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.
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.
Looking past your joke, at least that’s real food…
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.
Yep, tasted pretty much every type of kibble and some snacks my dog gets. But it’s all plant based so I am not worried about meat getting bad or the like.
Some of the snacks are ok but I noticed that they always smell way more intensive than they taste. Kind of the opposite of human food.
I’ve tasted a couple of cookies/treats. Milkbones, stuff from 3 dog bakery and what not. Milkbones have no flavor that I can discern. The boutique dog cookie was fine, I can see how a dog would get down on it.
Wet food tho. Nah. I’m good fam.
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.
Wow…
Still not the worst road story I have lol.
You’re not just gonna leave us hanging are you?
Yes.
(sorry)
I have too many to fit them into relevant posts.
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 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 have tasted the “gravy” in the wet food. Not disgusting, but definitely not interested in trying it again. When I worked at a pet store one of those birthday biscuits came in broken so my manager has written it off. He offered me to try a piece and those were honestly not bad. A less sweet cookie basically.
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.
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
Man y’all got some dumb dogs out there apparently.
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’d say I love spinach just as much as sugar and processed food chomps on corncob pipe
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.
Dog food and treats, cat food and treats, rabbit food, fish food, I’m sure others; i was curious, they were terrible.
I’ve eaten cat biscuits. They don’t taste offensive, but there’s nothing in them for me to enjoy. Even so, they’re the one thing all my cats agree is worth eating.
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.
Well, check it out: https://vcahospitals.com/know-your-pet/taurine-in-cats
Taurine is an amino acid that’s an esssential nutrient for cats.
Nah, I’m not vegan so I probably wouldn’t like my cat’s food
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.
Dog chocolates are so waxy it’s crazy
Probably because it’s not chocolate. Chocolate is toxic to cats and dogs
Fair, but it still tastes like a candle.
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.
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.
His real science project: How many classmates can he get to eat cat food.
The result: more than you’d expect.