We all know our cats have definite preferences for their food choices, which may or may not include flavors. An article from Petfood Industry, however, offered some useful facts about a cat’s taste buds:
A cat’s taste buds are functional right at birth or possibly a bit earlier. Cats have about 1,000 taste buds, compared to 2,000 for dogs and 9,000 for people. Some of this difference is simply due to tongue size.
Cats don’t have taste receptors for sweet and sugary. Some sugars stimulate bitter taste receptors in cats.
“Bitter” is no more pleasant to cats than it is to us. Manufacturers of antifreeze have taken advantage of the fact that cats have bitter taste buds and add denatonium, which is a very bitter substance, to antifreeze to discourage pets from eating it. Still, drips of antifreeze are dangerous to your pet. Most cats who have toxic encounters with antifreeze became ill from licking it off their paws or coat, not specifically choosing to lick it up from the floor.
Older and ill pets may lose some of their taste receptors. Since smell and taste are closely related, it helps to encourage eating in these pets by warming a meal to increase its aroma or adding “smelly” things to the meal, such as the juice from canned tuna.
Stress can also affect taste receptors even in young animals. This explains why an ill or upset cat may stop eating. Medications aimed at appetite stimulation act on the central nervous system not on local taste receptors.
