Mei Xiang decided to eat some sugarcane and drink dilute apple juice the keepers left for her yesterday evening around 6 p.m. Two hours later, she left the den to urinate and defecate—only the second time she's done that since giving birth. She put the cub down when she left the den and he was very quiet for the while she was gone. Over the next few weeks she will get more comfortable leaving him for increasingly longer periods of time to eat and drink. While Mei was away, our behavior watchers captured a fantastic view close-up of the cub!

 

Mei Xiang decided to eat some sugarcane and drink dilute apple juice the keepers left for her yesterday evening around 6 p.m. Two hours later, she left the den to urinate and defecate?only the second time she?s done that since giving birth. She put the cub down when she left the den and he was very quiet for the while she was gone. Over the next few weeks she will get more comfortable leaving him for increasingly longer periods of time to eat and drink. While Mei was away, our behavior watchers captured a fantastic view close-up of the cub! #PandaStory

A video posted by Smithsonian's National Zoo (@smithsonianzoo) on Sep 1, 2015 at 2:21pm PDT