# Cats Can't Taste Sweet



## johnnyrelentless (Jun 9, 2011)

Just read an interesting article in Scientific American saying that cats are the only known mammal that can't taste sweet. They say they know this because:

1. Cats are indifferent to whether water is sweetened or unsweetened.
2. The two proteins in the sweet taste receptors of all other mammals tested don't exist in cats.
3. The gene for tasting sweet has been identified and doesn't exist in cats.

The article says some cats like ice cream or cotton candy or marshmallows and therefore may be able to taste very high concentrations of sweet, but it seems to me that it could just as easily be something else, such as texture or some other flavor present.

It also says that they are not able to digest sweets or carbohydrates well, and that in spite of this, cat food manufacturers load up their foods with grains, which may be causing cats to get diabetes.

I'm sure some of you cat aficionados knew this already, but it's new and interesting to me.

Here is the link: Strange but True: Cats Cannot Taste Sweets: Scientific American


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## Maggie the Cat (Mar 13, 2011)

I have to disagree. Both of my cats (current cat and cat who passed last fall) love/d sweets. I frequently bake and they both are/were always begging for a cookie or cake crumb. Neither cat would beg for "just anything", either. Both seemed to only beg if we had chicken, tuna, cookies, cake, eggs, ice cream, or cereal. (Of course, we gave people-food only sparingly, though that didn't deter the begging, LOL.)


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## MinkaMuffin (Apr 1, 2011)

Maggie the Cat said:


> I have to disagree. Both of my cats (current cat and cat who passed last fall) love/d sweets. I frequently bake and they both are/were always begging for a cookie or cake crumb. Neither cat would beg for "just anything", either. Both seemed to only beg if we had chicken, tuna, cookies, cake, eggs, ice cream, or cereal. (Of course, we gave people-food only sparingly, though that didn't deter the begging, LOL.)


She specifically mentioned that they don't even have the taste buds required to taste sweet things. It would have to be another flavor in it that they like.


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## MinkaMuffin (Apr 1, 2011)

I didn't know that they couldn't taste sweet, thats very interesting. =^.^=


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## faithless (Dec 4, 2009)

I knew this but experience with my gal doesnt match up, so Im unsure on this issue.


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## MeowMiaow (Feb 20, 2011)

I think they might be able to taste very high sweetness, like you said. Marilyn sometimes gets a little lick of cake mix and she really loves it. She also begs for cookies too


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## catloverami (Jul 5, 2010)

I've heard this before, but never had a cat that wasn't crazy about ice-cream. One of my studs was crazy over watermelon. My Devon girl Alkee loves to lap up sugar from the sugar bowl to the extent that I can never leave it out and have to keep it in a cupboard. My Devon boy Zuba is always begging for a nibble of cake or cookies.


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## saitenyo (Nov 28, 2010)

I'm willing to bet the obsession with things like ice cream or cake would probably be the dairy, since they can't taste the sugar.

Apollo goes _nuts_ for anything with dairy in it: milk, cheese, butter, even mashed potatoes (made with milk and butter).


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## MowMow (Nov 6, 2010)

saitenyo said:


> I'm willing to bet the obsession with things like ice cream or cake would probably be the dairy, since they can't taste the sugar.


Yeah, I'm pretty certain that's the case. MowMow would climb through fiery coals for ice cream but if I'm eating sorbet or even sherbet he just looks offended if offered some.


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## jusjim (Jun 30, 2009)

There are lots of things that scientists think they have the answer to, and later find out they're wrong. The only way to know if cats can taste sweet is to become a cat and find out.

As far as digesting carbs, cats do have the amylase enzyme for this, but apparently not like humans, in the saliva.


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## johnnyrelentless (Jun 9, 2011)

jusjim said:


> There are lots of things that scientists think they have the answer to, and later find out they're wrong. The only way to know if cats can taste sweet is to become a cat and find out.


Ha! Yes, that must be the only way. Just like the only way to know if gravity exists would to become the earth and see if we still pull people toward us! Those rascally scientists, since they're not always right, they must always be wrong!


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## MowMow (Nov 6, 2010)

johnnyrelentless said:


> Those rascally scientists, since they're not always right, they must always be wrong!


Lmao!


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## Sinatra-Butters (Aug 9, 2010)

I caught Nutmeg licking the lid to my chocolate peanut butter ice cream last night, she might not know it but she loves sweet!!!


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## MowMow (Nov 6, 2010)

You had the two key words in your sentence....

"SHE"...and...."CHOCOLATE"


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## Sinatra-Butters (Aug 9, 2010)

Lol, SHE just doesn't understand that chocolate is verrry bad for kitties.


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## NRD (Mar 31, 2010)

Funny this thread should be running right now. Just today I pulled out a carton of chocolate chip cookie dough ice cream (light), and Blizzy, who rarely gets excited about things, got very excited and wanted to stick his head into the carton. I don't (yet) feed any of my cats any people food, but I was wondering if you all allowed your cats to eat ice cream as a treat.

Anyway, I wonder, since their since of smell is so highly developed, whether it isn't the smell of sweet things that excites their interest. They are so driven by smell, maybe the taste doesn't matter nearly as much as the smell does. And we'll assume they DO have the gene that allows them to smell sweet.


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## marie73 (Jul 12, 2006)

On the rare occasions I buy ice cream, I let whichever cat seems interested lick the lid.


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## Maggie the Cat (Mar 13, 2011)

jusjim said:


> There are lots of things that scientists think they have the answer to, and later find out they're wrong. The only way to know if cats can taste sweet is to become a cat and find out.
> 
> As far as digesting carbs, cats do have the amylase enzyme for this, but apparently not like humans, in the saliva.



EXACTLY. 

In a year or two, the new headline will be "Domestic cats now known to have a ginormous sweet-tooth!" LOL. Even if what we perceive as the "taste bud for sweet" doesn't appear to be on a cat, who knows... maybe what we think is their "bitter" taste bud is really their sweet? I stand by my cats... they appear to like sweets


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## Maggie the Cat (Mar 13, 2011)

Here and here. No, I don't always believe science. It's always 100% correct... until proven wrong ;-)


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## johnnyrelentless (Jun 9, 2011)

NRD said:


> Anyway, I wonder, since their since of smell is so highly developed, whether it isn't the smell of sweet things that excites their interest. They are so driven by smell, maybe the taste doesn't matter nearly as much as the smell does. And we'll assume they DO have the gene that allows them to smell sweet.


That's an interesting point.

I personally don't feed my cats people food, other than a bit of plain tuna. Mainly because I want to avoid them begging loudly for food whenever we eat.


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## Claiken (Dec 18, 2007)

Boo isnt so keen on sweets really, but SImba loves anything even remotely sweet. yogurt, ketchup, sweet n sour sause, spaghetti sause. anything sauselike (even sweet) he loves and licks his chops like he just ate the best meal ever


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## MinkaMuffin (Apr 1, 2011)

You have to remember that cats can taste things we Can't so it is highly possible that all these foods contain Other flavors that are tasty to them. Dairy being one of them.

But if they don't have the sweet receptors, then, well, imo, they can't taste sweet.


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## Sinatra-Butters (Aug 9, 2010)

They may not have sweet receptors, but they DO have chocolate peanut butter ice cream receptors!


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## Pooch&Dosscara (May 22, 2011)

It's got to be something else that is commonly used in sweet things aside from the sweetness itself that they like. I notice Dossy wants sweet things more than any other "people" food, particularly chocolate things.


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## Abbie (Jan 13, 2011)

My SO and I arrived home from a concert at 3am this morning, I left a chocolate brownie in a sealed wrapper on the coffee table and didn't think any more of it. I came downstairs this morning at 6.30am (a mere 3 and a half hours later) to find the brownie on the floor, ripped open, and half chewed.

Cats don't like sweet things?! Evie and Mitzi must have missed that message. I know it could be the dairy, but Mitzi is a thief of everything- cake, biscuit, chocolate... once she even ran off with a noodle in her mouth!


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## jusjim (Jun 30, 2009)

Sinatra-Butters said:


> They may not have sweet receptors, but they DO have chocolate peanut butter ice cream receptors!


There are four recognized taste receptors. Salt, sweet, bitter, sour, (plus a fifth, umani, which seems to be a new one and has to do with glutamaic acid). The remainder of what we refer to as taste is odor. We smell it. Get a cold with runny nose and food doesn't taste right. Right! Some animals have taste buds in other areas other than the mouth. It's an amazing area to research.

One question, though. If all mammals bar cats have the sweet receptor, what advantage does this give the cat? Nature usually does not do things without reason.

I suppose one way to tell if cats can taste sweet, would be to sample cat milk to see if it's sweet for the kittens. Volunteers! :catmilk Although maybe not as protein breaks down partially into glucose.

Does a cat produce insulin?


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## BotanyBlack (Apr 6, 2011)

jusjim said:


> Does a cat produce insulin?



Yes.


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## johnnyrelentless (Jun 9, 2011)

jusjim said:


> One question, though. If all mammals bar cats have the sweet receptor, what advantage does this give the cat? Nature usually does not do things without reason.


The article does say that cats are also rare among predators in that they exclusively eat meat in nature. 

But they don't know if they only eat meat because they can't taste sweet, or if they can't taste sweet because they only eat meat. 

Evolution favors conservation of energy and resources. If an animal doesn't eat fruit anyway, why continue to use the energy and resources to make taste buds that can taste it? Sort of like various cave fish and burrowing mammals, many of which have lost their eyes or are in the process of losing them.


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## Sinatra-Butters (Aug 9, 2010)

jusjim said:


> There are four recognized taste receptors. Salt, sweet, bitter, sour, (plus a fifth, umani, which seems to be a new one and has to do with glutamaic acid). The remainder of what we refer to as taste is odor. We smell it. Get a cold with runny nose and food doesn't taste right. Right! Some animals have taste buds in other areas other than the mouth. It's an amazing area to research.


I know that...it was a joke.


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## jusjim (Jun 30, 2009)

johnnyrelentless said:


> The article does say that cats are also rare among predators in that they exclusively eat meat in nature.
> 
> But they don't know if they only eat meat because they can't taste sweet, or if they can't taste sweet because they only eat meat.
> 
> Evolution favors conservation of energy and resources. If an animal doesn't eat fruit anyway, why continue to use the energy and resources to make taste buds that can taste it? Sort of like various cave fish and burrowing mammals, many of which have lost their eyes or are in the process of losing them.


Taste receptors are not only to attract, they can turn away form food. Bitter can be a reject taste for many humans. Bitter often = poison. If cats are not great carb digesters, then maybe a sweet rceptor would be needed to turn them away from sweet foods. Just a thought.


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## Maggie the Cat (Mar 13, 2011)

So, if cats can't taste "sweet" then why do they lick anti-freeze? (No, I don't feed anti-freeze to cats, but I know it's a long known home-remedy-type poison of choice for cat and dog haters.) The reason those sick jerks leave out anti-freeze to kill stray animals is b/c they know it tastes good enough that they want to lick them. And it's a sweet taste. So if "it must be some other ingredient in it" like others have said about the sweet things some cats like, then what would it be? Is it the yummy methanol? 

Sorry, but I just don't buy this whole theory.


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## Carmel (Nov 23, 2010)

Reguarding antifreeze, I read a vet explain some reasoning behind it. 

It's not just cats that drink antifreeze, and who says they drink it for sweetness? The more likely reason is that when everything else is icy, that water is still drinkable, and the cat is also able to walk through it, they don't have to drink it to die, just ingest it off their fur. Also they like already pointed out they could be attracted to it for a reason besides the sweet taste.


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## Maggie the Cat (Mar 13, 2011)

I think if you have a puddle of antifreeze and subtracted the sweetness, it would just taste like bitter chemicals. So I just can't imagine why else cats, dogs, or anything else would drink it if it were a bitter chemical taste. (Unless accidental like you say, while cleaning their paws.) And that's why animal killers choose antifreeze, it's attractive taste and it's cheap and handy for them to use. If they weren't attracted to the taste of it, they'd just likely use some other household poison.


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## doodlebug (May 13, 2006)

Ethylene glycol itself has a sweet taste...it's not like it has a bad taste and they add sweetners as a taste enhancer. So...if a cat has no sweet receptors, then to a cat, the anti-freeze has no taste...just like water.


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## Maggie the Cat (Mar 13, 2011)

Maybe, but according to Prestone, these are the ingredients:

_Prestone® Cooling System/Antifreeze Treatment (AS-175)
Water, Polyalkylene Glycol, Sodium Hydroxide, Siloxane Glycol Copolymer, Polyglycol, Polyoxyalkylene Polymer.

_Minus the glycol stuff, the rest of it surely doesn't taste good. Anyway, not trying to be argumentative, but I personally just don't take the not-tasting-sweet thing as fact.


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## doodlebug (May 13, 2006)

Just because something has a chemical name doesn't mean it tastes bad...or even has any taste. Of course you're free to believe what you want, but Scientific American, the NIH and a variety of other reputable source all indicate that cats can't taste sweet...I don't see any reason not to believe them, there are plenty of ways to test for this sort of thing.


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## johnnyrelentless (Jun 9, 2011)

jusjim said:


> Taste receptors are not only to attract, they can turn away form food. Bitter can be a reject taste for many humans. Bitter often = poison. If cats are not great carb digesters, then maybe a sweet rceptor would be needed to turn them away from sweet foods. Just a thought.


Interesting. Good point.


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## Hepburn (Feb 9, 2011)

This whole thread is like a study of society's understanding of the scientific method.


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## marie73 (Jul 12, 2006)

I just read an article about this last week that said cats probably drink antifreeze because they're thirsty and they think it's water. Nothing to do with the taste.


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