a New Theory??

Has anyone heard of this theory that cats are unable to taste anything sweet? Of course I can understand that it isn't essential in a cat's diet (it's not essential in my diet either)But what kind of testing would be done to come to this conclusion? even Bella likes a little scoop of vanilla ice cream on her birthday--I guess that's because of the milk in it.

Well they don't like sickly sweet banana flavoured meds

Originally Posted by icklemiss21

Well they don't like sickly sweet banana flavoured meds

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I have two that will disprove that theory, but both were medicated with it at a fairly young age. I am sure that I could medicate either without fear of losing fingers, and one is a barn cat. I don't know about the rest though, I am sure that I would be pretty clawed up if I ever had to treat others but it wouldn't be the taste of the stuff but the actual restraining to medicate.

And the theory about them not tasting sweet isn't that terribly new.

Yeah I have one who doesn't care, but had to give meds in the shelter and they would give us this banana flavoured med for kittens and they hated it, amazing how much an 8 week old can fight you

I've never trusted that theory. I've had cats that like bread, corn, dried apricots, cookies, ice cream, pudding, etc. Some might be about the milk or yeast, but corn is mainly starch, and dried apricots are primarily sugar (and that cat would break into the containers if she could).

Mine like sweets, too. I'll share tiny amount of plain (white/cream cheese) frosting and whipped cream with mine occasionally - just a small dab on my finger. A childhood cat loved caramel, I would share the caramel out of my Milky Way bars always careful not to let her have any chocolate. Another cat years later love fudge bars (they weren't made with any real chocolate).

While the theory says that cats can't taste it, there's never any mention about what they can smell. Their noses are far better than ours so think about how much your own sense of smell affects what you really taste.

At least one of mine will work hard to get into things like yogurt pretzels. He seems to like frosting, ice cream, and baked goods. too.

One of my kittens didn't seem to mind cherry-flavored liquid medicine (meant for children) and even that nasty pink liquid antibiotic. Made me wonder if he had any sense of taste at ALL, but he loves almost all kinds of food, too, and people-food best of all.

My cat Muffin would eat anything that doesn't bite him first and that includes sweet. He really wants to drink out of my coffee cup.

Lucky loves sweet things. If there is milk with sugar in it she drinks it. If it is plain milk she won't touch it. Gus drinks it either way. Lucky also likes sweet apples, If I have toast with honey on it. She wants it.

I have/had cats with sweet tooths too. I've never believed the "theory" that cats don't taste sweets. On the other hand, it is also said that cats don't really taste anyway, they go by smell.

Yeah I wondered about that "sweet" thing w/ cats, too. My boys like all kinds of things they are not supposed to. I caught Archie trying to nom nom nom a ginger-molasses cookie I set on the counter.

Jakie demanded some of my mango sorbet the other night... Ohhh... too funny b/c he got this blob of cold stuff on his tongue and just DID NOT know what to do with it. The look on his face was priceless!

That was one of the first things I read about cats, but I haven't ever seen proof of it. I've tried giving my cats plain yogurt (to help with diarrhea) and they won't touch it. However, they go nuts over sweetened yogurt. I have to eat my breakfast standing up or I'll have at least three kitties trying to pull the bowl out of my hands so they can get their share.

Dushka will eat the icing off a cake if I leave it available. And Ellie loves the sweetened milk in a cereal bowl - she definitely prefers it to plain milk if either are around. I have to be very careful to wash up immediately.

Jade is not a begger at all.....unless I have cookies, muffins, poptarts, etc
She will actually chew into things to get a cookie.

My cat Chester Cheetah Muffin (Chester for short), has thing for Honey Nut Cheerios. Anytime my non-furry children eat them he is all over them trying to snatch some for himself. He can smell them half way across the house and comes running every time.

Another with a sweet tooth. Nora LOVES sweet stuff, so I don't believe she can't taste it. She loves fruit, especially. She will eat just about any fruit you give her, but she loves bananas, berries (strawberries, black berries, blue berries, etc), cantaloupe, mango, and applesauce.