Woman breastfeeds newborn tiger cubs
By Sebastien Berger, South East Asia Correspondent
(Filed: 04/04/2005)

A Burmese woman is breastfeeding two tiger cubs at a zoo in Rangoon after they were removed from their aggressive mother.

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Lucky her, but I would be carfeful about them not getting the right nutrients.

here's a clip from ifilm of a woman breastfeeding her cat
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That clip is so cute, too bad for the guy's commentary though. It kindof saps the tenderness of the clip away. I have often daydreamed about finding and breast feeding kittens, with the help of nutrient supplements of course.

This post has been edited by AlphaDhole on Apr 12 2005, 03:12 AM

And here's a pic of the woman breastfeeding the tigers cubs...

This post has been edited by BettyL on May 14 2005, 08:42 PM

Attached Image ( Click on thumbnail to view full size image )

That is a cute pic. I wonder how long she will be able to nurse them.

how can a human feed a big cat the make up of the milk would be totally diffrent just look at the difrence between goat and sheep milk and they much closser species that human and cats

That's why the tiger cubs didn't make it. They died last week.

:( sorry to hear that the world needs all the tigers it can get

Dumb asians......(sorry if your asian and smart). But shit like this pisses me off, the logical thing would be to knock the mother out, milk her, feed it to the cubs and put her back in her cage? Or bring in another tiger from somewhere? Or try and ask other zoos if they've got a female that's producing atm????

Again there is no way of possibly expecting the human body to be able to make the necessary ingrediants for tigers, as they are carnivores, and of a completely different family.

It is possible to bottle feed baby big cats, but this milk formula is specially designed for them, with added nutrients and calcium as well as simiulated antibodies. This is the most commonly accepted form of handraising animals either after a few days or 2 weeks with mom to get them imprinted on humans, or if the youngsters are abandoned. It has a high success rate, but the big thing is incorporating the young with their own kind after they are weaned, as adults can and do often kill them. There is still the unfortunate problem of losing about 20% of young this way.

i would have loved to breast feed wildcats, but adding nutrients is a must.

It is possible to incorporate them into another big cat family, but risky, as the mother may not accept them. I have also heard of using a surrogate dog mom with a lion cub, as dogs are closer related to them than humans, but he also had to be supplemented with nutrients.

Sorry Bendertiger, but I would never, never suggest knocking the mother out to milk her. Anastesia is a risky process for surgeries and vet visits as it is. Having to put her down everyday to milk her several times a day would surely kill her, as it would be pumping far to much chemicals in the body than it can handle. Although a cat may be fine with anastesia to begin with, every time is a possibility for disaster. Wild animals also respond far differently than even domestic animals, as if they are pumped with certain adrenalines, it takes a near fatal dose to put them down. Sometimes it doesn't work, sometimes there are complications, as the cat stops breathing. Even in domestic cats, the most sensitive time is before surgery (just anastetized) and after surgery, in recovery (as they regain conciousness) is when they lose the most patients. I have worked in the operation catnip, a trap neuter release program for feral cats, and have seen them lose cats after their operation due to complications with anastesia. Even after bringing a 6month kitten around one time, he had suffered brain damage for being out not breathing for too long and had to be euthanized. They have lost a few adults to anastesia as well, as they just stopped breathing, and nothing worked to bring them back. Anastesia is not the way, ever!

It is possible that if the tiger is a handraised cat, that if you spend time with it daily and it trusts you (risky for your own life, but great for the captive cat, and wolves when used, as at Wolf Park and the Wildlife Science Center) that you might be able to milk the tigress by hand while she relaxes at your side. However, she might not accept handling every time, as her nipples would be really sensitive.

I read the story later, in the aftermath, the zoo park said that they were desperate, they had tried bottle feeding the cubs, a surrogate dog mother, and some other stuff, but none of it worked, as a last wildcard they tried the human mother surrogate, unfortunately, human milk damaged their livers, had not enough nourishment and they suffered complications, that is a sad story. :sorry: