Can you milk a lion

Answer 1

Theoretically yes, like any female mammal, a lioness produces milk to feed her young. a considerable quantaty is produced because of lion cubs' fast metabolism. therefore logically it would be possible to obtain enough milk for dairy needs.

In practice however, such a 'dairy' would be neither safe nor practical. consider first the cost of feeding a pride of lionesses versus a few head of cattle. A single lioness would cost more in food than a dozen cows. multiply this by the fact that you need four lionesses to replace each cow, so a small 3-cow dairy would need twelve lionesses, and thus an equivalent of a hundred and forty four head of cattle in feed costs.

Even if you sold dairy products for big $$$ you'd be hard pressed to break even, much less turn a profit. Additionally all animals produce less milk as they age. with cows the low producers are sent to slaughter and sold as beef. A lioness on the other hand is an 'intelligent' mammal, and cant be 'thrown away and replaced' so easily, meaning you'd be stuck with feeding less productive lionesses as they aged, for the rest of their natural lives.

And thats just the farming side of it.

Add to this the fact that such a 'farm' would be extremely dangerous to set up, maintain, and operate, as well as prohibitively expensive with training/licensing costs and hazard pay for all workers.

So yes it is possible to milk a lioness, but it would not be practical or profitable to do so. Its a pity though because lioness milk is far more nutritious than cow milk, and would be much healthier for human consumption.