Discussion CN authors erroneously feed kitten milk?

Why do CN authors keep feeding kittens their characters find milk? The characters even go to a pet hospital and should be telling them NOT to feed any other milk, but water, and only water. Only in specific cases would "special kitten milk" be required and generally only at birth when the kitten rejects the mother's milk. Every time I read these cute stories of kittens and cats, I keep thinking to myself why is there such a general lack of knowledge of how to handle kittens even with the character's excuse of "they took it to the pet hospital." My other thought is, "Ah, this cat was resurrected # number of times now..." Even if the authors have never been to a pet hospital, there should be general knowledge on the internet not to feed kittens and especially cats milk. Cats, especially when adults, are lactose intolerant, and usually go after milk for the fatty flavor, but should not be drinking any animal milk at all, just water. As internet-addicted as people are in the world, including China, can't these authors find out such an easy answer online? Do they think it is okay for cats to have diarrhea all the time?

 

Maybe the kitten tastes better roasted when it's fed milk?

 

It is "okay" for cats to shit themselves everywhere.
Heck, I've even seen a cat lick a cows teat.
Many people feed cats bread dissolved in milk or leftovers.

 

Can you still feed catgirls your... milk... though?

 

It's not really a CN-only thing. Idk if this was recently established as fact but like, media across multiple forms (movies, tv etc) used to depict people feeding cats milk. It was like, the thing you did (fish and milk were common tropes).

 

And as a matter of fact, neither humans should consume milk after a certain age ...

 

I dunno, it's just a common and widespread misconception. A lot of cat owners give their cats milk, even if most people get special milk for cats. I mean, it's even portrayed in movies/books/animations/etc.
Most people won't put extra research into what exactly a cat should/shouldn't eat or drink when they just want to write a cute scene for a novel lol

 

Sometimes I wonder if it's like some sort of advertising campaign. There have been a few weird ones over the years, iirc they went like this:

• eat carrots for good vision, it was both propaganda to hide radar developments and get people to eat more produce
• breakfast is the most important meal of the day! now buy this nutritionally bankrupt sugar slop- I mean cereal, very important!
  
• "don't feed ducks bread" thing (supposedly a company made that all up to sell overpriced duck food)

Actually had a lot more in my head but now I can't stop thinking about ducks. I take no responsibility for any misinformation because I'm too lazy to proofs.

 

My ex-step-mom’s cats used to terrorize me trying to get at my skin milk. Now you’re making me think they were being intentional jerks. (They’re definitely a large part of the reason I don’t like real life cats anymore, besides the allergies.)

 

Yeah, growing up a lot of novels and movies/TV did show feeding cats with milk. The recent knowledge to not feed kittens or cats milk is a more recent campaign. I'm just surprised the pet hospital doesn't provide those warnings.

But novaes makes a good point. Maybe the idea was the milk was so nutritious, anyone/any animal can drink it, so it became default idea in the world to feed anyone young with milk, whether it is acceptable or not.

 

While I can't say for certain that they were intentionally terrorizing you, but I wouldn't put it past cats to ignore you for their own desires.

Also, cats (and similarly dogs) probably try to eat a lot of stuff that isn't good for them.

 

I wish they had ignored me. I’d probably like cats a lot better if they did.

 

Hm, I knew that they should probably drink specially formulated milk but thought that after a certain age it would be fine for them to drink regular milk. Some of my family members that have cats always give their cats milk and fish not as an entire meal but more of a snack, also I don't think they feed them regular cat food. Which they shouldn't be doing, but idk
People definitely need to do their research before writing about a subject "

 

Neither should humans consume wheat ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

Neither should humans consume corn ¯\_(ツ)_/¯

 

They (some) prefer fatty cat like garfield (not all), and it ain't poisonous like spicy food anyway, not all pet should be fed pet food and drink, I even reluctant to give my cat pet food (in which dry, so little fish percentage). Why? I had tried a few pet foods and they like wet and smell like fish, so rather than pet food I gave them fish sausage and they eat it more eager than actual pet foods.

 

The only thing I've noticed is that a lot of people tend to have difficulties to let go of misconceptios, but some East Asian countries almost have that as national policy: once a setting has been stablished (cats like milk, therefore cats should be fed milk, for example), not only will it be near impossible to erradicate it, they will even take offense for trying to.

PS. Also, "lactose intolerant" does not mean "allergic to milk". They will feel bloated, excrete more frequently and let out more gases, and while it's true that they have fragile digestive systems, the amount of milk needed for them to start showing dangerous symptoms is usually more than the customary plate a day.

 

If I recall correctly, adult cats lose the ability to digest lactose, so for them it isn’t intolerance, but in capability. And for kittens, cow or goats milk or nut milk doesn’t have the actual nutrition required, hence the need for a special “kitten milk” but this only applies to extremely young or newborn kittens. Otherwise water (can be flavored with unseasoned meat to encourage drinking or replaced with wet food). So for kittens drinking cow or whatever milk that isn’t mother cat’s milk or a special kitten milk mimicking mother cat milk is dangerous.
I hasn’t thought that about the resistance to changing perceptions in Asian countries. I also remember now seeing tons of Japanese manga where the characters feed cats milk.

 

"Intolerance" is precisely "incapability to digest", so, yes, like almost any mammal, adult cats are lactose intolerant. The side effects of lactose intolerance stem from the inability of the individual to digest lactose (break it down into useable glucose and galactose), allowing the intestinal bacteria to ferment it, which creates a lot of gaseous byproducts. Some humans have developed a way to be able to keep digesting lactose even in their adulthood, but the migration and mixture of populations hand in hand with developements in the medical field have been shrinking the percentage.

About the kittens, of course that's right; a mother's milk is nutritionally balanced to meet the needs of the youngs of her species, so giving a baby milk from a different animal is not good, since they may lack needed nutrients and receive an excess of other nutrients.

All in all, what I was trying to say is that giving a cat a moderate amount of milk regularly usually leads only to the cat defecating more often, suffering from belly pains and becoming obese (that is, if you love your cat, don't do it). It's not "a crime" that will lead to their immediate death, but it's not recommendable. In other words, milk for cats are a bit like double cheeseburgers to humans: not that bad if it's only occasional, but you'd better not make an habit of it.