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Two Siberian baby tigers at a zoo in central China's Henan Province have shown that even future top predators can have an unusual start in life by living off milk from a sheep.
Since their birth on Aug. 5, the two tiger cubs have been drinking sheep milk six times a day from a feeding bottle.
"It's too early for them to notice any difference," said a breeder surnamed Cui with the zoo in Zhengzhou City, capital of Henan Province.
The cubs, named Yu Mi and Hua Sheng, had to be separated from their four brothers and sisters after birth.
Unlike the other four of the sextuplets, who were drinking from their mother's nipples, the two had to drink milk from a sheep.
"A female Siberian tiger normally has four nipples for newborns, the number of which is often fewer than four for one birth," said Cui.
"But this time, our girl gave birth to six. It's a rare phenomenon and a mother tiger's milk may not be enough for all her babies," Cui added.
To avoid the baby tigers from going hungry, the zoo decided to let a sheep wet nurse raise two of the six cubs.
"We took two babies cautiously when the mother tiger was licking water outside the cage," said Cui, adding that she would be irritated if she found anyone approaching her babies.
Sheep milk will be Yu Mi and Hua Sheng's main meal for the next 30 to 40 days, and then they will be gradually weaned off it.
They have already grown to 30 cm.
Their names were selected from more than 200 suggestions provided by netizens. They are pronounced like "corn" and "peanut" in Chinese characters, but also indicate that they were born in central China.
Their wet nurse has provided milk for cubs in the past when female tigers have either lacked experience or showed little interest in breeding their young.
Zhao Pengfei, another breeder, said the zoo had tried milk from other animals including cows but that ewe milk proved to be the most suitable.
The birth of the sextuplets means the zoo now has 17 tigers, including three white tigers.
The Siberian tiger, the largest cat-like animal in the world, is a rare tiger subspecies inhabiting mainly northeastern Asia. It is estimated that there are about 20 wild Siberian tigers in China.
