Do cats nowadays drink cows' milk like they did in the 80s?

[PhaseFour]

Today, we have brought out 2 gorgeous rescue kittens home. I asked at the rescue shelter about what to feed them, what time, how often, and assumed that they would drink water, so didn't ask, but they won't touch it, amd seemed to shirk away from the bowl. They must be thirsty though.

Growing, in the 80s (when I last had a cat) we used to give it saucers of cows milk, but that can't be good for cats can it?

Ohh they are beautiful kittens

Both my cats drink milk with no ill effect, they don’t get it all the time but hoover it up when it’s offered, one of them also begs worse than the dog for any food that she thinks she may like

Judging by the way my 9-yr old calico Bengal almost dived into my cereal bowl the other night I’d say yes. Oh, and we have to hide cheese, pizza, pasta and anything fishy from her or she’ll dive in. Her sister was notorious for sitting on hubby’s knee and drinking from whatever he happened to be holding, and for sitting, paws neatly folded, waiting for him to finish eating. Once he put his cutlery down on the side of the plate she calmly ate whatever he’d left for her.

Both had kitten milk for the first few months and lots of water available.

Cat tax below.

How adorable you are OP waiting for them to drink! You might wait a long time. They drink when they need to. Best to feed wet food so they get fluid in that way. Also look out for liquid treats, but it's not strictly necessary. They don't drink like we do a glass during a meal.

A water fountain is a good idea as others have said. Mine like it up high on the kitchen counter or so. Just have a few drinking opportunities around the house but don't do out of your way massively.

I've never seen our Female drinking but she pees plenty enough.
Our Male will occasionally drink as noisily as possible - I know , I'll worry the Cat Slaves by drinking , they'll panic and start looking up symptoms online.
He never drinks much just makes a deal out of it .
In the height of summer I give them a bowl and they're "Oh food..........ah rats. Just a bowl of boring water"

He likes to be bribed with a sliver of cheddar every now and then.

I’ve just posted this on a another thread, I make a broth for my cat using this powder - https://www.amazon.co.uk/Honest-Dog-Bone-Broth-Servings/dp/B0D8W8CBXB?th=1

They will drink. Cats don’t drink as often as you think they do.

My cat has a massive bowl of water in the living room - drinks more if it’s been left out for days. Big bowl outside too for rain water

she will use them but prefers any cup of water left out, puddle it her favourite is off the outside table. I now drink out of a plastic covered cup.

she hates milk, but partial to the dregs of my cereal or cheese, both are lactose free. Plus thinks she can have any of of my food by staring me down and doing her best purrs.

I always had dogs, so I was really concerned when my very first cat didn't seem to ever drink water. I've since discovered that cats don't drink a lot, not like dogs anyway. I always use wet food so he gets some hydration through that. Just leave water available, ideally away from the food bowl. If you have a bird bath or similar outside, they will be sure to drink out of that. They seem to prefer skanky water and puddles. You can buy cat milk as an occasional treat. But I do know people who still give their cats a saucer of milk, although not all the time.

I haven’t seen my indoor cat drink water in about 3 years lol. He’s strictly wet food fed and we add water to all his meals and he gets salmon oil mixed with water and cat yoghurt every evening. My mum came to visit a while back and asked why we don’t have a water dish down for the cat? I said because I’m fed up of it gathering a layer of dust and cat hair after a day and for him to never even go near it!

Cats get 80%+ of their water intake from their food, so if you’re feeding them dry you could try adding water to their biscuits as dry fed cats tend to develop more kidney issues and UTI’s.

Put a water bowl away from their food and litter tray, or invest in a good stainless steel water fountain.

Mine likes to drink from the toilet, or my glass, or any sort of accidental pool of slightly green water in the garden.

I buy lactose free milk for mine. It’s much cheaper than kitten milk and probably pretty much the same thing. They have it as a little treat, not instead of water though.

Oh 😍

I do the same

What do you feed them? Mine are on wet food and therefore very rarely drink water. They get the moisture out of the food. The more dry you give the more water they want.

Also I remember reading somewhere that cats are of desert animal descent so they really don’t need all that much water. They probably have a couple of licks when you’re not looking.