Can Kittens Eat Cow Milk

This is why it is important to avoid feeding cow milk to kittens.

Can kittens eat cow milk. Newborn kittens should ideally feed through their mother s breast milk. Small kittens do drink milk but it is not cow s milk but milk from their mother cat. If however you are one of those owners who insist of giving the cat milk anyway here are some things to keep in mind. Can you give kittens soy milk or almond milk.

For instance people increasingly ask whether goat milk for cats is an acceptable treat. If unfortunately you are in the care of a kitten that has been orphaned we do not recommend giving it cow s milk. You can turn cow milk into a more suitable food for kittens there are some recipes out there but the sooner you get a kitten milk replacement formula the better since the formula is specially designed to cover the nutritional requirements of a kitten. The short answer is no don t feed a kitten cow s milk.

So kittens definitely need their mother s milk or a good substitute but no cat needs cow s milk or soy milk. So the kitten should never be given cow s milk. Apparently other types of milk. Most cats are lactose intolerant and can t digest the lactose in cow s milk.

Now what about the orphaned kittens. Once the kitten is weaned there is no reason to ever give the cat milk again. Whole 2 percent and skim cow s. Cats in general do best with only the foods specifically for them.

The natural weaning usually occurs about 3 weeks old and thereafter the cat would stop drinking milk. Goat milk for kittens is a little more salutary than cow s milk but the difference between them is. Kittens lack the proper enzymes to digest the lactose in cow milk and feeding cow milk to kittens can cause diarrhea and dehydration very quickly in very small kittens. When a cat drinks milk undigested lactose will stay in their intestines rather than passing into the bloodstream and end up fermenting says dr.

A mother feline s milk has the optimum balance of nutrients for her babies. Cats can and will drink cow milk if it is offered to them but much like ice cream it s not actually very healthy for them.