Cats Can’t Taste Sweetness

Cats have a reputation for being sweet on their own terms, but there’s one kind of sweetness they never experience. Unlike humans and most other mammals, cats can’t taste sweet flavors at all. Because their wild ancestors evolved as strict carnivores, detecting sugar from fruit or other carbohydrates wasn’t truly necessary. Over time, the gene responsible for producing one of the receptors needed to detect sweetness disappeared.

Cats also have far fewer taste buds than humans — around 500 compared to our 9,000. That doesn’t mean food is flavorless to them. They can still detect sour, salty, bitter, and umami, and may even enjoy foods we find surprisingly bland. So if your cat ignores a marshmallow but comes running for tuna, it’s simply tasting the world exactly as evolution intended.