IQO CHILDHOOD OF ANIMALS 



impossible, and fortunately young animals are sufficiently adaptable 

 to make it possible to rear them on milk of another type than their 

 own, if a rough correction of proportions be made. 



Cows' milk is usually the most easy to obtain, and it will serve 

 in an unchanged form for any of the ruminant herbivorous creatures, 

 although in practice it is often diluted with hot water, especially 

 for deer. It is not suitable for horses, tapirs, or rhinoceroses, in 

 two ways. In the first place it contains twice the right proportion 

 of protein, much too much fat and not nearly enough sugar ; and 

 in the next place the solid curd that it forms will not pass sufficiently 

 quickly out of the stomach. Two of these defects may be put right 

 by one change. If rather less than its own bulk of very thin barley- 

 water be added, then the proportion of protein will be nearly 

 right, and the mixture, instead of forming a solid mass of curd in 

 the stomach, will remain in a liquid state so that it can pass at the 

 proper time into the intestines. There will still be too much fat, 

 but this is of little importance, and can easily be remedied, if thought 

 better, by skimming off a little of the cream before the mixture 

 is made. It will contain far too little sugar, and a heaped tea- 

 spoonful should be added for each pint of the mixture. 



The adaptation of cows' milk for the infants of human beings or 

 monkeys is more complicated. To break up the curd, it should be 

 diluted with a little more than its own bulk of thin barley-gruel 

 made with malted barley. This wiU make the proportion of protein 

 nearly right, but will reduce the fat far too much and the sugar stiU 

 more. A small teaspoonful of cream and a good teaspoonful of 

 sugar should be added to about the quantity of the mixture that 

 would fill a large teacup. 



Probably because we are accustomed to see cows' milk diluted 

 when it is being prepared for babies, most persons are naturally 

 inclined to add water to it for carnivores such as kittens and puppies. 

 This is quite wrong. In the first place the stomachs of these 

 animals are adapted for digesting a soHd curd, and the dilution 

 of the milk would prevent this. Next, the milk of carnivores is 

 excessively rich in proteins and in fats, and it is necessary to 

 strengthen cows' milk to make it suitable. One of the simplest 

 ways of preparing milk for carnivores is to add to each teacupful of 

 cows' milk a good teaspoonful of condensed unsweetened milk, 

 and a similar quantity of cream or of olive oil. 



When cows' milk is not available, or when, as sometimes happens, 

 young animals are not thriving on a mixture made up from it. 



