Dairy products

[Valerienne]

Do you feed your pets dairy products?

If your dog or cat tolerates it, I recommend natural yogurt because it improves the pet's gut flora, helps with digestion and provides several B vitamins. It is also an easily accessible source of proteins. Cats cannot absorb or produce vitamin B from vegetables like people can, so a teaspoon of yogurt every now and then is a good natural supplement.

Dairy products like yogurt, cottage cheese and cream also have much lower lactose content than milk, so they are less likely to cause diarrhea.

 

[Luvkenny]

I have never heard of this before. I have given my cat milk before but never cottage cheese or yogurt. Very interesting indeed. I am going to try yogurt but does it have to be plain yogurt or can it be flavored?

 

[Valerienne]

I don't think I'd give them flavored yogurt. Firstly because it contains sugar or artificial substitute and some ambiguous food dyes, and secondly because some fruits might not be good or tasty for cats. I know that our dog would eat every fruit every day instead of meat if he could, but my cats don't even know if fruits are food or toy. I've read that bananas are healthy for pets, but when I gave the cats a slice, they didn't know what to do with it.

 

[Hyacinth]

We give our dogs a bit of cheese or ice cream, but we do it sparingly. We let them taste those dairy products when they deserve a treat, for instance. I have a young cousin though who often gives her bunnies yogurt and milk. I'm not sure whether she is doing her pets a favor or actually causing them harm.