Is half and half bad for cats?

[Catlady711]

I think that cats are lactose intolerant, however some cats can tolerate a greater amount of things than others.

Using dogs as an example with pancreatitis...

One dog may eat greasy hamburgers, pizza, gravy and such on a somewhat regular basis and not get sick while others may get deathly ill from just one treat of the same foods.

I think with both it's the system of the individual animal that makes the difference.

As a general rule I wouldn't give any dairy products to cats, particularly high fat ones, but I suppose a tiny amount on a rare occasion as a treat shouldn't cause a huge problem I wouldn't think.

[mruffruff]

Half & half would be pretty rich for a cat. As much as they would love it, it could cause problems. The biggest would be a craving for more!

Some of my cats run to the kitchen at bedtime, yowling for milk. I give them about a tablespoon each of 1 percent milk. So far, no problems.

[Kirsten]

Oh, I'm sure the kitties love that drink - mine would love it, too - but you should really consider to make them get used to water. Like others have said, cats are usually lactose-intolerant, and the lactose of cow milk may cause diarrhea, or at least a sore tummy.

This is from an article I wrote some years ago for my cat website:

... "But many cats don't tolerate cow milk very well, they're getting diarrhea from drinking it. This is because cow milk contains more lactose (milk sugar) than the cat mother's milk. The organism of an adult cat is lacking the enzyme lactase which breaks down the milk sugar - and this leads to cow milk intolerance. The cat mother's milk, on the other hand, contains more fat and different proteins, so the composition of both cow milk and cat milk cannot be compared." ...

The entire article is here: Milk & Cats

I think when your cats are able to tolerate this drink, you may still want to offer it to them as a treat, but their daily drink should be water.

Kirsten