except that then I remembered that my yogurt-loving cat who begs for a taste when I take any out only likes the vanilla version. He doesn’t like plain yogurt.
I don’t know whether the difference is the vanilla or the sweetener.
Huh. Maybe it is the vanilla.
– I don’t usually have other flavors of yogurt; and when I do, it’s generally coffee flavor (if I want fruit flavor I’d rather stir in some fruit to the vanilla), which while it does also have some sugar wouldn’t really answer the question as he might just not like coffee. But it would answer it, or at least indicate a possible answer, if he does like coffee yogurt. I can’t remember if I’ve ever offered him some, and I don’t have any in the house right now to try it.
I wonder whether there might be more than one taste receptor for sweetness, and they’ve got a different one? maybe one that recognizes sweetness along with something else?
I don’t know whether all the receptors in cats have been identified and all are also found in humans so we can ask what it is that they taste.
I suppose it’s possible that cats have alternative sweet receptors, but I doubt it. Since they’re obligate carnivores, sweetness wouldn’t offer a significant evolutionary advantage.
I had a cat that used to clean between my toes, I’m not talking a quick lick; she would dig in there with her tongue, going from space to space and then to my other foot. It was all I could do to keep from laughing, as it did tickle.
If I had just showered and my feet were clean, she wasn’t interested.
The current Latest Addition cat wants to lick my toes. If it were just a couple of licks that would be fine, but he keeps on and on doing it until it becomes unpleasant. I’ve taken to putting my socks on earlier in the getting-dressed process than I used to.
None of the others have ever shown all that much interest in toes.
We had to store our straw brooms upside down lest our Maine Coon eat the straw off the broom. He also ate fibers out of the carpet and utterly destroyed an abandoned bird nest that somebody brought home.
Come to think of it, his previous human had decided he was overweight; maybe her withholding food had something to do with those antics.
My masters and mistresses demand whipped cream. If they behave themselves and don’t ralph on the rug, they’ll get a dab of Reddi-Whip after dinner as a treat. We first noticed it when my late wife left her sundae unattended for a second one day and returned to find the topping gone and several messy cats looking not-very-guilty nearby.
One of the crazier things is that our corn-loving cat also loved petroleum jelly. We used to give her a hairball preventer called Petro-Malt, which was, I think, petroleum jelly with malt lixed in. You put it on the back of their paws and the csts would feel compelled to lick it off. That’;s how you persuaded them to lick this unpleasant stuff.
Except that our cat didn’t think it was unpleasant at all. She’d demand her Petro-Malt. Later on, when I was using petroleum jelly for something she got a whiff of it and realized it was the same stuff. She would put her whole head in the jar to lick the petroleum jelly.
Cats might not have a sweet tooth, but their super-sniffers are top-tier when it comes to picking up all those tempting aromas drifting off a fresh ear of corn. Add the crispy crunch and that satisfying little “pop” when they sink their teeth into a kernel, and you’ve got feline fascination. Slather on some butter or a sprinkle of salt, and suddenly, it’s practically catnip. And let’s face it—cats are naturally nosy and love making us feel like their devoted minions, so sometimes they’re just intrigued by the odd yellow thing you keep munching on.
When I was a kid, we had a cat that loved green peppers. While my mom was cutting up a green pepper, Shady would drive her crazy. The cat would stretch her body on her tippy toes to try to reach the counter and cry her head off the entire time my mom was dicing the pepper. She’d get a few pieces, but never enough in her opinion.
The cat I have now loooooooves rubber bands, and I have to keep them out of her sight or she will put herself in danger to get at them. I found this out a few days after I brought her home, via the litterbox.
I had a darling orange tomcat who behaved like a dog, following us around, demanding to sit in our laps and giving us love bites. He, too, loved cantaloupe. However, he loved steak more than anything. He would fight you for it. If you turned your back, he’d drag the cooked steak off your plate and behind the couch. He did this 2 or 3 times.
Our other cat at the time loved chocolate, even though you’re not supposed to give it to cats.
Of our current cats, the little black kitty cat loves pretty much all people food: milk, cheese, meat, and cookie bits / cheetos. We let her eat these crumbs in moderation. I once gave her a few bits from a gourmet pretzel mix bag. She bit them out of my hand!
Almost all of the cats I’ve known have licked the heads of other cats if they liked them; often taking turns.
I was about to type “all” instead of “almost all” when I remembered the Deaf Cat. He liked having his head washed fine, but never seemed to return the favor. I remember watching The Cat With The Loud Purr wash him; then pause and present her own head to him with the clear expectation that it was his turn to wash her. He never responded. She was a sweet tempered cat and when he didn’t take his turn would go back to making sure that the Deaf Cat had clean ears.
And then there’s Competitive Washing: two friendly cats washing each other in turn, faster and faster, then each trying to hold the other down to be washed, which turns into a wrestling match game. I’ve come to think of the washing stage as the equivalent of human boxers shaking hands before the bout: “See, I’m washing you, that means we’re friends! This will be a friendly game according to Friendly Cat Rules! When I take your throat in my jaws thirty seconds from now, I won’t bite down full force, I won’t actually be trying to kill you – so don’t react as if I were and actually disembowel me!”
Yikes. She was lucky. A rubber band in the gut can cause serious problems (as I suspect you know, as you hide them from her.)
None of ours ever ate rubber bands but there was one that treated them as toys. Every so often, we’d forget to keep the things hidden and find one in the water bowl.