A 4-week kitten should either still be feeding from its mother or should be fed kitten formula – cow’s milk (and other animal milk) is not the same thing as kitten formula. You said your kitten is almost 4 weeks old and cries for milk. Hi Hind! We’d love to help you find a solution for this problem but we need a little more information. Cat milk replacers are the only safe choice for bottle-feeding a kitten. Some are fortified with taurine for an amino acid boost.įor very young kittens, there’s no substitute for mother’s milk or a specifically formulated kitten formula. These products are lactose-free drinks made with cats in mind. If you want to play it safe with lactose intolerance, opt for a lactose-free product.Ĭats who love milk and want more than just a few sips might enjoy specially-formulated cat milk products, often found on the cat food aisle of pet stores and groceries. As long as you’re not giving him so much that it triggers a reaction or makes a big dent in his daily calorie budget, milk can be a great treat. If your cat loves milk, feel free to give it to him as an occasional treat. What Can You Give Your Cat Instead of Milk? And if you’re caring for a young kitten, never substitute cow’s milk for mother’s milk or kitten formula. It’s not a substitute for a nutritionally complete and balanced diet. If you choose to give your cat milk, make it a very occasional treat. It’s not a nutritionally complete food or even close. Nursing kittens rely on their mother’s milk to survive, but any other type of milk fails to deliver the well-rounded nutrition your kitten or cat needs. Anything besides this milk or a specially-formulated cat milk replacer will lead to nutritional deficiencies. Kittens require the unique balance of nutrients present in their mother’s milk. Cats Don’t Get Much Nutritional Value Out of Milk. They can also eat other low-lactose dairy products, including most hard cheeses, yogurt, and sour cream.Īs with all foods not intended or balanced for cats, these should be considered occasional treats that make up less than 10% of a cat’s total calories for the day. Small amounts of milk won’t make your cat sick, but more than a tablespoon or so could cause digestive distress.Ĭats can more easily digest lactose-free milk and other products made for lactose-intolerant people. They just don’t have the lactase enzymes needed to make the milk digestible. If an adult cat tries to drink the same amount of milk they had as a kitten, they’d get an upset stomach. Cats are, for the most part, lactose-intolerant animals.Īlso Read: Weaning Kittens: Tips For Successful Weaning And herein lies the problem with cats and milk. As they grow up, they produce less of this enzyme and many become lactose-intolerant.Īfter Kittens Are Weaned, They Start Producing Less Lactase. To help them digest the milk sugars in their mom’s milk, kittens naturally produce an enzyme called lactase. There, the undigested lactose would start fermenting, draw water into the colon, and cause the symptoms we associate with lactose intolerance-bloating, diarrhea, and gas.

Instead of breaking down and moving smoothly into the body, the milk sugar would stay intact and move into the colon.

Without lactase, that lactose would be indigestible.

When kittens drink their mom’s milk, those lactase enzymes go to work on the milk sugar, breaking it into glucose and galactose, two simple sugars that absorb easily into the bloodstream. This enzyme’s primary job is to digest lactose, also known as milk sugar. A cat’s milk has the perfect balance of essential nutrients to help kittens grow and thrive.Īnd like all baby mammals, kittens produce an enzyme called lactase. Like all mammals, kittens rely on their mother’s milk as their sole source of nutrition. There’s also no denying that milk is a natural part of the feline diet-when it comes from Mom. Whether it’s from a cow, goat, or mama cat, kittens and adult cats can and do drink milk. Maybe you’ve even watched your own cat lapping it up. You’ve seen the illustrations of kittens clustered around a saucer of milk. In this article, we’ll take a close look at the relationship between cats and milk, exploring milk’s nutritional benefits and health effects, why cats shouldn’t drink too much milk, and what you can give your cat instead.

Cat sip almond milk