Does food taste good for dogs?

Like humans, pets also have taste buds on their tongues, but there are only about 1,000 taste buds on pet tongues, while human tongues have 5,000 to 6,000 taste buds. The taste of food means that pets can only feel 20% of the taste of us humans.
Dogs can distinguish four tastes, sour, sweet, bitter and salty. Studies have found that cats cannot taste sweet food because they lack an important protein in their genetic genes. Lions, tigers and other cats cannot taste sweet food. That's right.

Can dogs tell whether food is delicious or not?

Because cats are originally carnivorous animals. They hunt mice or birds to eat and rarely eat sweet food. Moreover, from the perspective of primitive animal habits, once a wild animal catches prey, if it does not eat it quickly, it may be snatched away by other animals. Naturally, there is no such thing as slowly tasting food, and it is impossible to develop the sense of taste. , and in this way, there is no need to develop the nerve to detect sweetness.
The same situation can also be used to explain the development of dogs' taste nerves: After a group of wild wolves captures prey, although the high-status wolf leader starts to enjoy it, if the action is too slow, he may not even be able to share the residue. ; So they always eat meat in big mouthfuls and swallow it without chewing; therefore, there is no need to develop taste.
For pets, it is much more important to identify "what can be eaten and what cannot be eaten" than "what is delicious and not delicious". For example, most rotten foods contain sour and bitter tastes, so almost dogs and cats cannot tolerate sour things; cats don’t like the bitter taste of rotten meat, so cats only eat fresh things; and dogs do not like the bitter taste of rotten meat. This kind of bitter taste will not be too sensitive, so dogs will dig out things buried in the ground to eat them.
In addition, because cats cannot feel the sweetness, but dogs can, sweetness is an important key for dogs to judge whether the fruit is ripe enough to eat.

What is delicious for dogs?

Generally speaking, pets should not only consider the taste of food, but also the aroma, taste and temperature of the food. Especially for fragrance, some cats suffering from rhinitis are unable to smell fragrance due to the degradation of their sense of smell, which greatly reduces their appetite for food. Dogs can also tell if something can be swallowed by its scent. Once they feel they can eat, they are hungry.

The impact of dogs’ likes and dislikes on food

One of the influencing factors: memory of taste in childhood

The weaning period of pets is also called the “socialization period”. The experience during this period will continue to affect the pet's habits when it grows up. For example, a cat that only eats fish during the weaning period will not like meat when it grows up.

ImpactFactor 2: Unpleasant experiences in the past

If a pet has experienced abdominal pain or other uncomfortable symptoms after eating a certain food, the pet will remember it forever. Even if the symptoms are not directly caused by the food, the pet simply won't eat the same food again.

Influencing factor three: If you don’t eat this, you can get something else

In addition, although it is not particularly annoying, pets will remember “If you don’t eat this, you can get something else” experience.
In addition, it seems that pets also have the mentality that "the food in other people's bowls is more delicious" ~ they always want to eat the food that the owner is eating, which looks very delicious. After eating, you will develop feelings of liking or disliking the food depending on the owner's reaction. If they are scolded, they will also hate the appearance of the food.

Originally, pets have no likes and dislikes for food. Once a pet has a partial eclipse, it is caused by the owner's feeding method. Therefore, you must pay attention to a balanced and healthy diet in daily life.