Question two on centaur anatomy

[conuly]

Because once you start thinking this way you really can't stop:

Where do centaur babies get their milk from? One would assume the human breasts (human breasts, human faces, makes sense) but then... do they not have horse nipples as well?

Also, interesting fact: Male horses don't have nipples in the way male humans do. Would this carry over to the human part of the centaur as well?

Comments

[steorra]

I think in the Narnia Chronicles, centaurs eat double - they eat a horse's meal for the horse stomach and a human meal for the human stomach. A result is that they spend a lot of time eating, and feeding one is quite a production. In such a system, I'd expect that they have both human and horse nipples and feed from both of them.

I expect that on a male, the human part would have nipples in the human way, while the horse part would not have nipples in the horse way.

...

Now I am wondering about centaurs with different sexes for the horse and human part.

[conuly]

A result is that they spend a lot of time eating, and feeding one is quite a production.

I can imagine. Grass and hay are not such an efficient source of calories, especially when your teeth aren't designed for it.

[oloriel.livejournal.com]

Actually I'd imagine the centaur babies to get their milk from the horse part - much easier to reach when you're filly-sized, despite the human face. Otherwise, the centaur mommies might have to cradle their babies in their human arms, which I imagine might be difficult and/or painful, hooves and all?

I'd expect the nipple issue only to apply to the horse part. Supposedly, centaurs have "normal" male human torsos and "normal" male horse bodies, so...
Moreso when breasts/nipples would be pointless even on the human torsos of female centaurs, as they'd be in my interpretation! ;)

[conuly]

God, mermaids are easier to figure out! (And then there's all the variety of winged human. Why, why, why? Why wings?)

[darkpoole.livejournal.com]

Centaur anatomy has puzzled me ever since I was a kid. From the outside, you'd guess they have two complete nearly sets of organs, other than the excretory and reproductive systems. How does the digestive system work? Does the food go through the human stomach and then the horse stomach? And how much does a centaur need to eat to support a body that large from a tiny little human mouth?

But for nursing, I'm guessing the babies could nurse from both places -- the horse nipples when their mothers are collecting food (hunting? gathering? harvesting?) during the day, and the human nipples when mom is sitting down to rest.

[conuly]

You know, we're ASSUMING centaurs are large because horses are large and humans aren't exactly tiny.

But maybe centaurs are small. I have a my little pony doll somewhere, but I sure can't ride it. Maybe they're half miniature horse, half really SHORT person?

[velvetchamber.livejournal.com]

I'd guess that they are the size of a natural horse, not a selectively bred horse like the big ones or the miniature ones. The wild type size of a horse is around 130-145 cm at the shoulder. That's the size horses had around the time the ancient ancient Greeks invented centaurs from their descriptions of Khazakhs/Mongols on horseback.

[fjorab-teke.livejournal.com]

I'm late to the conversation, but i've imagined them much like this thread of conversation. Part is that i'm a big fan of Donna Barr's Stinz (http://stinz.com/stinz-issue-4-page-3/#comments). I have the actual comic books, have been following them for 20 years. She draws and portrays them in a way that pretty well suspends my disbelief once i get into the story. The centaurs i've drawn are very much reminiscent of hers.

The horse-end would be pretty small in order to blend with the human anatomy. Women have two mammary areas. Both sexes otherwise have one set of reproductive parts, on the horse-end.