Actually, I’m not sure this is a profitable line of reasoning. Consider human ancestry, and then decide for yourself which of the following foodstuffs is more likely to make you salivate in anticipation:
A Snickers bar.
Squirming termites pried out of a log with a stick.
Presumably, if Australopithecus africanus had available to him vast thundering herds of caramel beasts with yummy nougat centers, he would have preferred them to the soft-bodied bugs with the crunchy heads and the slight acidic tang. Indeed, he would no doubt have hunted them to extinction.
Hey, wait a minute…
… Anyway, point is, what a creature’s forefathers ate may or may not have anything to do with what said creature eats now.
They shouldn’t have bad breath. You might want to have your vet look at their teeth. If their teeth are OK, consider a different flavor or brand of cat food.
This is very true. However, humans do have a genetic attraction to sweet flavors (that cats, being unable to taste sweet, can’t have). So the Snickers thing makes sense.
Also, human breastmilk is sweet.
So do cats have a genetic attraction to milkfat or fish flavorings? And does cat milk taste like cheddar and/or fish?
Which is particularly funny if you’ve ever seen a whole tunafish. Whenever I see tuna flavoured cat food on the shelves, I always giggle at the mental image of a cat swimming 1000 miles into the ocean and single handedly bringing down a 1000lb+ fish before dragging it back home to deposit on it’s masters door.
The now ascended Feline Overlord loved the water from the tuna can, but not the tuna itself. It also adored anything meat/dairy, and as a general principle would beg when he saw us with something or try to eat whatever was left out in the open. This led to mom banning the Overlord to the porch whenever she had to cook, and the rest of us having to find increasingly creative ways of keeping food out of reach.
The cats aren’t the ones buying it, their humans are. And in most of the countries where they sell the food, people are squeamish about eating mice or rats. It’s also probably easier and cheaper to come by meat and fish that are commonly eaten by humans than it is to get large quantities of mice and rats.
I’ve just about seen it in action for real. Growing up I lived on a canal that had plenty of mullet in it. My pet cat would go out on the seawall during the early morning high tide, and often come back with a fresh fish still flapping in his mouth. Quite a feat, considering that a mullet was a third his size. I’d go out with his morning packet of Tender Vittles and he’d be on the back deck halfway through a fresh fish.
I never caught him in the act, but he had to have something in his head that let him snare a live fish out of the water. He’d definitely sit on that wall until he got lucky or until the tide went down.
He also found a way to tear off every collar we ever gave him, had a hankering for Libby’s pear nectar, on hot days would lie down in dirty puddles (panting like a dog), and hunted joggers for sport. Amazing that we never got sued on the last one. In retrospect, I suspect he might not have been the most domesticated cat on the block.
We had one cat who hated fish and milk, and one who was a diary product whore.
Interestingly, the one who hated fish and milk went berzerk whenever my older sister put that protein coating stuff on her nails to make them harder. He would smell it, jump on her lap and grab her hand, sniffing it in like he was doing a line of coke. We thought it was funny, but my sister didn’t.
Neither of them were particularly interested in catnip. What is it in catnip that makes some cats go crazy?
My cat (miss-miss) won’t eat anything except her dry food in her dish. This could be Purina (When I’m rich) to Dollar Store cheapest. No tuna, milk, chicken, NOTHING! She does like her num-nums (Fancy Feast) but it’s still dried food. Haven’t offered her any coffee though.
Keep you posted!
