Curious facts about pets: cats can not taste sweet foods
Cats are known to have many strong senses, as they have sharp hearing, visual ability equipped for movement and darkness, and a very sensitive sense of smell. However, cats' sense of taste is much less complex than in humans, dogs and some other animals.
Show key points
- Cats possess highly developed senses of hearing, vision, and smell, but their sense of taste is significantly less refined.
- Unlike humans, cats have a limited number of taste buds—around 470—which weakens their ability to detect diverse flavors.
- While cats can't perceive sweetness due to a faulty gene, they can taste unique elements like water and ATP, which signals the presence of meat.
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- Their strong sense of smell helps enhance the flavor of food, compensating for their limited taste perception.
- The absence of the functional TAS1R2 gene explains why cats are incapable of detecting sweet tastes.
- Even if a cat appears to enjoy ice cream or other sweet foods, it is likely drawn to other flavors, not the sweetness itself.
- Feeding cats human food, especially sweet items, can be harmful and is discouraged despite their apparent interest.
Strange things that cats can taste
Cats have relatively few taste buds (about 470) compared to humans (about 9,000). It also means that her sense of taste is weaker than ours. Although cats can't taste sweet flavors (we'll learn why) soon, they do have taste buds for things we don't, including water and, in particular, the energy complex adenosine triphosphate (ATP). ATP provides energy in living cells, and it is believed that cats' ability to taste it indicates to them the presence of meat in what they eat. This is important because cats are omnivores and must eat meat in order to survive.
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Taste + Smell = Flavor
The smell of food also affects what cats eat. Even for humans, about 70 to 75 percent of what we taste comes from smell, because it is the combination of taste and aroma that creates the flavor. So cats' superior sense of smell can make up for their lack of taste buds, and they can still enjoy different flavors of food, such as chicken or white fish.
A fake gene and a lost future
Why can't cats taste sweet flavors? Well, it's due to her genes – more specifically, the "fake" dysfunctional gene. One study compared the genes of cats to other species, such as dogs and humans, that respond to sweet tastes. Specifically looked at the TAS1R2 and TAS1R3 genes, which together encode and encode the sweet taste receptor. While the Tas1r3 gene is the same as the Tas1r3 gene found in dogs, Tas1r2 has multiple differences (defects), and it has been concluded that Tas1r2 is a false gene (a defective version of the functional gene). This means that cats cannot prepare the future necessary for the discovery of sweet tastes.
But my cat loves ice cream!
If your cat loves sweet foods (note: ice cream is not recommended for cats), it's the other accompanying flavors you taste that make them love these foods – not the delicious ice cream sweetness we like.
Remember that there are many reasons why you should tell cats "no food for people" including that human foods can be dangerous to cat health. Sweet foods like candy are a nice treat for us, but not for cats – and they can't taste the sweetness we like anyway.
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