Need Milk?

[dustypixie]

When we got Cleo, she refused to eat kitten food, so I got her Whiskas Catmilk +Taurine, because it made up the nutritional difference between adult and kitten food. She LOVES it. She'll run to the refrigerator any time I go in the kitchen because she wants it SO bad. Then she'll run around my legs squeaking and squealing. Too cute. Albert wouldn't touch the stuff at first, but now he drinks it freely, I think partially because he didn't want her to have something he didn't.

 

[semiferal]

All mammals need their mother's milk while they are babies. If this is not available then a commercial formula is an inferior but acceptable substitute until they are old enough to begin eating solid food.

After the age of weaning, mammals (including humans!) have no biological need for milk of any kind. This is why the majority of adolescent and adult mammals of all species lack the ability to digest lactose. The body usually naturally stops producing lactase once it no longer needs the ability to digest milk.

Water is the appropriate drink for any adult mammal, whether a cat or a giraffe or a human. The only time the nutrients in milk would be very useful to a cat is if the cat is unwilling or unable to eat enough food due to illness or a similar cause. In this case any extra calories and nutrients would be beneficial. But for a healthy, normal weight cat, the calories in milk will either be added on top of the calories from their normal diet (leading to possible obesity) or be consumed instead of the calories from their normal diet (leading to possible nutrient deficiencies). A small amount of cat milk or even regular milk if your cat tolerates it is absolutely fine to give as a treat, but it is not a good idea to rely on milk of any type as a source of nutrition for a healthy cat.