Speaker 1: Welcome to brainstuff. From How Stuff Works, Hey, brain Stuffed,
Speaker 1: Lauren Vogel bomb here. From children's books to TV commercials,
Speaker 1: the idea that cats are wild about milk is everywhere.
Speaker 1: Yet what pop culture fails to show is what happens
Speaker 1: shortly after that bowl of milk is empty. The cute
Speaker 1: kitty peacefully lapping away at a bowl of fresh milk
Speaker 1: is likely to spend the next few hours suffering from diarrhea, gas, bloating,
Speaker 1: and other unpleasant side effects. Cats, like most adult mammals,
Speaker 1: including many humans, are lactose intolerant. That means they lack
Speaker 1: the enzymes needed to break down lactose the sugars found
Speaker 1: in milk. A bowl of milk isn't likely to be deadly,
Speaker 1: but the after effects are likely to trouble both the
Speaker 1: cat and the owner, who has to clean up the mess.
Speaker 1: If your cat seems to tolerate milk to an extent,
Speaker 1: or if you simply want to offer your cat something special,
Speaker 1: consider milk like any other treat. Since milk has little
Speaker 1: nutritional value to the cat, it's no substitute for proper
Speaker 1: cat food and should be served to the cat with
Speaker 1: the same care that you would any other human foods
Speaker 1: or commercial cat treats. That means making sure that milk
Speaker 1: and other treats make up only ten to of a
Speaker 1: cat's diet. To avoid potential weight problems and the health
Speaker 1: troubles that come with them, consider limiting milk to no
Speaker 1: more than twenty to thirty calories per day. That's no
Speaker 1: more than a few spoonfuls. Consider lactose free milk or
Speaker 1: goat's milk to reduce digestive problems. But what about kittens.
Speaker 1: Surely they need milk, right, Wild kittens have the ability
Speaker 1: to digest some lactose, their bodies simply aren't designed to
Speaker 1: deal with the level of lactose found in cow's milk,
Speaker 1: which has about three times as much lactose as that
Speaker 1: of a mama cat. Drinking cow's milk will not only
Speaker 1: give kitten's diarrhea, but will actually cause them to slowly
Speaker 1: starve to death if their diet isn't properly supplemented. The
Speaker 1: ratio of cassin's and whey, which are milks molecular keepers
Speaker 1: of proteins, fats, and sugars in cow's milk, is nowhere
Speaker 1: near sufficient to support a growing kitten. If you're attempting
Speaker 1: to nurse kittens without the help of their mom, pick
Speaker 1: up special cats milk at the pet store. This milk
Speaker 1: is specially formulated to provide the right ratio of Casin's
Speaker 1: and way to meet the nutritional needs of kittens without
Speaker 1: the painful digestive issues associated with cow's milk. Today's episode
Speaker 1: was written by Bambi Turner and produced by Tristan McNeil.
Speaker 1: For more on this and lots of other practical topics,
Speaker 1: visit our home planet, how stuff Works dot com.