Have you ever tasted your pet's food?

over_clox@lemmy.world to Ask Lemmy@lemmy.world – 15 points –

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.

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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.

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.

Animals don't taste the same way we do. For example, cats don't have the receptors for tasting sweet things...so they can barely detect sweetness at all.

Dogs only have 25% as many taste buds as humans, so most things have a very mutes taste for them. Plus, every dog I've ever had absolutely LOVED cat shit covered in kitty litter, so I never put much faith in their sense of taste.

Yeah, they'll have flavors they like more or less, just like us, but even we can't trust our sense of taste as a metric for nutrition...if we could, we'd all be addicted to brocolli and spinach instead of processes foods and sugar.

How do you know that the only reason you don't like cat shit is because you have a cultural revulsion to it?

My wife fucking loves coagulated blood. Like just big old chunks of blood which was packed into casings and boiled until it became a massive chunk of scab. Meanwhile I legit cannot be in the same room with it. As far as I'm concerned it might as well be cat shit

I recall seeing in a special card at a Chinese restaurant “Pigs Blood with Mixed Vegetable”. Sounds awful to me but some people must like it.

I also wouldn't know what my dog thinks of the taste of cat shit, as that's not on his menu. Not sure where that thought came from even, that's not even food.

I'm referring to actual food products for pets. If the pet doesn't like it, there's probably a reason why, and that reason is likely that companies tend to make substandard foods not suitable for human consumption for pets.

lmao nobody feeds their dog cat shit. but they try to eat it anyway because they are dogs and they'll eat a dirty diaper if you don't throw it away out of reach. smh

I had a Jack Russell who was crazy about eating out of the litterbox. Just horrifying, obviously. Maybe it tastes like meat, idk, who knows what it smells like to a dog.

Guess what?

If my dog refuses to eat what's supposed to be a dog treat, and I try it and it tastes like a chemistry lab, then I think me and my dog both agree it tastes more like chemicals and more toxic than garbage.

Even if humans and animals have different taste buds, if the food tastes wrong, ain't nobody gonna eat it.

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 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

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..

Look it up, most dogs eat poop.

Thanks. Our dog knows how to respond to the word NO, because he's not outright stupid.

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.

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.

Oddly enough, besides meat, my dogs favorite food is kibble. Dry kibble. It took me years to train him to wait for his food... Hes much better now but he still swallows everything whole. And he loves it so much my husband uses his normal food as treats while I still try to get him that higher level rewards (I.e. cheese, nicer treats, etc).

Also, he doesn't like wet or "fresh" dog food 🤷‍♀️

I do concur with everyone on this thread though that our dogs taste buds are significantly different than ours. Ive tried a few and it doesn't matter what I like. Dogs are different

Try a dog treat that tastes like it was soaked in diesel fuel and dried out. That's what I mean by the chemical taste.

Honestly I wonder if those treats were possibly poisoned..

There's a plethora of other animal foods, he's not gonna starve. He's also not gonna eat anything that I can't stand the taste of either.

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 feed my pet things that I eat, too! Collard greens, mustard greens, turnip greens, various squashes, fresh blueberries, etc.

Except for his bugs. I don't like cockroaches or worms very much. But he seems to like them! So he gets those, too.

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.

Milkbones taste like an unsalted pretzel. I was a bit stoned and teasing my dog.

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 did, I can say that it tastes mostly like nothing, but my dog loves it because the smell is so strong (I think)

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.

i worked at an animal hospital for a few years in my 20s (late 90s). I was also broke af punk kid living in a filthy punk rock house, barely able to afford my part of rent. So i'd bring home the pet food sometimes. It wasn't really inventoried, and it's nutrition. Do not recommend though, its a great way to get a bacterial gut infection since pet food regulations are very minimal.

it ranges. some cat food is indistinguishable from canned tuna. the science diet I/D canine prescription tastes exactly like canned corned beef hash. the cheap stuff (kibbles&bits, fancy feast, etc) tastes exactly like you'd expect: bone meal, corn starch, and ash slag. cause thats the filler trash the cheap stuff is made of.

generally though, most kibble just tastes like if you soaked grape nuts cereal in beef broth, and most wet food tastes about the same as canned horse. which is unpleasant.

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.

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 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.

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.

My brother ate a Snausage for the low low price of one US dollar. There was a whole negotiation process beforehand (Snausage, milk bone, kennel ration biscuit and dog chow were all on the table). He had regrets. I'll admit that I drove a hard bargain, but he was old enough to know better.

For myself? No. Some of my cats' shredded chicken in "gravy" looks and smells OK. Still no.

The veterinary sales rep I used to work with said, "their taste buds are very different from ours." I'll trust him

I used to hitchhike, and one day, got a ride with a trucker hauling blackened animal organs to be turned into pet food (they were blackened as a mark to show they were unfit for human consumption at the place where they were mass harvested). It was the worst smell I've ever smelled in my entire life. I remember gagging for a few minutes as the driver laughed and told me what the deal was.

Still not the worst road story I have lol.

But be aware of what your pet's food is made from. Or make your own, if you're worried about it!

There's typically warning against eating pet food on the bags for that very reason.

Nah, I'm not vegan so I probably wouldn't like my cat's food

Not really. I don't Have a wish to try eating live insects.

Regarding pets that eat insects, at least you know they're not some chemical processed garbage. No need to be curious what that tastes like, nor would I expect you to, you know it's natural.

"natural" doesn't mean "good". Arsenic is natural. Oleander is natural. Hemlock is natural.

I think you understood exactly what I meant. It's natural for certain pets to eat insects. I never mentioned anything about poisons.

I did understand what you said. "You don't need to taste that, it's natural, and natural things don't contain chemicals". Everything contains chemicals, and whether those chemicals are natural or artificial has no bearing on whether or not they're harmful. You're spreading hippie-dippy misinformation. Knock that shit off.

Well, guess what? He refuses the chemical infused dog treats, but he loves ham and hot dogs, and also Gravy Train Chicken Flavor, ground up version, not chunky.

I think we can both agree that's nutrition, and also the dog is basically saying without words that the dog biscuit treats taste like absolute shit.

Our adopted dog definitely ain't starving, we're just tuning into what he does and doesn't have more of an appetite for.

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.