# How Do They Know What Dog Food Tastes Like? **URL:** \ **Category:** In My Humble Opinion\ **Created:** [August 25, 2021, 5:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-know-what-dog-food-tastes-like/949471 "2021-08-25T05:34:25Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![bobot](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bobot/32/21622_2.png) [@bobot](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/bobot)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2021, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-know-what-dog-food-tastes-like/949471/21 "2021-08-25T16:16:54Z")
> [@Icarus](#): > > Which is odd to me - it is a variety of food, after all. Just because it is created for dogs doesn’t _automatically_ make it poison for humans. Maybe not poisonous, but not for people. IME, the inside flesh of a dog’s mouth is much tougher than the inside flesh of a human’s mouth. Why do I believe this? Because I had a schizophrenic friend stay with me for a while, and one night he made himself a dogfood sandwich. That’s right- slices of bread and crunchy dogfood. He cut the living grief out of the inside of his mouth. ---
**Author:** ![Siam\_Sam](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/d78d45/32.png) [@Siam\_Sam](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Siam_Sam)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2021, 4:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-know-what-dog-food-tastes-like/949471/22 "2021-08-25T16:19:39Z")
Thanks, all. About 40 years ago, there was a nationwide scandal involving elderly reduced to eating pet food because of financial hardship. I can also only imagine how hard up one would have to be for a job in order to take one eating dog food. The neighbor’s dog is as picky as any cat. My wife will also have to “prime” her, feeding her some with chopsticks first so she’ll start eating. If she knows our food is about ready, she’ll forgo hers altogether to come mooch. She’ll also squirrel away treats much of the time for later snacking. ---
**Author:** ![Tamerlane](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/tamerlane/32/7602_2.png) [@Tamerlane](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tamerlane)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2021, 4:23pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-know-what-dog-food-tastes-like/949471/23 "2021-08-25T16:23:14Z")
> [@Jasmine](#): > > One can only ask, “Why?!” [Shits and giggles, no doubt](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=DlEwBgF9P-s). ---
**Author:** ![Dallas\_Jones](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dallas_jones/32/3277_2.png) [@Dallas\_Jones](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dallas_Jones)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2021, 4:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-know-what-dog-food-tastes-like/949471/24 "2021-08-25T16:47:16Z")
One of my earliest jobs was making pet food flavors for a company that, at the time, was one of the major producers of flavors in the US. I am sure the technology has come a long way since then but the chicken was made from all the chicken parts that did not go to human food, or the feathers. Feather meal is valuable and sold on the commodities market. The viscera, bones, beaks, feet, other stuff was ground into a U tank (big tank shaped like a U with paddles and steam injection). Grind the chicken into the tank, add a bunch of phosphoric acid, crank up the steam and let it digest, then screen the bones out. You ended up with something very similar, almost identical, to Campbell’s Cream of Chicken soup. Then that stuff is shipped out to the pet food makers and they spray it on the dry kibbles. Beef was mostly livers and spleens. Fish was some fresh fish and some menhaden solubles. It was a good job and I became the head “cookie” they called it, running the digesting process. But we were on the Oregon Coast and had to truck in frozen chicken. The plant and flavors part of the business was sold off and I took another job with the same company so I could stay in Oregon and the plant was relocated next to a Tyson chicken processor in the State of Misery, I mean Missouri. That is what my brother called it. He was a mechanic and moved with the plant and regretted it. ---
**Author:** ![Dark\_Sponge](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dark_sponge/32/121_2.png) [@Dark\_Sponge](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Dark_Sponge)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2021, 4:58pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-know-what-dog-food-tastes-like/949471/25 "2021-08-25T16:58:54Z")
For dog treats at least, they know what it tastes like because a human has eaten it. Most dog treats are considered ‘human grade’ food. I don’t think that’s the case for most dry dog foods as they contain a great deal of filler. It’s probably based on whether the flavoring used contains beef/chicken/fish’s parts/guts/juices. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2021, 5:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-know-what-dog-food-tastes-like/949471/26 "2021-08-25T17:06:33Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > When I was a kid, I tried my Peke’s Gaines Burgers, because they looked really cool. Once was enough. I was amused when I saw that a charcoal grill on display in a hardware store had a couple Gaines Burgers on the grill. ---
**Author:** ![beowulff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beowulff/32/542_2.png) [@beowulff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/beowulff)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2021, 5:50pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-know-what-dog-food-tastes-like/949471/27 "2021-08-25T17:50:06Z")
I had a friend who used to snack on Milk Bones. I tried one once, and thought that it tasted just like unflavored over-cooked biscuit. It certainly didn’t taste _bad_, it was just dry and bland (no salt). It did have a nice texture. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2021, 6:06pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-know-what-dog-food-tastes-like/949471/28 "2021-08-25T18:06:22Z")
Is that supposed to be bad? All that looks pretty good stuff to me, unless you’re against fortifying foods with vitamins and minerals. I used to give my dog the equivalent in pill form, on advice from my vet, when for years I made his food. As for Milkbones, they’re like crack to my dog. I don’t understand how something that looks so bland can elicit excitement from him, but he’ll take a Milkbone over a piece of raw meat any day. Weirdo. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2021, 6:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-know-what-dog-food-tastes-like/949471/29 "2021-08-25T18:17:21Z")
> [@pulykamell](#): > > Is that supposed to be bad? No, it’s the food I feed our dogs, Merrick’s. Many days I spend more feeding our four dogs than I spend on the two humans. ---
**Author:** ![kayaker](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kayaker/32/441_2.png) [@kayaker](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kayaker)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2021, 6:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-know-what-dog-food-tastes-like/949471/30 "2021-08-25T18:19:25Z")
> [@Dark\_Sponge](#): > > For dog treats at least, they know what it tastes like because a human has eaten it. Most dog treats are considered ‘human grade’ food At a dog friendly brewery we take our dogs to, they sell biscuits made from spent grain used in brewing. I’ve tasted them, they’re interesting. ---
**Author:** ![pulykamell](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/pulykamell/32/3166_2.png) [@pulykamell](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/pulykamell)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2021, 6:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-know-what-dog-food-tastes-like/949471/31 "2021-08-25T18:28:23Z")
Ah… that looks like good stuff, then! ---
**Author:** ![Esprise\_Me](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/esprise_me/32/2947_2.png) [@Esprise\_Me](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Esprise_Me)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2021, 6:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-know-what-dog-food-tastes-like/949471/32 "2021-08-25T18:48:51Z")
As a kid, I never got to have a dog or cat, but I had mice. We had these treats for them called yogurt drops, and I tried one once. It was pretty good. Probably healthier than a lot of the sweets I ate. ---
**Author:** ![ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chockfullofheadygoodness/32/511_2.png) [@ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/ChockFullOfHeadyGoodness)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2021, 6:55pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-know-what-dog-food-tastes-like/949471/33 "2021-08-25T18:55:47Z")
As a kid, my friends and I dared each other to see if we could tell the three flavors in Meow Mix apart (chicken, tuna, liver). Nope. All three tasted like really salty dried out bread. ---
**Author:** ![DesertDog](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/desertdog/32/11503_2.png) [@DesertDog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DesertDog)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2021, 7:35pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-know-what-dog-food-tastes-like/949471/34 "2021-08-25T19:35:17Z")
> [@kayaker](#): > > At a dog friendly brewery we take our dogs to, they sell biscuits made from spent grain used in brewing. I’ve tasted them, they’re interesting. DDG, [Dried Distillers Grain](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Distillers_grains), is a commodity shipped by rail a lot. The byproduct of industrial ethanol production it’s mainly corn and is high in protein, the starches being used up in the wort feedstock for distilling, so it’s popular for livestock feed. They’re talking about making people food from it as well. ---
**Author:** ![Joeu](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/joeu/32/2911_2.png) [@Joeu](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Joeu)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2021, 7:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-know-what-dog-food-tastes-like/949471/35 "2021-08-25T19:47:26Z")
> [@Dung\_Beetle](#): > > Hey, the way they snarf down those Milk Bones, I thought I might be missing a good thing. > [@beowulff](#): > > I had a friend who used to snack on Milk Bones. I tried one once, and thought that it tasted just like unflavored over-cooked biscuit. It certainly didn’t taste _bad_ , it was just dry and bland (no salt). It did have a nice texture. When I was in junior high school, it became sort of a fad for a while to munch on Milk Bones. Kids who had dogs would steal them from the box, and we would actually trade desserts and other treats from our lunch boxes to get them. The fad lasted for probably a whole school year, and then the next year nobody had any interest. I admit I had more than a few myself, and actually thought that I enjoyed them. Thanks for reminding me of how brilliant I was as a kid! ---
**Author:** ![BlinkingDuck](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/eada6e/32.png) [@BlinkingDuck](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BlinkingDuck)\ **Post date:** [August 25, 2021, 8:01pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-know-what-dog-food-tastes-like/949471/36 "2021-08-25T20:01:02Z")
Isaac Arthur, the Youtube streamer, once remarked in out-of-the-box thinking about the Fermi paradox that food taboos could be a filter to stop an intelligent race from going technological. If your food taboo is such that the idea of reusing utensils/plates etc is so strong that could cause progress to come to a screeching halt and be hard to overcome. He was rethinking his position that intelligence would almost automatically mean eventually going technological. ---
**Author:** ![elfkin477](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/a9a28c/32.png) [@elfkin477](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/elfkin477)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2021, 4:08am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-know-what-dog-food-tastes-like/949471/37 "2021-08-26T04:08:59Z")
> [@Keith1](#): > > One of my dogs refused to eat peas. If anything he was given contained a single pea, that pea remained uneaten while the rest of the bowl was licked clean. > Same for pills. Capsules are easy but not so much tablet pills. I generally disguise by wrapping it in lunch meat. But if the meat is too loose or otherwise comes unwrapped to the point that exposes the pill to the taste sensors, the pill gets spit out to the floor. > The way most dogs inhale food you’d swear they taste nothing and care little about what they do taste. But they apparently do. I wonder if dogs are like humans in that some are super tasters. My dog, Princess, decided she’d literally rather die than eat the prescription Science Diet food the vet gave to treat one of her many bladder infections (she’d escaped the yard while supposed to be peeing and been hit by a car at 8 months leading to her pelvis being broken in 5 places and then lots of infections despite an otherwise miraculous recovery), and ate not at all for 4 solid days before we gave up. She also was supposed to get an aspirin after contracting heartworm 7 years later despite being on monthly heartworm pills, and would not eat them unless we sliced a pocket into a hot dog **and** teased her with it until she was so desperate for it she gulped it down. If you just handed her the hunk of hot dog she’s delicately eat it and spit the pill onto the floor. Little bugger lived to be 15. Anyway, she at least seems to have had a well developed sense of taste. ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2021, 5:12am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-know-what-dog-food-tastes-like/949471/38 "2021-08-26T05:12:42Z")
> [@Jackmannii](#): > > Our spaniel hesitates with new foods and treats and tentatively tastes before accepting them. This is contrary to the Labrador Creed - gulp now, ask questions later. Video of interest: Spaghetti-eating contest between Golden Retriever and German Shepard: [![](https://i.ytimg.com/vi/dYTSS14SFY0/hqdefault.jpg?sqp=-oaymwEmCOADEOgC8quKqQMa8AEB-AGSBoACwAOKAgwIABABGHIgTCgyMA8=&rs=AOn4CLDQa2RZOnfnonKjK_kGrRVGYq6c-w "Spaghetti Eating Competition: Golden Retriever vs German Shepherd") ](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=dYTSS14SFY0) ---
**Author:** ![Senegoid](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/senegoid/32/6606_2.png) [@Senegoid](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Senegoid)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2021, 5:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-know-what-dog-food-tastes-like/949471/39 "2021-08-26T05:24:03Z")
> [@Siam\_Sam](#): > > About 40 years ago, there was a nationwide scandal involving elderly reduced to eating pet food because of financial hardship. When this hit the news in California, there was much harrumphing and we-can’t-have-THAT. The California legislators were right on top of it, though. They promptly passed a law prohibiting the human consumption of food not specifically meant for human consumption. Voilá, problem solved! ---
**Author:** ![BigT](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/bigt/32/12044_2.png) [@BigT](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BigT)\ **Post date:** [August 26, 2021, 6:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-know-what-dog-food-tastes-like/949471/40 "2021-08-26T06:14:02Z")
It occurs to me that one reason to care, even if humans don’t eat it, is that we can smell it. So much of what we consider taste is actually smell, so we’re pretty good at that. I suspect that, when pushing premium products at least, they want them to smell good to the human. I also understand from others, however, that it often smells better than it tastes. Part of that is just that it isn’t seasoned like human food, but I suspect part of it is because the pet would like it anyways. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-know-what-dog-food-tastes-like/949471.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-do-they-know-what-dog-food-tastes-like/949471.md?page=3)