When we were kids we always used to give our cats milk, followed by the occasional spoonful of cream.
Nearly 40 years on, we are reading all sorts of literature telling us that milk is bad for our cats. With my personal trainer hat on and my recent nutritional studies, I decided to look at why milk might be bad for our feline friends.
Well it turns out that cats are lactose intolerant just like many humans. Basically, this means that they don’t have the enzymes needed to digest the lactose which is contained in milk. When cats drink milk, they can end up with tummy pains and diarrhea.
On the supermarket shelves you may have seen lactose-free milk. This is something we’ve recently tried on our cats and I’ve noticed that a few of my customers are adopting the same approach.
Sorry to spoil the illusion of that cute cat licking cream, but cream is in the same bag as milk and will make your cat feel unwell. So it turns out the only fluid your cat needs is plain old water.
Our beautiful girls, Posh and Becks will not drink tap water, so they make us collect rain water, store in bottles in the fridge and then serve as required. We should sell these bottles to pet stores for a fortune.
When we are looking after your precious friends in Bedfordshire or Buckinghamshire, then we will always meet with your instructions and serve water or lactose milk.
It would be good to know what your cats drink – so please share on the comments.
My next blog will be about “Can cats be trained like dogs?”. If you’ve got any subjects you’d like me to write about then please do get in touch. We are always open to guest bloggers if you’ve got a story to tell.