4 ms·
Why do cats love tuna so much?
- smitty1e 3y agoIt's the #bacon of the sea.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- ryanschaefer 3y agoIg Nobel candidate or am I missing the broader application?
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- woleium 3y agoThe global pet food market size was valued at USD 99.1 billion in 2022 and is anticipated to exhibit a compound annual growth rate (CAGR) of 4.3% from 2023 [1] If we can synthesize a compound that makes cats want to eat any old byproducts, we will make a lot of money Morty. 1. https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/pet-food-industry https://www.grandviewresearch.com/industry-analysis/pet-food...
- DennisP 3y agoPlus, as the article mentions, "more than 6% of all wild-caught fish goes into cat food." Reducing the demand for wild fish would be pretty helpful.
- woleium 3y agoMostly skin, fin and heads though, so I doubt it'll impact how much we catch.
- ryanschaefer 3y agoWow didn’t even consider this could result in the equivalent of MSG for cats. Thank you for bringing this to my attention.
- lstodd 3y agoThey do? For all I can see cats love a) laying around b) being stroked and c) being fed something tasty. Tuna does not even enter this.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- nixpulvis 3y ago[flagged]
- ClassyJacket 3y agoWhat do you think 'feeding them something tasty' is?
- AngryData 3y agoIt is anecdotal but every cat ive ever gave a bit of tuna to was instantly obsessed with getting more. I close my cats in another room these days before opening tuna and have for years now after having previous cats in the past become huge nuisances when trying to open any can at all after giving them a small pinch of tuna for the first time. Im sure there are other meats or treats that might evoke a similar response in a lot of cats, but I don't exactly have a lot of shredded pure meat sitting around to give to a cat to try.
- jk_i_am_a_robot 3y agoI've had four cats, two love tuna and two hated it. We ran of cat food and tried to feed them tuna and they wouldn't eat it.
- georgemcbay 3y agoI've had 3 cats in my lifetime and all loved tuna to the point where they would go into meowing/begging fits as basically conditioned responses to cans of tuna being opened before they could even smell the contents. I'm sure its not 100% universal just like catnip responses aren't, but it seems extremely common.
- 3y ago
- jdougan 3y agoThis leaves open the question of what conditions evolved that partivular tastebud configuration. My unserious pet theory (pun intended) is there were ancient pellagic deep diving proto-cats that fed on fish. You still see traces of the swimming reflexes in the cats of Lake Van.
- distract8901 3y ago(Wild speculation) what if it evolved as a mechanism to keep proto-cats near humans? It's clearly quite a successful trait for a species to become associated with humans, maybe cats evolved a taste for fish as they got closer to fishing humans? Dogs developed new facial muscles and all sorts of other features as they evolved into a companion species. Maybe cats evolved a taste for food they could only get from us?
- deprecative 3y agoMy assumption as an ignorant person who happens to live with cats is this: tuna contains a lot of the good things cats evolved eating but in a different form. Humans have this same issue. Tuna became something cats like because they were already wired to like the nutrients in the tuna from other sources.
- dylan604 3y agoMaybe it was just unused taste buds that didn't get to be utilized until making friends with the furless bipeds that were very efficient at bringing the sweet sweet fishes out of the scary water
- fsckboy 3y agoand during a stage of feline foetal development they have gills
- kagevf 3y agoI thought this was true of all mammals, but apparently it’s gill slits that mammal embryos have. I guess the difference is functional vs non-functional . . .
- adyer07 3y agoHuh. I always just thought it was because my cat isn't smart enough to differentiate between "can noise, human making tuna sandwich" and "can noise, human is dispensing cat food."
- r00fus 3y agoMy cat definitely smells the fish even from outside as soon as we open up the takeout or defrost the ingredients. She doesn’t mind whether it’s salmon, tilapia or whatever. She is summoned as if by a spell.
- reaperducer 3y agoI always just thought it was because my cat isn't smart enough to differentiate between "can noise, human making tuna sandwich" and "can noise, human is dispensing cat food." To me, the weird thing is that my cat knows the sound of a can opener at all. We got her when she was waaaaay too young. Someone abandoned her on the vet's doorstep. She has never known that a can opener means food because for her entire life, she has been fed canned food with a pop-top. But still, when I pull out the can opener to open some vegetables, she comes running. I have no idea why, but it's one of those things that makes me think that knowledge can be encoded in DNA and passed down through generations.
- ajmurmann 3y agoAre you sure it's sound and not scent?
- raincole 3y agoTIL I'm a cat. But seriously it that makes we can easily trick malnourished or sick cats into eating something that helps them that's a good news.
- deleted 3y ago[deleted]
- lr4444lr 3y agoIME, the stray cats I fed slightly but clearly preferred salmon to tuna.
- raincole 3y ago> the stray cats I fed No. Please don't.
- dddssddd 3y agoYes absolutely please do!
- raincole 3y agoIf you care about stray cats (and other animals) please take them home or find someone who can take care of them. Don't feed stray animals. Feeding stray animals will increase their population beyond the capacity of the surrounding environment, and therefore overhunting their preys. You're just killing wild birds unnecessarily. Plus it will make the stray cats less afraid of humans. Humans are the most dangerous creatures ever. The fact that one human feeds them doesn't make it otherwise. Learning to avoid humans is generally good for them.
- autoexec 3y agoI suppose if you want them to eat regularly without bringing them in your home, taking them to a vet to get spayed/neutered before releasing them back outside works just as well at keeping populations down. I'm sure cats regularly fed on tuna and salmon are eating fewer birds and squirrels too. That said, probably still best to get them indoors where they don't have to worry about being hit by cars or attacked by other animals or any of the other harms in the wild... although it's hard to say if every cat would choose to trade sunshine and freedom for the extra safety and comfort. They are barely domesticated animals that evolved to live outside after all.
- raincole 3y ago
- efitz 3y agoI miss my cat. He loved tuna- but as he got older he just liked to drink the tuna water rather than eat the fish itself. And he absolutely knew the sound of the can opener.
- andrewstuart 3y agoThe cat and the tuna are ancient predator and prey. Back on the plains before humans, cats used to prey on tuna, cutting out and eating the tastiest and slowest from the school.
- checkyoursudo 3y agoNot just plains tuna, but desert tuna.
- andrewstuart 3y agoThe tuna evolved eventually into buffalo but it took a long time.
- Hammerhead12321 3y agoThey first established a beachhead and began hunting large cats by constructing a series of breathing apparatuses out of kelp.
- hackeraccount 3y agoIt didn't always go that way - I understand that tuna developed a breathing apparatus with kelp, they were able to trap certain amounts of oxygen. Not going on land for days at a time, an hour, hour 45. Enough time to establish a beachhead and aggressively hunt cats and their family.
- tamimio 3y agoMy cat doesn’t like Tuna, it actually likes salami, plastic wrap, and flowers for some reason.
- pixl97 3y agoUgh I can't really get my wife flowers any more, one of our cats will chew them up every time.
- superluserdo 3y agoI'm sure you know this but don't bring lilies into your home, as much as a lick can be fatal to cats.
- ddoolin 3y agoI didn't know that. I just brought home a bouquet for my partner yesterday with a single cutting of three lilies. The cats don't eat or otherwise disturb flowers (lucky me) but I just pulled it out and tossed it, and drained and rinsed the vase and other stems. Thank you.
- washadjeffmad 3y agoIngesting lily pollen on the fur while grooming is enough to do it, too.
- mikeInAlaska 3y agoOutside of Pate' style catfood, it seems my 15 year old Calico will only eat one thing. Cane's Chicken Strips. (A piece of the white meat, with the breading torn off.) She smells that arrive and goes crazy waiting. Even making styrofoam box noises before its opened will have her bouncing around in anticipation. She will only eat a couple pieces, but it's the most exciting time for her.
- jmspring 3y agoI have a murder of cats. 5.5 - 6 depending on the neediness of the previously homed feral. The semi-feral loves wet food in all forms. The other five they are gung ho for wet food one day, meh the next. Thankfully, given there are 5 they don't cycle at the same time. But they do have preferences towards real food texture (shredded chicken for instance) over pate or similar. I'll have to test the tuna thing out.
- xtiansimon 3y agoVery interesting. One cat I lived with responded very strongly to bonito flakes (common Japanese food ingredient). The cat I’m caring for now turns her nose up at it. Go figure. She likes land animal pate