Panda updates – Monday, November 20

We’ve mentioned many times in the past how the leafeater biscuits we offer the giant pandas get stuck in their teeth after they eat a few in a row. Because of this, they will find a piece of bamboo to munch on to clean their teeth. Now that the cubs are eating leafeater biscuits like champs, they too have found the need to “clean their teeth.” This is great and all, unless you’re trying to shift the twins. They will search and search and search for a piece of bamboo to munch on (for five minutes or longer) after eating more than one leafeater biscuit. This all means that if we’re in a hurry, we keepers have to make sure the path the girls take to the dayroom/outdoor habitat must be free of all bamboo leaves …even that dried up week-old leaf we missed during our daily sweep. If there is a leaf in sight, they will stop and eat it before going outside!
Jen W.
Keeper III, Mammals