Our cat likes milk, not sure milk likes our cat

[tribpot]

Dear all,

First I want to write to say that, less than a week after Harry Potter joined our household, I can't imagine how we lived without her. She isn't the most responsive cat but she is very loving (on her terms) and extremely tolerant of ds (aged 5).

1. Are cats meant to drink cows milk? She loves it but her poos indicate something, either this or wet food, is not suiting her.

1. She is desperate to go outside (bear in mind she is 2, not a kitten). She at least can't go out til her next injection but after that, how do we persuade her to come back? She clearly wants to just get out there and start Operation Small Animal Carnage, I fear we have nothing to offer in comparison.

I feel terrible that I have to take her to the vet's - I can't imagine what she will make of that experience - and then not let her out after, gargh!

No, cats aren't meant to drink milk. Give her water.

She really needs to be with you for 4 weeks before letting her out. Then she'll know you are home and come back. Let her out in the morning before feeding her, she'll come back sooner if hse's hungry, not wonder as far. Its very worrying when they first jump over the fence and you're left wondering if they'll come back - they do. Good luck.

1. I don't think cats are supposed to drink cows' milk, are they? You can get expensive kitty milk but a lot cheaper just to give water!

1. Butter on paws? Seriously though, you just have to open the door and let her go, when she's hungry she'll come back :)

CRAP, they're not meant to drink milk? She loves the milk!! She has water, too.

Good point about letting her out when she's hungry, although she's so ready for the kill I think she will just annihilate everything in sight :)

You suspect right, cats aren't meant to drink milk...not sure why though sorry. Water only is best.

re going out...we have never managed to keep ours in for more than a few days whenever we have had a new cat. I have done the butter on paws thing, though suspect this is an old wives tale..but no harm in trying.

I have always let them out before tea hoping that the hunger will bring them back, go out and rattle the food after 5 mins.

mine bugger off i dont feed them before going out, or if i have run out of their favourite, they'll go and see what the neighbours have on offer!

Cats are lactose intolerant so definitely shouldn't be given milk to drink.

Some cats are lactose intolerant not all of them. But better safe than sorry and not give it to them. As a child I had moggie after moggie that coped perfectly well with cows milk but my currant cat doesn't, I get her cat milk every now and again as a treat but water is just fine. Lactose intolerant + milk = soggy smelly poo.

Keep your cat in for a few more weeks. Until the 4 to 6 week mark but in the mean time train them to a noise that signals dinner time. For my girls it is the shaking of the dry cat food box (even though one of them doesn't even like dry cat food). Let your cat out before feeding it and when you are ready for it to come in go outside and shake the box. Be prepared to go out again and do it again 20 minutes later.

Having had cats for a long time and being a worrier by nature I little word of warning. I tried to keep my new cat in for the advised 4 weeks but after 2 she escaped one evening as it went dark. I went out looking everywhere for her for the next 24 hours and couldn't find her anywhere. That evening when it was just as dark as the time she had left the night before she reappeared. My OH says she was probably lost and didn't recognise the place in the day time but at the hour where cats see best (dusk and dawn) she could find her way home. I say this because despite your best efforts if he wants to get out he might just do regardless of how much you try to avoid it. So make sure he's chipped and wearing a collar with an identity tag so even if he can't find his way home someone else will give you a call.

Milk is for baby mammals. Most animals lose the enzymes needed to digest it properly after they are weaned - makes sense, doesn't it? Humans are unusual in having evolved to be able to continue digesting milk - and then only those from the cultures which relied on cattle.

Hence cats, native americans and oriental people can rarely tolerate milk.

Cows milk bad for all cats, even if they can "stomach" it, it's difficult for them to digest and very bad for their kidneys .... that's what the vet told me with my kitten

Only cat's milk (if you want to give milk at all)

Thank you all - I had no idea. Checked in with my mum and she confirmed that we used to give my childhood cats milk but then learnt we shouldn't (the bit I forgot) and stopped.

She's a Cats Protection League cat so she's chipped, but she also has lived wild before so we have to make home life extra attractive for her - maybe her own iPod

The first cat we had when I was a child would ONLY drink milk and wouldn't touch water. You don't want to go there. She wasn't lactose intolerant afaik but her kidneys did let her down in the end. We knew no better ...

My two current mogs get Whiskas "cat milk" but only very occasionally, as a treat. I don't think Whiskas actually milk a cat to produce it [hgrin]

LOL I have ordered some cat milk as she seems so keen, I hope Whiskas are not farming cats for their milk in the sort of way that would have Hugh Fearnley-Whittingstall up in arms.

As an aside, I seem to have convinced dh that doing her litter tray is his job, which is a result.

So now I need to wean her off milk, is there such a thing as Cat-Led Weaning?!

Presumably she was drinking water before she joined you? See if she'll take to it.

Otherwise, you could try progressively diluting her cat milk over a few days ...?

She has had water here, but seems much to prefer milk, bless her. We have been diluting it and will definitely replace with cat milk once the nice chap from Ocado shows up this avo!

Whiskas makes my cat shit for France. He loves the cat milk though!

Whiskas cat milk sounds like a lot (89p) but the bottle has a screw cap meaning I can stretch one bottle over a week. I started on it because come breakfast time my cat was harassing me for my cereal bowl demanding milk with menace!