milk and cream for cats dangerous?

A neighbor brought me a malnourished mother cat and 3 kittens the other day and when i went to town the other day I mentioned to the cashier i had to get 1/2 +1/2 for my new pets, long story short two ladies who work at the store started telling me it is very bad to give kittens or cats milk or cream and will make them sick cuz its just not good for them.
I only purchase organic dairy products and can't imagine it could be bad for kittens. Any opinions or experts out there to set me straight. I was under the assumption it is the cereal grains that the big corporations advertise the tar out of are what is not good for our pets. they don't naturally eat grains. I have always believed that cats naturally like fish and milk and dogs like meat.

Cow milk and cream have too high a lactose level for most kittens and adult cats to properly digest. Especially grown cats.

It is better to get KMR (Kitten Milk Replacer) and reconstitute (and warm) and feed that as per directions. Most veternarians carry it if no place else does (a pet store usually has it). Get the powdered it will keep longer.

good to know. wonder what cats ate before being domesticated? mice, rats,rabbit, snakes ?
what about goat milk?

My yardboys eat mice, birds (they leave me lots of headsNtails to clean up) and one of them can almost catch squirrels-he is really close. His mother could, and catch snakes too.

If I had to foster a kitten I always used KMR. And follow up with the wash the back end to get them to go, and litterbox training as well. All the stuff the mamakitty does for the little one.

The reason cats domesticated I think was humans had granaries that drew the rodents, and those cats that tamed out had more to eat and would be encouraged by the humans to stick around and do vermin control... Here I'm just about to go into 'fall invasion' when the mice try to come in where it's nicer to live and for a few weeks I can't give away cat food as they are eating all the mice they can catch. (part of the reason they're kept).

I have little experience with goat milk. I just find that for the average 2-8 week kitten foster a few tins of KMR gets me through.

Like Deb mentioned, KMR for the little ones. Dairy's really not good for cats. Bruce, you're absolutely right about the grain in cat food being bad for them. Cats are obligate carnivores and have to have meat, either caught themselves or in manufactured cat food of the preferably grain free kind. If the kittens are still young enough to be nursing, you may find that once the momma cat has a steady diet she will produce milk for the kittens.

yea the momma cat is very thin and small, a trip to vet with all 4 of them is in order when i get back from florida to clean up my storm damaged house in cape coral. i finally got the mother cat to purr real good this morning, i guess she never got any love in previous home.
i got a bunch of can of sardines in water, and a big bag of blue wilderness for the neighbor to feed them while i'm off with irma recovery.

I wish you best of luck with the cats and irma recovery!

Interesting, one of my childhood memories is of my uncles milking the cows, by hand, the cats would line up along side and wait for my uncles to squirt a shot of milk at their open mouths.
If it is bad for them wouldn't they "self select" not to drink it?  

Cats like milk and cream for the fat content. Adult cats cannot digest lactose. Kittens might be able to digest it better.

Small amounts of milk will be a nice treat for cats. When I have had kittens around 3-6 weeks old I like to soak dry cat food in milk or water for the babies. This was as a supplement to moms milk and to teach kittens to come for food when I call.

I suspect raw milk may be fine/good for cats (in moderation), but pasteurized/homogenized milk may not be. Just like people

We raise persian cats here and common A-1 cow milk is not healthy for cats or kittens (they do love it though) However a mixture of goat milk and pedialyte is what we feed any sick feline , kitten or adult.( We will syringe it into unwilling kittys). All goat/ sheep  dairy  products are genetically A-2 A-2 and digestible by most animals, humans included. Some cows are also being tested and producing A-2 A-2 dairy products as well.