Finicky Animals...

--- THIS BLOG HAS BEEN ABANDONED. OUR NEW HOME IS: THE WEASEL SOAP BOX ---

Every good cat owner knows that their kitty is special in some way and has its own unique tastes. It is also commonly accepted amongst cat owners that the cat is a very picky and very finicky eater. Why? Because it's a cat! Well, at least that's always been the generally accepted explanation, until recently. Within the last while, scientists have taken it upon themselves to study our furry feline friends and have discovered the root of the cat's finicky nature - it lacks a gene that allows it to taste sweet food.



Geneticists find cats lack sweet tooth.

What do you know, science is starting to have the answer for everything! They know know everything, but if they can figure out why cats are just so damn finicky, they can crack the origins of the universe. After all, anything is possible with the continuing evolution of modern technology.

Cats may turn their noses up at eating sugary treats because they lack a working gene to taste the sweet flavour, geneticists have found.

Cat owners know felines will ignore a sugary snack unless it contains other ingredients, such as butter.

I can attest to the latter sentence. My cat will ignore anything sweet I leave out, but she will go after cake or donoughts. Those have lard and butter and a couple of other non-sweet ingredients that cats like the taste of.

She is the same cat that likes olive pits (and olives) as well as celery tips, and any kind of leafy vegetable... (I never knew cats could be omnivores!)

My mother had a female Siamese cat at one point. The cat ate just about anything she could get her little paws on, except sweet stuff. However, the cat had been known to on occassion eat donought (well, more like try and steal the one my mother was eating). This was also the same cat who liked to eat potato chips. I wonder if scientists have an explanation for that...?

I've also run into some cranky kitties...

"I say jokingly, no wonder cats are cranky," said Joseph Brand, one of the senior authors of the paper. "Not only do they have to hunt for their food, but they also can't enjoy a sweet dessert!" the biophysicist from Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia, Penn. added in a release.

..and you know, I never thought of it that way.

Of course, I don't object. As long as my cat isn't touching my dessert I don't really care. She knows her place and her place is away from my dessert (and hopefulyl away from my supper plate as well).

Felines including lions and jaguars have also been found to be indifferent to sweet foods. Yet other carnivores such as bears, dogs and raccoons have a sweet tooth.

There, is a good argument against owning a dog, and a good one for owning a cat!