ABSTRACT
Healthy mammals of any age are equipped to feed themselves. At birth, a term baby is able to find his mother’s nipple, attach and feed. Subsequently, his body tells him when he needs to eat and how much of his mother’s milk to drink. These are essential survival skills that ensure the continuation of the species; but their existence should not surprise us. Non-human mammalian mothers do not know (in any cognitive sense) that their babies have to be fed, and they have no guides to tell them what or how much food to give. If it were up to the parent to think about what they should do, the baby’s chances would be poor. Instead, mammalian mothers follow what their instincts and their hormones tell them – to keep their young close and let them nuzzle. The baby takes care of the rest.
