Macao's one-week-old panda twin cubs 'in good health'

MACAO - The panda twin cubs born here one week ago "are in good health," said the Macao Special Administrative Region's civil affairs authorities on Sunday.

Macao's Civic and Municipal Affairs Bureau said in a report that the bigger panda cub has grown from 135 grams at birth to 167.2 grams on Saturday and the smaller one has grown from 53.8 grams to 77.9 grams.

Both are in good health and look like two "moving glutinous rice balls with grated coconut," the bureau's report added.

Macao has formed a specialized team to take care of the cubs and their mother.

The bigger cub is strong and can feed by itself while the smaller one is fed by panda experts who collect milk from the mother.

The bureau said on June 26 that a female panda Xinxin has given birth to a pair of male twin cubs.

Xinxin and a male panda named Kaikai were chosen from Chengdu Research Base of Giant Panda Breeding in Southwest China's Sichuan Province as a gift of the central government to Macao SAR.