( CNN ) -- German zookeepers in Nuremberg will bottle-feed a four-week-old polar bear and rear it away from its mother after concerns the mother would eat her cub , officials said Thursday . Zookeepers fear the unnamed polar bear cub could be at risk of being eaten . The cub , which does n't yet have a name , was being cared for at Nuremberg City Zoo , where it was resting under heat lamps and is drinking formula . `` It 's gaining weight , it 's very hungry , it drinks a lot of milk , '' said Alexandra Foghammar , a spokeswoman for the city . The zoo announced Thursday that the cub is female . Wednesday , the zoo said keepers decided to take the cub away from its mother , Vera , because the mother was showing signs of being upset and confused , taking her baby in and out of the animals ' enclosure . `` We were 100 percent sure that the baby was going to die if we did n't take it away from her , '' Nuremberg zoo director Dag Encke told Time magazine . `` This would have been a death verdict for the cub . '' The zoo confirmed earlier this week that its other female polar bear , Vilma , had eaten her two offspring . The zoo said it feared Vera would do the same , so it took her cub away as a precaution . Since then , the cub is thriving in the care of humans , but Vera seems to miss her cub , Foghammar said . Watch how zoo has faced criticism over polar bears . » . `` The mother is a little bit nervous , '' she said . `` She walks around and is searching for the baby , but the responsible persons for the zoo say this is normal . It will continue for three or four days . It 's a normal situation . '' The zookeepers are pondering whether to bring another adult bear , possibly the cub 's father , Felix , to the zoo to help Vera overcome her loss , and are seeking another small bear to serve as a companion for the rescued cub , Time reported . The zoo said a keeper entered Vilma 's enclosure Monday and noticed that her two cubs were nowhere to be found . The zoo said it assumes Vilma ate her young because she believed the cubs were sick , though zookeepers say the cubs were last seen on Sunday and appeared in good health . But Foghammar told Time that the separation of the bears was bad for the `` principle of wildlife conservation '' at the zoo : `` Now the cub will not grow up to act in a natural way , just as the mother lacked the experience to bring up a cub . '' The plight of the cub follows the case last year of Knut , a cub rejected by its mother at Berlin Zoo who became the focus of a media frenzy after animal rights campaigners called for it to be killed , claiming it had become too dependent on humans . E-mail to a friend .
Four-week-old polar bear separated from mother amid fears she would eat it . Nuremberg City Zoo 's other polar bear ate its own two offspring earlier this week . Comment: