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Yes. Cats have a working sense of taste. They respond to several basic taste qualities and to certain amino acids and nucleotides, which are compounds common in meat. The major difference from people is sweetness: cats do not respond to sugars, because the cat gene for a key part of the sweet receptor is no longer functional.
What cats can taste
Taste research on domestic cats (Felis catus) reports functional responses to salty, sour, and bitter stimuli. Cats also respond to amino acids and nucleotides. A 2006 review in The Journal of Nutrition, titled “Cats Lack a Sweet Taste Receptor,” summarized physiological evidence of these feline taste responses. Taken together, the evidence shows that cats are not without taste. Their taste system is tuned to the chemistry of their diet, which is almost entirely animal tissue.
Where cats differ from people: sweetness
The clearest difference between cats and humans is sweetness. Humans detect sugars through a sweet receptor built from two proteins, T1R2 and T1R3. In a 2005 study in PLOS Genetics, Li and colleagues reported that the cat Tas1r2 gene is pseudogenized, meaning it has accumulated changes that stop it from producing a functional protein. Without a working T1R2 component, the receptor cannot form in the usual way. The paper’s title states its central conclusion: pseudogenization of a sweet-receptor gene accounts for cats’ indifference toward sugar.
What this means for sugary foods
A cat’s interest in a food that smells sweet or contains sugar does not show that the cat tastes sweetness. The studies describe receptor biology and nerve responses. They do not establish what a cat experiences when it eats, and they do not explain why any particular cat chooses one food over another.
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Umami and the meat-based palate
Umami, the savory taste associated with glutamate in human food, works differently in cats. A 2023 study in Chemical Senses, “Umami taste perception and preferences of the domestic cat (Felis catus), an obligate carnivore,” tested the domestic cat umami receptor. It found that nucleotides can activate the receptor, and that several amino acids enhance the response. The amino-acid effects do not match human patterns. In the reported assay, L-glutamic acid and L-aspartic acid were not active as agonists or enhancers in the cat receptor. The cat umami system therefore cannot be treated as a copy of the human one.
These findings come from a receptor assay, so they describe what the receptor responds to. They do not directly measure how strongly a cat prefers meat or fish.
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Bitter, sour, and salty responses
A 2015 study in PLOS ONE, “Functional Analyses of Bitter Taste Receptors in Domestic Cats (Felis catus),” tested cat bitter taste receptors against bitter compounds and found functional responses. That supports the view that cats keep working bitter receptors. It does not show that cats perceive every bitter compound in the same way people do, and the study does not measure bitterness as a cat experiences it in food.
The 2006 review also reports responses to salty and sour stimuli. These are the same basic categories people experience, but the evidence does not establish how strongly cats respond to each one.
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Cat and human taste compared
| Taste quality | Domestic cat | Human | Source of the cat finding |
|---|---|---|---|
| Sweet | No functional sweet-receptor component; indifferent to sugars | Detects sweetness through the T1R2/T1R3 receptor | Li et al., PLOS Genetics, 2005 |
| Umami | Nucleotides activate the receptor; several amino acids enhance the response; glutamate and aspartate not active in the reported assay | Responds to glutamate and other umami compounds | Chemical Senses, 2023 (receptor assay) |
| Bitter | Functional bitter receptor responses to tested bitter compounds | Detects bitterness through a family of bitter receptors | PLOS ONE, 2015 (receptor assay) |
| Salty | Responses reported; response strength not stated in the source review | Detects salt | The Journal of Nutrition, 2006 (review of physiological evidence) |
| Sour | Responses reported; response strength not stated in the source review | Detects sourness | The Journal of Nutrition, 2006 (review of physiological evidence) |
How to read the evidence
- Receptor assays test which compounds activate a cloned or isolated receptor. They show what the receptor can detect, not what a cat chooses to eat.
- Nerve-response studies record signals from taste nerves. They show that the signal reaches the brain, not what the experience is like.
- Food preference depends on taste, smell, texture, temperature, past experience, and health. Taste receptor results alone cannot predict what a particular cat will eat.
The studies cited here are small in number and focused on specific receptors, so they do not provide a complete map of feline taste. They also do not include a population count of taste buds or receptor types that could be stated as a settled figure.
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Sources
- Li et al., “Pseudogenization of a Sweet-Receptor Gene Accounts for Cats’ Indifference toward Sugar,” PLOS Genetics (2005).
- “Cats Lack a Sweet Taste Receptor,” The Journal of Nutrition (2006), a review of physiological evidence on feline taste responses.
- “Umami taste perception and preferences of the domestic cat (Felis catus), an obligate carnivore,” Chemical Senses (2023).
- “Functional Analyses of Bitter Taste Receptors in Domestic Cats (Felis catus),” PLOS ONE (2015).
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