A couple of months ago, Artuur stopped eating. Completely.
It didn’t matter what I put in front of him : his favorite Exorbitantly-Expensive-Supposedly-Fish cat food, his I-Can’t-Ever-Get-Enough-Of-This chewing sticks, or his Golden-Nuggets-Witch-Cheese-Flavor cat treats.
As all cat-pwned humans know : all is well, as long as your cat continues to drink, and isn’t obviously ill. He will usually start eating again a couple of days later.
However. Even though Artuur seemed otherwise fine, he is also ‘getting on’ age-wise and he is quite skinny.
So I worried.
What other food could I possibly tempt him with ?
And then a thought popped into my head :
So, I put a bit of milk in front of Artuur … And lo and behold, he drank it all! (huge sigh of relief)
I think it’s kind of funny how nature works here …
All cats LOVE milk (I have never met one who doesn’t), yet, most cat people are all
too familiar with the I-just-had-some-DELICIOUS-MILK litter box … shudder …
The solution ?
Special milk for cats. They absolutely love it !
So, I went to the supermarket and bought some of that special milk for cats (you know, the most expensive milk in the entire store). And for the next couple of days, that was his only source of food.
Of course, I had three cats at the time (no, Max sadly hasn’t returned yet). That meant : spending a small fortune on something as common as milk.
So, I started thinking about what makes ‘cat milk’ so special.
Turns out the ‘special’ milk is actually just regular milk with most of the ‘lactose’ removed
from it. Lactose is a sugar that most cats cannot digest and so they get cramps and diarrhea.
Just like some people that are lactose intolerant.
After doing some research on the web, I found I would be able to use lactase DROPS to do the job. You simply add 5 or 6 drops of the enzyme solution to a liter of milk, leave it in the fridge for 24 hours, et voila ! The milk is now suitably for consumption by your cat.
I have found only two places so far, where I can buy the lactase drops : an online company called ‘Disolut‘, and Amazon. Even my local pharmacies do not sell it.
I buy the lactase drops from Disolut. Cost price : a small bottle of enzyme, enough to treat 56 liters of ‘ordinary’ milk, is sold for 13 €.
So : 50 € for 56 liter of homemade ‘cat milk’, or : 0.9 €/ liter.
Vs. : 4 €/ liter for the ‘cat milk’ you can buy in the store …
Yes … pets are Big Business.
And Artuur ?
Back to his normal self :
