There’s always been a lot of conflicting advice on giving milk to kittens.
For a very long time, milk was considered a staple of a cat’s diet.
Cats loved milk and had to have it, especially from a young age.
Nowadays, you’re less likely to hear that milk is good for cats.
Cow’s milk, certainly, is discouraged.
But a friend of mine asked me the other day, since I own goats, about goat’s milk.
So, can kittens drink goat’s milk?
The simple answer is no, kittens shouldn’t drink goat’s milk. Essentially the same applies to goat’s milk as to cow’s milk. The only milk that kittens should really drink is their mother’s, or a kitten milk replacer if they are being hand reared. After all, milk in mammals is produced for babies of their own species.
If your kitten is being raised by its mother, then there is no need to substitute any kind of milk into their diet.
Suckling from the mother will give them all they need.
Once their big enough you can switch them to a solid diet of kitten food.
The major problem in any kind of milk is the presence of lactose.
Related – Can Dogs Drink Goat Milk? (Revealed!)
What is lactose?
Lactose is a type of sugar which is only found in milk and dairy products.
You may have heard of it as you or a friend may be lactose intolerant.
This is very common even among humans who habitually drink cow’s milk.
Taking a strict definition of the term, all mammals are essentially lactose intolerant.
More or less all milk contains lactose, and for the most part mature mammals do not have the enzyme in their digestive system which allows them to break down this sugar.
This is true of cats and kittens as well.
They are lactose intolerant, and after the suckling period, cats lose the enzyme which breaks downs lactose.
Thus, if they are given products containing lactose, later on, it will not be broken down properly.
This is just as true of goat’s milk as it is of cow’s milk.
Indeed, lactose is not even the only reason the milk of other animals is bad for cats and kittens, as I will get into shortly.
What kind of milk can kittens drink?
So, as I said, there is really only two kinds of milk that cats should drink.
If they are being raised by their mother, they will get all they need from her.
If they are being hand-reared, there is a wide variety of kitten milk formulas available.
Only a specialized formula should be given to kittens.
So, effectively, all kinds of ordinary milk are bad for kittens, and indeed cats.
If you think about it, mammals produce milk for young offspring.
We are the only species that habitually drink milk throughout our lives.
So, in a way, it is not surprising that the milk of a much larger animal is bad for cats and kittens.
Goat’s milk is no different from cow’s milk, in this sense.
It is milk produced for baby goats, not kittens, and a kitten’s digestive system cannot handle it.
In a pinch, if you have nothing else and can only get what is available at your local store, then very small amounts of cow’s and goat’s milk can be okay.
However, it’s much better to be prepared to avoid needing to do this.
Related – Can Cats Drink Goat Milk?
Can goat’s milk cause diarrhea in kittens?
One of the particular problems with giving goat’s milk to kittens is that is very low in protein.
This means that kittens would need to drink a lot more of it in order to be reach their energy needs.
This excess feeding causes an imbalance in the kitten’s digestive system, and can cause diarrhea.
This will obviously be very uncomfortable both for you and your kitten.
Again, the same is more or less true of cow’s milk.
They both lack the proper nutrients for cats, given that both cows and goats are herbivores and cats are carnivores.
Unpasteurized milk is as a rule very bad for kittens as it can contain harmful bacteria.
Most of this applies to adult cats as well, although their digestive systems may be somewhat more robust.
Can kittens drink evaporated goat’s milk?
As it is, no, you cannot give kittens evaporated milk, but it can be possible to mix together a nutritious meal from evaporated goat’s milk.
Again, this should only really be done in a pinch if you have no other option, as it is always best practice to feed kittens kitten formula.
For example, some have said that they feed their kittens a mixture of evaporated goat’s milk, an egg yolk, corn syrup and where possible kitten vitamins.
Then mix this with boiling water and allow it to cool before giving it to your kitten.
If you have all these ingredients already and have run out of kitten formula, then it will likely be okay to feed to your kitten until you are able to get out for more formula.
As I have said, though, it’s always best practice to feed kittens only kitten formula milk as any other milk will not provide all the nutrition they need.
So, if you’ve ever seen an old cartoon featuring a cat, you may be very familiar with the image of them enjoying milk.
But whether it’s cow’s milk or goat’s milk, anything other than kitten formula will not provide the nutrients your kitten needs, and can cause pain, illness and discomfort on top of lacking the essential nutrients your kitten needs in its early stages.
The early growth period is absolutely vital to a kitten’s health, and so you must give it every possible leg up if it has, for whatever reason, been separated from its mother before it is ready for solid foods.
There is no replacement for kitten formula and kitten nutrients which are designed and formulated for cats and kittens.
Only if you have absolutely no other choice should you give your kitten a mixture containing goat’s milk.