Those giant panda triplets born in China in July just turned 100 days old on Wednesday, and their caretakers report they're sprouting teeth and doing very well.
The cubs weighed just a few ounces when they were born, but now weigh in at 11 pounds each said Dong Guixin, general manager of Chimelong Safari Park in Guangzhou, capital of China's Guangdong province. Each of them have also have two teeth now.
"It is imperative to help the triplets form a good relationship with their mother and keep them in close contact. We hope that they can live together if the cubs grow healthily," Dong
told reporters with The Associated Press.
He said that they will begin getting acquainted with the public in small doses starting this week, sometimes appearing together, and sometimes appearing separately as they take turns living with their mother, Juxiao, in five-day cycles.
12-year-old Juxiao was originally paired with the triplets' 17-year-old father, Linlin, in September of last year, and China celebrated when the famously sex-shy pandas successfully mated.
The first known panda triplets ever recorded were born in 1999, but the youngest of the three died within days of a bladder infection.
The current batch of cubs still don't have names, and he said the park was thinking that they might let the public help name them. They are fraternal triplets, two boys and one girl.