Josh, Jason, Joseph and Judith
2012
8 July 2012: This bunch of babies is going to be 9 months old on 16 July and definitely look their age, with the boys manes growing thicker and longer each day. Joseph and Jason are winning the mane race, while Josh is a little behind with a thin Mohawk and chest. Josh is still the baby of the group and cries for his bottle each morning, Jason is darker in colour and the reasonable one while Joseph is the passionate one. Judith is still a spoilt little princess with a stunning face and chocolate eyes. She is very selective as to who she likes and tend to get quite vocal while sitting in peoples lap. All 4 lions are infatuated with the tiger group in the enclosure below them, and are constantly watching them and calling out, waiting for replies. Each night they wait impatiently for Amber and Or to join them, smothering the girls in licks to their faces. Once they’ve said their hellos all 6 babies continue up to the platform as requested for their evening meal.
25 April: The 4 babies are doing very well. They were on 1 feed of 3kg steak each up until yesterday and we’ll now start feeding the 6 (4 Lions and 2 Tigers) 2 half horse legs every other night as they are big enough. Personality wise, Joshy is still the baby one; Jason is the calm cuddly one; Joseph is the hyperactive one and Judith is a bit of a snobby princess. They are walked every evening, 1 lap at a time and are doing so well we’ll be pushing it up to two again.
17 March: The J’s are doing great – we have just changed their diet to 2 steak feeds a day, since they were becoming quite spoiled and wouldn’t finish their meals. Joshy is now starting to show the first signs that he is ready to give up his bottle, but he is still a big baby – whenever you walk into their enclosure, the first thing he does is come and sit in your lap. Jason is the good one – he is always kind and gentle and listens to what you say. Joseph is turning into a little man that just loves to “talk” and complain all day long and Judith is a quiet, sneaky little princess. She is very selective as to whom she likes and whom she lets close to her, but if she decides she likes you, she is the first one to come up and greet you when you walk in.
27 February: The 4 have completely settled down in the top enclosure. They have it to themselves during the day and then at night time the Tiger girls join them and they can enjoy the night running around together. They are still very good walkers, with Joseph being the best one out of the four. Judith still tries to get the boys to misbehave and loves to take shortcuts through the bush. Josh usually does his own thing and just walks along, and Jason still get confused and lost, then sits and cries until we come to “rescue” him. The walks themselves are going very smoothly but getting them out and back in to the enclosure is challenging, mainly thanks to Judith not willing to listen and the silly brown boys who copy everything she does. They now get 3 feeds a day: 1kg steak twice a day and 1 rib at night time. Baby Josh gets his bottle every morning before his steak.
7 January: They had a busy two weeks with lots of visitor interaction, as it’s been holiday season and the park was lucky enough to have lots of tourists coming through. The 4 are now being walked 3 laps twice a day and in a few days will go up to four laps, as they are such good walkers and listeners. They are now being fed 2 meat feeds of 550g meat and porridge and two rib feeds a day. They all took very well to the change in their diet except for baby Joshy. So, to keep the spoiled one happy, we are letting him have an extra bottle every day. He is the only one of the four that still suckles a bottle properly and he will continue getting his bottle for as long as he wants. He has also been sick with an upset tummy, but is all better now. Judith and Joseph are still the best walkers, always in front. Josh gets stuck in the enclosure a lot of the time, getting confused as to how to get out. Jason just gets so busy flirting with the servals, jackals and the Big 5, that he forgets he is in the middle of a walk!
21 December: The four little babies are growing too quickly and their different personalities are showing now more than ever. Judith is a proper lioness- very independent and cheeky. She will come up to you all nice and cuddly, and then will sneak a bite the minute you look away. On walks she is always the leader, but is getting so confident now that sometimes she just takes off on her own, leaving her confused brothers behind. They don’t know whom to follow – Judith or us. Joseph is the reasonable cub – he always listens when you call him, he feeds very well and is always on his best behaviour, he loves when you talk to him and talks back to you. He is also the clumsy one and stumbles on his feet quite a bit. Josh is no longer the baby – he grew up so much the last few weeks that he and Joseph are practically the same size. He is addicted to his bottle and is the only one that still suckles properly. If he sees the tigers getting a night bottle, he gets so jealous that he sometimes gets an extra one as well. He usually gets quite lost at the beginning of the walk and then gives up, sits and cries until we come to fetch him. However, once he gets down to the loop he walks well, and runs straight up at the end. Jason is now not only the spoiled one, but also the baby that still walks around with his pretty red collar. He is the smallest of all; he struggles to drink his bottle but loves the meat feeds. He still cries for attention and loves to be held. On walks you always need to wait for him, because he can’t walk unless he has a stick in his mouth to carry around, usually one that is bigger than he is! Whenever we get to the end of the walk, Jason always goes to flirt with the big 5, which makes it very hard to get him away without having to carry him ourselves! 
The babies are now at the top enclosure; they are being walked twice a day and they have 4 feeds: 1 bottle feed, 2 feeds of porridge and meat (400gr) and 1 feed of half a rib.
28 November: The four babies are looking great. Joseph is the calm wise one, Judith is the smart little princes, Jason is the spoiled one and Josh is the baby of the bunch. So far all have lost their collars, except for Jason, who is a bit more responsible. These babies, just like the “big 4″, are fussy eaters, but we noticed that they started stealing ribs from the tiger girls, so as part of our attempt to get them to feed better, we have introduced meat into their diet.
They are now being walked one lap down the walking area twice a day. Joseph is always in front, with Judith who keeps backtracking looking for her two slower brothers. We carry them down the steps but walk them back to the top. The babies got weighed earlier this week and are all weighing over 5kg. Right now they are getting 3 bottles a day (mixture of porridge and Seaview milk formula), 50- 100g of minced meat and a rib at night time when we lock them out in their new and improved enclosure, together with their stepsisters the tigers!
22 November: The cubs have taken well to the walks they take in the mornings and they really enjoy it, especially Joseph, who is always out of the enclosure first and always in front of the pack. They were also introduced to the porridge mixture this week and have adapted well to the new taste of their milk. They are now having 50ml porridge and 250ml milk in their bottles.
15 November: The four little ones are doing great and growing fast. They are now having 300ml of the Seaview formula in the morning and then 200ml at each of the other feeds for the day. They are all teething and are starting to bite while playing with the tiger babies. They went on their first walk around the car park today. Joseph and Judith did very well, but Josh and Jason got a little distracted by the quad bike. Joseph is still the biggest of the babies at 4.62kg, then Jason weighing in at 4.32kg, and then Judith and Josh at 4.28kg.
8 November: The four little ones are growing up beautifully and love spending their days outside the restaurant in the enclosure with the tigers. They spend a big part of the day sleeping in the cool sand in the shade. Joseph is still the biggest, weighing 3.7kg. Josh and Jason both weigh 3.5kg and Judith now weighs 3.4kg. Their food intake is very good and they all look quite fat and cuddly.
1 November: The new cubs are doing really well. They even had a change in their diet from Kitty milk to the Seaview formula and they loved it. Jason, who usually is a stubborn eater, took the change well and loves the new formula, drinking very easily now. The babies love spending time with Or and Amber, playing with them and sleeping together when they get tired. Joseph is the biggest, weighing in at 3.1 kg. Next is Josh at 2.95 kg and then Jason and Judith at 2.9 kg.
October 25: Great news! We have four new baby lions born on 16 October, 2 white babies and 2 brown babies. One of the white babies is a girl and the rest are boys. All the cubs are big and healthy with the white boy being the biggest at 2.5kg. While one of the brown boys is very spotty, the other is very light in colour.
