The feline Sense of smell

A cat has a poor sense of taste. We have 9,000 taste buds, while a cat has only 473. A cats eating experience relies upon smell just as much, if not more, than taste. Its sense of smell is thirty times better than ours. When we walk past a hot dog stand or fish & chip shop we can smell hot dogs or fish & chips. When a cat walks past it can smell sausages, various sauces, salt, pepper, mustard, vinegar, potatoes, bread, fish etc, thus separating the different smells.

Our feline friends have become accustomed to eating tinned cat food straight from the fridge, but they much prefer their food warm, as it would be if they had freshly killed it in the wild. Warm food releases the aroma, enhancing the cat’s ability to enjoy its food more.