China conservation and research center for the giant panda

Susan gave birth to a pair of panda cubs earlier this year. Like many new mothers, she needs help with the childcare. So I take one of the cubs off her paws in turns so that she can concentrate on the other.

Feeding, cleaning, observing temperature, adjusting sleeping postures... I even help the cubs defecate before feeding them milk. I use wet cotton balls to pat around their bottoms in a mild tempo. Then I warm the breast milk taken from their mother. Cubs older than 1 month old can drink formula milk instead.

Then I rinse their mouths before the impatient cubs can finally enjoy their milk. Then, I pat their backs and comb their hair as their mother would do.

Normally, I can take a rest when they rest. But Susan' s children don't seem to like nap time. I stroke them to calm them down as their mother would. Hopefully they will sleep soon.


Post a Comment