Cats rarely chew on
plants, compared to dogs, because the main draw that plants provide is their
sweet sugar content. Cats not only fail to taste sweet things, they also deal
with sugars poorly in other ways – among other things, they lack a sugar
digestion enzyme that both dogs and people have called “glucokinase” which
helps break down sugars inside the cells.
Because cats can’t taste
sweets, they don’t really “enjoy” sugary snacks the way we would. The inclusion
of carbohydrates in cat food has become a very “hot topic” in feline nutrition
– while corn and other carbohydrate sources, blueberries, kelp and cranberries
may contain many beneficial nutrients, cats likely do not appreciate the
flavor, and in some cases it is not certain how well they digest these
ingredients.
Most cats prefer canned
diets in which the first several ingredients are meat-based. Canned food is
better for cats than dry diets because it contains a high water content (about
80%), which helps maintain a lower urine specific gravity (less “stuff” in the
urine), which helps protect the kidneys and can help prevent urinary crystals
and stones. Most of the cats that we see at Exclusively Cats Veterinary
Hospital who are urinating outside the box and have bladder stones or
uncomfortable crystals in their urine are eating a dry-food-only diet.
Something else to note –
cats do not like bitter taste any more than people do. If you use baking soda
in your litter box as a deodorizer and your cat starts eliminating elsewhere,
you might stop adding the baking soda to the box. It is quite bitter in taste,
and while cats don’t eat litter, they do groom their paws after using the box,
so can associate the bad taste of the baking soda with using the litter!
Additionally, some medications or smells that are bitter will cause your cat to drool profusely. This is a reflex that cats have developed to rid their mouths of a bad taste (often bad taste = poison, especially if your diet includes frogs and toads).
Additionally, some medications or smells that are bitter will cause your cat to drool profusely. This is a reflex that cats have developed to rid their mouths of a bad taste (often bad taste = poison, especially if your diet includes frogs and toads).
In 2005,
a study was done that discovered the entire cat family is lacking the gene for
tasting the flavor “sweet”. They have taste buds in that region of the tongue,
but they do not function. Cats do taste salty, sour and bitter. Their favorite
tastes are salty and sour. Some cats are drawn to “sweet” foods, but it is
likely the fat content vs. the flavor that they like.
Their
sense of taste is much duller than ours as well – where a human tongue has over
9,000 taste
buds, a cat has only 473! The cat may make up for this lack of
taste buds with the small Jacobson’s organ at the front of its mouth – a
“vomeronasal” organ which is slightly different than either smell or taste. You
can see the ducts leading to this organ in the roof of your cat’s mouth behind
the upper incisors. The organ sits right at the front of the mouth and connects
to the nasal passages. Snakes, elephants and horses also have this organ, among
other animals. Humans, it seems, do not have a working vomeronasal organ. To
use it most effectively, the cat passes air over the front of the tongue and
then touches the tongue to this sensory organ to deposit pheromone molecules
there. You can see your cat using this organ when it wrinkles its lips, opens
its mouth and slightly sticks its tongue out when “smelling” an area where it
finds an interesting smell.
Cat displaying flehmen expression |
With 200 million odor-sensitive
cells in its nose, compared to a human’s paltry five million, a cat’s sense of
smell is much more sensitive than ours. However, they don’t hold a candle to a
dog’s smelling ability. Dogs have between 149 million and 300 million
receptors. Still, smell is one of a cat’s more important senses. Because smell
is so important to cats, a stuffed up nose can be extremely detrimental! If a
cat can’t smell his food, he is highly likely to turn his nose up at it.
Conversely, a scented litter that we find to be pleasantly fresh-smelling is
like drowning in perfume to a cat’s sensitive schnozz.
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