A glass of warm chocolate milk is one of the most soothing beverages you can enjoy on a cold day. Chocolate milk is a staple in most households, especially if there are kids. You can add cream, sugar, hazelnuts, or flavors of your choice to the hot chocolate milk to make it according to your preferences. You can also add white chocolate to milk to make chocolate milk if you like it.
With so many innovations possible, it is only natural that you will never get bored of drinking chocolate milk every day. However, if you have cats at home, you may wonder if cats can drink hot chocolate milk, too. Unfortunately, many people assume that milk should be the staple food for cats. Cats love milk, but you should remember that most cats are lactose-intolerant.
Cats aged above more than 2 months old are lactose intolerant. So, they cannot handle more than a few mouthfuls of milk. So, when plain milk becomes difficult for them to digest, you can understand that chocolate milk is even tougher on their system. So, please refrain from giving chocolate milk to cats. Chocolate milk has a lot of calories and fats, which can not only cause digestive issues in cats but make them obese as well.
Lactose Intolerance in Cats
Cats get their daily dose of nutrients from their mother’s milk until they are about two months old. Even this milk contains a few calories, sugars, and fats. However, the small cat’s body has enough enzymes to process these sugars and fats during this stage. So, it doesn’t cause any lactose intolerance.
As the cats grow bigger, they don’t drink their mother’s milk. So, their body doesn’t produce any enzymes to process milk components because the cats don’t need them anymore. In this stage, when you give milk or milk-based products, cats find it difficult to digest them because of the lack of enzymes. This is why most cats, aged more than 2 months old, become intolerant to lactose.
If it drinks a few mouthfuls of milk occasionally, you don’t have to worry about anything, but if your cat drinks a lot of milk every day, it will experience severe gastrointestinal issues and obesity. We will know more about this in the following sections.
Why is chocolate milk bad for cats?
Due to lactose intolerance, regular milk consumption causes vomiting, diarrhea, restlessness, lethargy, and seizures in cats. However, when you also add the ingredient of chocolate to it, the problems only multiply further. Theobromine and caffeine, present in cats, can cause toxic reactions. Overconsumption of these ingredients can cause serious health issues like nervous damages and obesity. The calories, fats, and sugars in fats can bring about considerable weight gain in cats.
Obesity can make cats prone to other issues like:
- Development of cancerous tumors
- Prone to diabetes mellitus
- Cardiac ailments
- Hypertension and seizures
- Osteoarthritis, which is the degeneration of bones
- Formation of stones in the bladder
Top reasons why cats cannot drink hot chocolate milk
If you are still wondering why you cannot give chocolate milk to your cats, here are the top reasons for the same:
Most cats, older than 2 months, are intolerant to lactose. Their bodies don’t have the enzymes to digest sugar and milk. Therefore, when they drink much chocolate milk or even plain milk, they exhibit symptoms like vomiting, nausea, bloating in the stomach region, reduced appetite, diarrhea, seizures, coma, and more.
Chocolate milk is loaded with calories and fats. Cats are carnivorous animals; therefore, their digestive system can handle only meat and meat products. The fattening ingredients in chocolate milk are very dangerous for cats. It can lead to obesity. Obesity, if not treated properly, can lead to death, too.
Will cats lose out on calcium if they don’t drink milk?
Sometimes, cat parents think that their pets need milk for calcium. However, this is only a misconception. Please note that cats don’t need milk at all. They can get all the nutrients they need from meat, bones, organ tissues, and legumes. Feeding them the right type of food at the right time will ensure that cats stay healthy throughout their lifespan. You will find different brands of cat foods and treats in the market for different age groups of cats. Give your cats these veterinarian-recommended foods, and you will have nothing to worry about.
Are there some safe choices of milk I can try for my cats?
You may still want to continue giving milk to your cats, to make them stay hydrated, especially during the summers. Now that you know that normal animal milk is not suitable for lactose intolerant cats, you may wonder if there are some healthier milk choices that you can give your feline friends. Here are some options you can try:
Nut milk – Nut milk, or milk extracted from nuts like almonds, or cashews, is a healthy choice for cats. Nut milk is high in protein content, and it has zero lactose in it. The only problem is that felines may not like the taste and texture of nut milk, because it is not used to this kind of milk in its natural habitat.
Coconut Milk – Coconut milk, like nut milk, is a vegan choice that you can try to give your cats. Though coconut milk doesn’t contain lactose, it is very high in fat content. Therefore, please give coconut milk only in small quantities, occasionally.
Can I give store-bought cat milk for cats?
You may find some commercial brands of cat milk (just like foods and treats ) in the supermarket when you go shopping for your pet’s needs. Even though the pack says that it is designed for cats’ safety, they are not free of lactose. They may have a lesser amount of lactose than what you see in normal animal milk, but this small amount of lactose can still be toxic for cats, if they are sensitive and highly lactose intolerant.
Final Word
Cats don’t need to be given hot chocolate milk because they don’t benefit from this drink. Chocolate milk is full of sugars, fat, calories, and lactose, leading to many health issues in cats.