Cats lack the gene necessary for tasting sweetness. Read on to learn the biological reason our feline friends don’t have a sweet tooth.
Whether you’re Team Cookie, Team Cake, Team Ice Cream, or Team Pie, most humans have a knack for sweets. Pet owners keep these sugary delights out of reach from their fur babies to avoid poisoning or other adverse reactions. But when it comes to cats, do they even crave our confections?
You may be surprised to learn that cats don’t have the sweet tooth gene. Read on to learn why your feline friend can’t taste sugary treats and the possible reasons they may get into your snack stash anyway.
Any dog owner can attest that their canines love to beg for desserts. So why aren’t cats usually chomping at the bit to share our cupcakes or fruit?
Humans have two proteins (Trusted Source) that help us identify sweet flavors (T1R3 and T1R2). Cats only have one of these proteins (T1R3). So while they do likely taste something when they eat sweets, it’s not the same as what we experience.
Cats are obligate carnivores who can’t process sugar or carbohydrates, which make up sweets. With no evolutionary need for sweets, cats just didn’t evolve a taste for them. This in turn protects them from eating foods that don’t meet their dietary needs.
Cats require higher protein and lower carb diets with balanced fats. Ongoing research in nutrition and diets for cats are proving changes in foods that had been alternatives available made by manufacturers through the year.
Dr. Bruce Armstrong
That’s not to say there aren’t carbohydrates (Trusted Source) in conventional cat food. Carbs mostly just provide structural integrity to dry kibble. But high-carb diets can lead to obesity, diabetes, and periodontal disease for our whiskered pals. Because of this, most vets recommend a low-carb diet for cats that meets their glucose needs without putting them at risk.
Knowing all this now, you may be understandably confused if you ever catch your kitty getting into your tasty human treats. Here are the possible reasons cats lick or eat sweet foods despite not being able to taste them:
🚨 Although sugar itself isn’t considered toxic to cats, sweets can contain harmful ingredients like xylitol, caffeine, raisins, and more.
While most cats aren’t vying to raid your sweets collection, it’s good to understand why their bodies aren’t developed for these types of food and the importance of keeping them away just in case they get curious. So long as your furry friend is on a well-balanced, low-carb diet and you consult your vet before introducing new foods, you can rest easy.
Cats are able to identify a wide range of flavors, including saltiness, fatiness, sourness, and bitterness. One flavor they’re missing out on is sweetness, which the species lacks the gene to fully taste.
Cats have around 400 taste buds, which is significantly less than the over 9,000 taste buds in humans.
It is believed that they used their heightened sense of smell to identify nearby foods. This essentially gives them the essence of food without fully tasting it.
As cats get older, their sense of taste and smell weakens. This is why most elderly cats are considered picky eaters.
Cats lack the gene necessary for fully tasting sweetness; they don’t really need sugars and carbs, so they lack the biological trait to taste them.
