Can we raise them for milk? Maybe in a basement? How many would it take to m
ake a liter a day? Would it be better with vanilla or chocolate?
May I ask why you’re asking this and the origin of that question? I, for one, would not want the job of milking a bat, but since you asked, according to this and a couple other sources I found, it would be very creamy, because bat milk contains 10 to 15% fat, which is several times as fatty as human or cow’s milk.
http://www.bu.edu/cecb/files/2009/08/biorepro28229-2341983.pdf
It would depend, I think, on the bat’s diet. OTTOMH we got bats eating- fruit, bugs, fish and blood.
Just getting kinda bored of oat milk, I guess. It seems like a bat milk farm would be a good lockdown hobby.
I’d choose one of the larger “flying foxes” in the order “Pteropus” if I were you.
However, milking them may be slightly challenging, and I would imagine - as all bats in this family are wide ranging when out searching for food - your milch-bat just might not come home after the first experience.
FWIW, here is some data on the nutritional value of bat milk. Good luck in your endeavors.
Are you planning to feed them, or let them fly out and fend for themselves?
You will need to start with licencing. You will need to check your local laws, but here is the relevant licensing page for Florida, as an example:
Note that Sugar Gliders don’t need a permit, so if all you’re looking for is flying milk, you could have a squirrel-dairy instead and bypass that requirement.
I’m mostly concerned about the potential for disease. Please don’t start another pandemic just yet.
I don’t about bat milk, but bat shit tastes like a big mouthful of crazy.
I’ll bet Robin knows.
I’m afraid to ask…
In German we use the expression “zum Mäuse melken!” (literally: it makes you want to milk mice!) to express frustration, so I looked it up some ago and found out that mouse milk is among the most expensive milks in the world. They use it in labs, so if you can convince a lab that they need to investigate bats, say because they are relevant to virus transmission, you may have a market. But drinking it? At 10,000 $ a quart in 1,947 prices? Gimme a decent whisky.
I suspect that this story is fake, a la The Onion.
and this one too
That KQED story is dated April 1, 2010.
Both stories are the same date.
Thanks for pointing that out to me. I get it now.
Still funny, especially the cat with the milking machine on her belly.
Gross
If you want some cat milk, you gotta ask a Harkonnen.
What does Bat Man taste like?
The next scene at the school is good, too.
I’m late to the thread but was going to post this. What’s the problem? Everybody loves rats…
Rabies is endemic in bats isn’t it?