"They are ten months old," says Kalinka, smiling. Ciel gives the stress worm another cuddle and a piece of mangled toast.

The bloody meat only reinforces the resemblance to Slash - his brothers had never quite convinced him that raw meat was mostly for fire lizards. Slash likely would have turned up his nose at the potatoes, however, although he had been known to eat some bites of fruit or berries when coaxed.

Which means Blues is now curious. Not that he shows much outward sign of it as he feeds Mikhail another bite of egg.