New pet owners will definitely wonder why they can’t feed their pets human food; there are even many parents of the older generation who say that their pets have no problem eating human food for so many years; some also The owner will say that his pet has eaten delicious food, and he will not touch dog food again. So can pets distinguish the taste of food? What is delicious for pets? Stop staring at the shelves full of food and snacks. The editor is here to find out for you what their pets’ taste is, so that owners no longer have to worry about their pets’ picky eaters.
What exactly is delicious for pets?
1. How do pets experience it?
Human beings can taste the taste of food because there are structures on the tongue that can sense taste. These structures attach to the tongue to form bumpy surfaces, called "taste buds"; and the so-called sour and sweet The five tastes of bitter, salty, and umami are chemicals produced after food melts in saliva, stimulating the taste buds on the tongue, allowing us to experience a variety of different flavors.
Like humans, pets also have buds on their tongues. However, the number of taste buds on pets’ tongues is only about 1,000, while human tongues have 5,000 to 6,000 taste buds to experience the taste of food. In other words, pets can only experience the taste of food. It's just a taste that reaches 20% of us humans. They can't experience many tastes as delicately as we can.
In addition, dogs can also distinguish the four tastes of sour, sweet, bitter and salty, and researchers recently discovered that cats cannot eat sweet tastes due to the lack of a key protein in their genetic genes. Lions and Tigers and other cats are like this.
For pets, the owner's food is always full of confusion
2. Do pets have a sense of taste?
Why can’t cats eat sweet food? This is because cats are carnivores. They hunt mice or birds and rarely eat sweet food. In terms of primitive animal habits, once a wild animal catches prey by itself, if it does not eat it quickly, it may be snatched away by other animals. Naturally, there will be no such thing as slowly tasting food, and it will not be able to develop the sense of taste. , and in this way, there is no need to develop the nerve to feel sweetness.
The same situation can also be used to explain the development of the dog's taste nerve: after a group of wild wolves captures the prey, of course it depends on the location. The tall wolf leaders begin to enjoy, but if they move too slowly, they may not even be able to separate the residue; so they often eat meat in big mouthfuls and swallow it without any taste; therefore, there is no need to develop their sense of taste. So, pets. Don’t you need a sense of taste at all?
For pets, it is more important to distinguish between “edible and unpalatable” than “delicious and unpalatable”. For example, most rancid foods contain sour and bitter tastes. , so almost neither dogs nor cats can handle sour items; cats are not very fond of the bitter taste of rancid meat, so cats only eat novel items; while dogs are not too fond of such a bitter taste. They are sensitive, so dogs will dig out things buried in the ground to eat them.
In addition, because cats cannot experience the sweetness, dogs can, because the sweetness allows dogs to judge whether the fruit is ripe. The key moment to eat is
Not only dogs are picky eaters, there are also more and more picky cats
3. What is delicious for pets?
Generally speaking, it is not only the "taste" that affects pets' feelings about food, but also the aroma, taste and temperature, especially the fragrance. Some cats with rhinitis have a lot to do with it. This is because the dog's sense of smell has changed and the appetite for eating has been greatly reduced. Dogs also judge whether the food is edible from the smell. Once they feel that they can eat it, it is common for them to swallow it wholeheartedly, regardless of whether the owner has carefully prepared it. It is almost impossible to taste the food slowly
As a picky pet owner, is your feeding behavior scientific and reasonable?
4. Pets’ likes and dislikes of food
Having said so much, even if they are edible foods, pets still have differences between what they like and what they don’t like. , right? Why is this?
One of the influencing factors: Review of taste in childhood
The weaning period of pets is also called the "socialization period". The body odor during this period will continue to affect the pet's habits when it grows up. For example, a cat that eats only fish during the weaning period will not like meat as an adult.
Two functional factors: Unpleasant body odor in the past
If your pet has abdominal pain or other uncomfortable symptoms after eating a certain food, the pet will remember this for a long time. Even if the symptoms are not directly caused by the food, the pet will not eat the same food again.
Function factor three: If you don’t eat this item, you can get other items
In addition, although it is not particularly annoying, if you have the experience of “if you don’t eat this item, you can get other items”, pets will also Will keep it in mind.
In addition, it seems that pets also have the mentality of "the items in other people's bowls are more delicious" ~ they often want to eat the items that the owner is eating, which look very delicious. After eating, they will develop feelings of like and dislike for the food due to the owner's reaction. If they are scolded, they will also hate the way the food is presented.
5. Conclusion
It turns out that pets do not like and dislike food. Once a pet has a partial eclipse, it is caused by the owner's feeding method. In daily life, you must pay attention to a balanced and healthy diet. From now on, let them understand that as long as it is given to them, no matter what kind of food is very delicious!
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