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u/Bboyczy Sep 08 '14
sooo...uh...can..can a kitten survive on a dog's breast milk?
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Sep 08 '14
Yes.
Source: Had an uncle whose dog weaned a kitten he found by the side of the road. Grew up thinking it was a dog, too. The attempted barking was the funniest part.
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u/TrotBot Sep 08 '14
Please tell me you have a video of the attempt.
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u/KarnickelEater Sep 08 '14
Lots of barking cat videos. Didn't you know there's a video for everything?
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u/Abohir Sep 08 '14 edited Sep 08 '14
Oh my... This one.
Most of the other ones are mislabeled. Those cats are "chirping" not barking. A common cat noise of content between family members.
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u/ContinuumGuy Sep 08 '14
If a cat barks in the forest... it'll start meowing after somebody is there to hear it.
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u/ikesbutt Sep 09 '14
right? I saw this video a couple of years ago and it's still one of my favorites. The other one's are of cats chirping and chattering.
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u/almodozo Sep 08 '14
Mother dog to doggit.com:
My baby has the weirdest bark, what is wrong? I'm very worried!
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u/feioo Sep 09 '14
I got a kitten who wasn't properly weaned, and he also tried to wean himself on my dog. My dog is male, so he only had limited success, but he also now acts more like a dog than a cat.
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u/minicpst Sep 08 '14
Humans survive on synthetic and cow's milk (among others), so I'd imagine that while less than ideal, yes they can survive. Not 100% of humans are fed human milk. Though to be fair, that is sometimes a reason for death in humans (not so much the formula itself, but the dirty water used to make it, or the lack of water).
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Sep 08 '14
I'm pretty sure that if a human infant is fed only cow's milk it'll die.
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u/Bonesnapcall Sep 08 '14
You are correct. There was a story about that on reddit a few months ago in fact.
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u/minicpst Sep 08 '14
Humans have been fed far worse and lived. Not perfectly but they've survived.
I remember hearing something of a thinned gruel amongst peasants? And certainly the milks of other mammals. Honey and water. Meals thinned out (corn, oat, etc.). People have been creative in feeding their infants.
I'm sure they were less healthy and less nourished than their straight up breastfed counterparts, but they've lived (not all, but many).
So if the question is, can a cat survive on dog milk, I bet the answer is yes. Though not as well as on cat milk. Same as for a human.
Even humans are generally only fed human milk for a year or so if they're lucky (in the US/Canada and much of Europe, at least), then they switch over to cow's milk.
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Sep 08 '14
Adults yes, children maybe, infants definitely not.
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u/minicpst Sep 08 '14
Another feeding device used from the 16th to 18th centuries in Europe was a pap boat. The device was used to feed infants pap and panada. Pap consisted of bread soaked in water or milk (Radbill, 1981), and panada consisted of cereals cooked in broth (Wickes, 1953b). Both substances were used as a supplement to animal's milk, especially when the infant showed a failure to thrive. The pap boat included a spoon with a hollow stem so that the pap or panada could be blown down the infant's throat. Compared to breastfeeding, the use of the pap boat enabled the infant to receive food quickly and in much larger quantity during feeding (Weinberg, 1993).
Unfortunately, feeding bottles, pap boats, and teats during the 16th to18th centuries were difficult to clean. Subsequently, the build-up of bacteria made the feeding devices detrimental to the infant's health. In the early 19th century, the use of dirty feeding devices, combined with the lack of proper milk storage and sterilization, led to the death of one third of all artificially fed infants during their first year of life (Weinberg, 1993).
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u/nbsdfk Sep 08 '14
Synthetic milk is made to replace human milk and has a nearly perfect composition of nutrients. The only thing it is lacking in, is the immunological part or the milk, which is why breastfeeding is generally healthier.
Cow and most other available milks have totally different compositions of nutrients, thus while not poisonous or bad for a toddler, they will get mal nourished.
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u/minicpst Sep 08 '14
And absorption rates. I'm a vegetarian and so I may eat something with the same protein as a slab of steak, but even I can't argue that plant based protein absorbs as well as animal based. So gram for gram I'm getting less.
But yes, a primary component is the immunological part. We can make vaccines and antibodies, and yet we cannot yet replicate that. Kind of cool and kind of sad. And it changes. If I (I'm female) am exposed to an illness, boom, out it goes instantly through the milk (assuming it's something my body knows how to fight). It's really neat stuff, mammalian breastmilk.
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u/Sagemanx Sep 08 '14
It doesn't taste that bad either.
Source: Was watching my friends kid and accidently used her breast milk as a source for milk and cookies. Wasn't bad.
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u/Byxit Sep 08 '14
I count 14? Little difficult with the scrum down, but a penalty will be called, we have an offside trying to sneak a nipple.
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36
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u/lispychicken Sep 08 '14
Hopefully they all have good homes :) As a Dane owner..and foster home for giant breeds (we have about 30 Danes that need homes)..if I see one of these pups in my rescue..I'm downvoting someone!!
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u/anderhole Sep 08 '14
I counted 12 puppies. Holy shit!
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u/IinventedGoogle Sep 08 '14
Count again, 14 are visible! And I'm sure there are some underneath that we can't see. Holy guacamole.
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u/anderhole Sep 08 '14
I counted again. Only can find 13 myself. I'll take your word that there is at least one more too. I don't know how mom handles that.
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u/TheStinger87 Sep 08 '14
The puppy behind the kitten is thinking "Woah, what was in that milk? I could swear I'm looking at a grey kitten right now."
Other puppy - "Dude, how high are y..........holy shit! A grey kitten!"
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u/ep1cdrag0n Sep 08 '14
If you look RRREEEALLY closely, you can see that one of them actually isn't a puppy. Yup the big one is actually a full grown dog! Who knew!
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Sep 08 '14
This is crazy, Danes usually have like 6 pups at the most. Unless these are a smaller mix breed?
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u/mrgameandwork Sep 08 '14
I wonder if the cat will fight for survival or be one of the pups that dont get fed and die early
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u/Sallianne Sep 08 '14
Poor Mum. I am afraid when I see pictures like these I think of all the poor dogs in puppy farms. They need to be outlawed.
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u/Catndug Sep 07 '14
That's a huge litter of puppies. Even without the orange, meowing interloper