First day working with the babies today! We started off by feeding them fruit and milk, then they go to an outdoor cage (while we clean inside), before going to the play ropes outside. Their food is more complicated than the juveniles. There are five babies (Bakut Ospie, Koko, Archie and Maohun), two older ones (Sepilok and Alagu) and Nonong – who is an adult, but is semi-paralysed, and they all eat different things. So you have to weigh, measure and record everything carefully – as opposed to just chucking it in a basket. Each orangutan gets a tray filled with their fruit. The morning is more basic, while the afternoon feed is much bigger, with more variety. They also have different recipes for their milk, and the young ones drink from baby bottles. They can feed themselves, but the sucking sound is really loud, and they drink fast!

The babies also make a lot of mess – but they are adorable. They are much smaller than the others, and their eyes are so big. The vet wanted to do a health check for them all today – so we got them out one by one. They make a lot more noise too! Alagu was crying to be let out so much – and as soon as we opened the cage she leapt on Jack. I had Sepilok – and he decided to grip on with all four hands. I was trying to get him in the basket to be weighed and he was having none of it – every time I got two hands or feet free, he would grip on with the others. He was gripping my back so hard at one stage I know I will have a couple of bruises! They may be smaller, but they are still strong!

Once they were in the outdoor cage, we went back to clean the indoor area. Two of the young ones were still inside as they have diarrhoea – it is fairly common for the babies, especially because they lost their mums early, and were deprived of all the antibodies they should have received from her milk . So there is quite a lot of mess to clean, but it wasn't as bad as I was expecting. Because we had two in with us, they were very fond of watching and making various attempts to grab our t-shirts etc. I adore Bakut – he is very fluffy and hairy and sits with his arms folded a lot.

Then you go around with a ghostbuster's style back pack and spray everything down with disinfectant. Due to the health check, we didn't have time to let them out to the outdoor nursery today, so they stayed in the outdoor cage till after lunch. We threw in some ice lollies and sugar cane for them before we left. It is hilarious watching them all roll around in there.

After lunch we got everyone out to play in the outdoor area. We don't have to do much, just watch them and encourage them to climb. When we brought them back inside, I ended up with Sepilok again – and he was well behaved. They are so much lighter than the juveniles – which is handy, because even through they are supposed to walk themselves, they frequently just latch onto your leg instead. When they try to come back too early (which Sepilok frequently does) you can give the rope a shake to encourage them to go back out. Ranger Boney did this today with Sepilok, who hung upside down by his feet and let his face go all floppy – his tongue and mouth were flapping all over the place. It was absolutely hilarious – one of the funniest things I have seen. The time passes really quickly in the afternoon, so it will be good to spend more time with them tomorrow.