Looking past the recent vegan drama, have you ever wondered why your pet might not like particular foods? Have you ever actually tasted the food yourself?
I have, and some taste more like a chemistry lab than actual nutrition.
I tried peanut butter biscuits for dogs once. Needless to say, dogs are getting ripped off. Tastes nothing like peanut butter.
As a kid, think toddler, my parents said I used to eat the dry dog food with the dog. Not like a lot, but a bite sometimes. They said the dog would give me weird looks as I’d take a bite.
I mean, animals don’t necessarily experience taste in the same ways humans do. What tastes terrible to me may still be very appealing to a dog or cat etc., regardless of taste.
The way my dog licks his balls you’d think they taste really good, but they didn’t taste great to me
If you could reach yours, you would too
I’ve licked some good balls before tbh
Thanks 👍
That’s not true! That dog’s balls tasted average, at worst.
A dog eats poop. That might as well say that taste is experienced very differently.
You got a dumbass dog then, our adopted stray dog won’t even shit anywhere near our apartment, let alone try eating it…
He’s just asking for a favor bro
Exactly. We like sweet things as this is our way to detect glucose for our brain; salty things for minerals, etc. Our pets diets are different, so are their taste preferences. Iirc, a totally blunt piece of dried food tastes great for a cat, since they seek protein more than anything.
Yup, cats can’t taste sweetness for that reason, while birds don’t have receptors for spice and can eat chillies easily.
That’s just the taste buds themselves, additionally:
- A large part of our taste response is tied to smell. This is why food tastes different when sick. It’s also hard to try yourself because you can “smell” through the back of your throat too
- the air around us will affect taste perception, which is why some foods taste better or worse on a plane
- genetic factors exist, such as how some people taste cilantro/parsley as soapy
That’s why hospital food seemed so next level bland, everything smelled like “clean.”
I have the cilantro soap gene. Never heard of the taste of parsley being affected the same way.
True. Still, have you ever tasted a chemistry set?
I did when I was 10 years old. It’s a wonder I’m still alive. Raw chemicals are not nutrition.
Maybe these “chemicals” are the flavour the dog wants tho, I imagine it’s kinda like a really concentrated gravy?
I don’t imagine flavour has that much to do with nutrition, in fact it’s probably lacking in nutrition if it has no flavour.
Have you ever mixed hard kibble with soft food, only to watch your dog literally pick out all the hard kibble and only eat the soft food? And yes, before anyone asks, his teeth are fine.
The hard food (at least that particular brand) tastes fucking awful.
sugar is a “raw chemical” 🤓
Go eat a dog biscuit. Some of them taste worse than cardboard soaked in ammonia.
why did you eat cardboard soaked in ammonia
I didn’t outright eat that, but I had a chemistry set when I was a kid…
i don’t think dog vomit is particularly yummy and probably tastes pretty chemically but dogs tuck into that shit like it’s le cordon bleu
What constitues chemicals for you? I agree with your point- if your dog doesn’t like the treat and you find it tastes unnatural, I agree it’s maybe a bad treat/crappy quality treat.
But “chemical” is not really a descriptor for taste- everything is chemicals. Sugar is a chemical. There are chemicals in natural foods such as meats, veggies, fruits, it’s all chemicals. I think you’re trying to say that the treats taste unnatural or overly processed?
Maybe you’re right, maybe ‘chemical’ wasn’t the best way to describe it. I can definitely agree that those treats tasted completely unnatural.
I mean like they taste like they were soaked in diesel fuel and dried out unnatural. That’s why I described it as a chemical taste.
I ate a dog treat that I’m 90% sure was just a bone shaped nilla wafer.
I don’t doubt you a bit, I tasted one of those when I was a kid. Totally edible. A bit bland to me, but edible.
But that was a different brand apparently. I’m not sure what brand the recent dog biscuit treats was, as they were donated in a Ziploc bag by a friend, but those tasted like chemical hell.
Our friend didn’t mean anything wrong, he was just trying to help, but those particular treats ended up tossed in the trash. Honestly I don’t think the ants would even eat those things.
Edit: The old ones that actually tasted edible were all tan in color, but these new chemical infused ones were all colored red or green. Something just wasn’t right with those.
i like to think my palate is slightly different to that of a dog
they evolved to basically survive on table scraps and other food humans didn’t want to eat so i’m not sure our concepts of “peak taste” will be the same
people sometimes have to stop their dogs eating their own vomit
I’ve just returned to Lemmy after a while so I’m OOTL. Can anyone give me a gist of what happened with the recent vegan drama on here? Or maybe link to a post I can read?
The company Wild Life claims to have created a nutritionally complete vegan cat food, even though it’s common knowledge that cats need meat proteins and nutrients in their regular diet.
https://lemmy.ca/post/27549478
I am no expert in the field, maybe they’re onto something, maybe not. 🤷♂️
Edit: Guess they dropped the link ☹️
Proteins are just amino acids. You can find the same proteins in plant foods as meat. There are other details about what different types of basic foods contain, of course, but it’s theoretically possible to create something that contains all the same nutrients as meat out of plants.
When I briefly skimmed over the original article, they made a point to mention their food contains taurine. You know, like one of the things they put in Monster Energy drinks…
I’m no animal nutrition expert, so I don’t know how that does or doesn’t help with kitty nutrition, but I’d just as soon feed my kitty actual chicken or tuna and call it a day.
Well, check it out: https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/taurine-in-cats
Taurine is an amino acid that’s an esssential nutrient for cats.
Yep, tasted pretty much every type of kibble and some snacks my dog gets. But it’s all plant based so I am not worried about meat getting bad or the like.
Some of the snacks are ok but I noticed that they always smell way more intensive than they taste. Kind of the opposite of human food.
I’ve eaten cat biscuits. They don’t taste offensive, but there’s nothing in them for me to enjoy. Even so, they’re the one thing all my cats agree is worth eating.
I got some “human grade” dog treats that are little sliced sausages and they smell delicious. Like actual edible salami. Haven’t tried them yet but I’m tempted to.
I bought some fancy biscuits for my dogs from a local company. Ingredients are basically oats, cheddar, bacon, rosemary. I could 100% kill this whole bag if my dogs didn’t look so devastated when I ate their special treats.
No, but I watched Penguinz0 taste pet food before for a tier list and some of it sounds to be pretty decent.
Interesting. I’ve watched quite a few of his videos, but never caught that one.
A friend of mine back in middle school did a science project on what cat food tastes the best. He used his cat as the main experiment, but when he presented his project he also had samples for everyone to try and vote on their favorite. The cat liked Science Diet. The consensus among our classmates was Meow Mix.
His real science project: How many classmates can he get to eat cat food.
The result: more than you’d expect.
Interesting. At the end of the day though, what matters is what’s healthy for your pet and what they like best.
I never suggested that humans and pets have the same taste buds and appetites, but when your dog refuses to eat a dog treat, and you taste it yourself and it also tastes like chemical garbage, then it only stands to reason that those particular dog treats are trash.
I didn’t realize you were trying to present some sort of argument here, I was just sharing a fun story that answered the post title.
All food tastes like chemicals. Taste is a function of chemical receptors on your tongue. Btw you are made entirely of chemicals, but many people have already told you this today.
I don’t know the exact brand of dog treats, but they tasted like they were soaked in diesel fuel and dried out. That’s what I mean when I say they tasted like chemicals.
Whatever brand they were, they were colored red and green. I don’t even think ants would eat those things.
I’ve tasted the dried crickets and mealworms that I feed to my gerbils. Infact, just today I got an intrusive thought about tasting one of the pellets I’m feeding them too. I didn’t but maybe I should.
Looking past your joke, at least that’s real food…
My 13 years older sister gave me a chocolate piece when I was a kid, and asked afterwards if I liked it. I did. She gave me more, and didn’t tell me they were dog “chocolates”.
Tried one a few years ago - not as good as I remembered, and wouldn’t ask for another.
Dog chocolates are so waxy it’s crazy
Probably because it’s not chocolate. Chocolate is toxic to cats and dogs
Fair, but it still tastes like a candle.
I was going to ask WTF… but they like everything I feed them. (Cats) Hard food by an independent company that is no carb all protein. (Edit, young again pet food, my older cat had diabetes until I started this food, now he doesn’t!) Seafood Reveal cans, all pure fish. And not sure what’s in Friskies Temptations… but they want those like it’s crack.
I tried a piece of kibble when I was a kid, mostly because it bothered my mom and I thought it was funny. It wasn’t good, but it wasn’t the worst thing I’ve ever eaten. Most of my dogs have eaten pretty much whatever you offer them, except (of course) my chihuahua. She’d eat buffalo sauce but not a carrot. When she lost all her teeth, she’d eat a flavor of wet food happily for like, a week, and then refuse to touch it ever again, so I don’t think it was the food being gross as much as it was her being a picky little shit.
