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It's time for another update on Singapore's favourite panda cub.
"Aiyo, you are very hard to hold already"
A video posted by the Wildlife Reserves Singapore (WRS) on Oct. 5 shows lead panda carer Trisha Tay struggling at having a good and firm grip on the panda cub while taking him out of the enclosure with one hand.
The video captioned: "Aiyo" and "You are [getting] very hard to hold already".
All of this happened with "super mom" Jia Jia at the side, who was busy eating and appeared to be very preoccupied with her meal.
Tay tried for a few times before she could get ahold of the baby panda with just one hand, and shimmy it through the enclosure's bars securely.
Here's how effortlessly Tay grabbed the baby boy for his first weigh-in on Sep. 15:
Video from WRS/Facebook.
Back then, the panda cub was around 1.5kg.
Here's the situation on Sep. 28:
Video from WRS/Facebook.
You might wonder why Tay put the panda cub back in after lifting it out of the enclosure. It's actually not due to the panda cub's weight.
According to WRS, Tay was performing a short handling session with the panda cub and Jia Jia.
Such sessions are conducted by the panda team regularly to get both of them to be comfortable with being handled for medical checks.
According to WRS, the baby panda is "growing well".
While no weight was measured on Sep. 28, the latest weigh-in on Oct. 4 revealed that the panda cub is now close to 3kg, at 2,864g to be exact, WRS told Mothership.
How fast do panda cubs grow?
The baby panda looks nothing like the small pink blob that it was on Aug. 14.
According to the World Wildlife Foundation, newly born panda cubs tend to be just 1/900th the size of their mothers.
Ranging between 90g to 130g, baby pandas are one of the smallest newborn mammals, relative to their panda parents' weight that go up to a whopping 150kg.
Most of a baby panda's development happens outside of its mother's womb, and pretty rapidly.
In just 48 hours from its birth, white fur will start sprouting on the panda cub's pink skin, followed by the distinct black markings around their eyes and bodies.
Four-day-old panda cub. Image courtesy of Wildlife Reserves Singapore.
10-day-old panda cub. Image courtesy of Wildlife Reserves Singapore.
At the three-week mark, a panda cub would have fully grown into it's skin, or fur.
24-day-old panda cub. Image courtesy of Wildlife Reserves Singapore.
Newborn pandas gain weight at a rapid pace too.
Baby pandas are known to feed on their mother’s milk as many as 14 times a day and most of their time oscillate between suckling and sleeping.
33-day-old panda cub. Image courtesy of Wildlife Reserves Singapore.
50-day-old panda cub. Image courtesy of Tan Chuan-Jin/Facebook.
At around the six-week mark, baby pandas will start to open their eyes, and by the two-month mark, so will their ear canals.
At around three to four months old, panda cubs will start developing their external genitalia.
This is also the same time when the panda cubs start to grow their teeth, and might even exhibit mouthing.
However, it will not be till a few months later where panda cubs will be fully weaned. This will occur around the nine-month mark when the panda cubs start consuming bamboo and other solid foods.