The Accidental Smallholder Forum
Pets & Working Animals => Cats => Topic started by: Em121 on October 17, 2017, 05:35:48 pm
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We have three cats and one is ADDICTED to milk! And I do mean addicted - he can hear the fridge door open from the bottom of the orchard! He has recently come to live here with his brother who couldn't care less about the stuff, nor could our existing cat so it's very odd. We've tried to wean him off with bowls of water from the tap, from the water butt and the pond but he won't touch it. Sits in front of the fridge giving us the wide eyed pleading look! Then runs up and down trees like a mad thing when he gets his way!
We do give him that cat milk but normal milk doesn't seem to give him any kind of tummy upset. Advice?
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Our current cats all like milk - all our cats ever have liked milk. Cassius liked cream better, if it was available. None of them have been ill with it. Funny though, they only drink shop milk - none of them would drink our raw milk when we were milking.
Cat's don't drink all that much water, I don't think, unless they are on dried food.
I'd just go with the flow - if a wee saucer of milk makes him happy and doesn't make him ill, go with it.
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My friend runs a cattery and says cats are lactose intolerant and shouldn't be given milk....
Where I milk cows the farm cats live on fresh milk and seem very happy with it :-\
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Thank you both. We had read/heard that cats are lactose intolerant so started to give Chamberlain some of that cat milk but it's stupidly expensive and probably just a clever marketing ploy! We shall not give into him so much but I'm sure one morning we are going to see him mugging the Milkman! ;D ;D
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Yet cats have been given milknow for years? Who suddenly decided they were lactose intolerant?
Ours gets goats milk, comes into barn when he sees me with milking bowl, he gets first squirts in a dish
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I heard that they were intolerant so stopped giving it .... though we'd given it to our last old cat all his life with no apparent ill effects.
After reading this, I've googled it.
All I could find was that some but not all cats were intolerant. If they were it basically gave them an upset tummy.
Guessing that if your cat shows no ill effects then it should be okay to give him at least a small amount so that he can have his 'fix'!
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Our boy comes and waits until I have finished milking and then gets a wee saucer still warm from the goats! He won't have it cold!
Our dog btw also gets a slurp of milk with her breakfast biscuits, not pasteurised or anything...
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My recollection was that cats stop producing the enzymes to digest milk properly after weaning - which kind of makes sense for a carnivorous animal. However if we effectively never wean by continuing to feed milk then presumably the feedback system maintains enzyme production and hence no problems. I think problems are perhaps more likely if trying to give milk to an adult cat that hasn't consumed it since it was a kitten.
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I'm extremely sceptical and cynical about the pet food industry. It's not there to look after pets - although it dresses itself up as that - it's there to make money for shareholders. And like many industries, it has sytematically stripped us of our confidence to make reasonable decisions about the welfare of our animals, based on what we see day and daily - and therefore become reliant on their products and boosttheir profits.
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Most mammals only produce lactase (the enzyme that breaks down lactose) while they are infants and hence become lactose intolerant after they wean. It means that they can't break down lactose and it passes through digested and causes various gut upsets.
Part of human evolution was that most humans became "lactase persisters" so retained the ability to digest lactase and was part of our change to farmers from hunter gatherers (I advise against referring to those who identify themselves as lactose intolerant as less evolved unless you like a fight!).
I guess cats and other mammals can be the same. I have a couple of cats who love milk (fresh from the goat) and one who is down right demanding. The rest aren't fussed. I also have a goat who was clearly bottle fed as at 4 years old when we had an orphaned kid she would do everything to steal milk with no ill effects.
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My daughter's old cat, Elsa, loved milk and cream but if she ever managed to get a hold of any she spewed up for at least a day. Sarah tried her with the special cat milk but she didn't like it so she only got water. Their new kittens aren't bothered, and my Rio will have it if it's there but really really likes cream but hey, I like it better than him so he has no chance lol
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Some of my goats will drink milk if I leave it in reach, and some are known to suckle themselves,
But goats milk is different, i believe most animals can take it with no problems, our dogs and cats like a drop anyway, no problems.
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Reminds me of a picture I saw of a shelf in Tesco where someone had added a little sign saying "Please note cat milk does not come from cats". I mean can you imagine milking a cat :roflanim:
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Reminds me of a picture I saw of a shelf in Tesco where someone had added a little sign saying "Please note cat milk does not come from cats". I mean can you imagine milking a cat :roflanim:
I always feel sorry for vegans having to milk almonds, oats or rice to get their milk :roflanim:
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My friend runs a cattery and says cats are lactose intolerant and shouldn't be given milk....
Where I milk cows the farm cats live on fresh milk and seem very happy with it :-\
That's just silly tbh. If cats were lactose intolerant they wouldn't even be able to tolerate their own mother's milk. Lactose is a protein in all milks. I feed mine on buffalo milk, every now and again, he loves it, raw milk too. Not intolerant or allergic to it at all.
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I give my cats milk as a laxative when they are having trouble with hairballs, does the job nicely and is much easier than giving them the catalax the vet prescribed.
I am lactose intolerant myself so do sometimes also give them a treat of lactose free milk and cream. They love that and have it with no problems.
Dans