Why cats prefer meats to sweets

New Scientist ^ | 7/25/05 | Gaia Vince

[RushCrush]

My feline testing supports this theory. Bar of chocolate sits undisturbed on countertop, while entire stick of butter gets eaten in seconds.

[SoDak]

Oddly, my cat goes for sweets.

[al baby]

We have no idea what meats taste like to a cat:


candy?

[Sterlis]

If this is the case what is their attraction to antifreeze? That stuff is deadly and they can't seem to resist it.

[RushCrush]

Kitty ping!

[ravingnutter]

My cat won't eat anything but her canned cat food, she won't eat that if it has any sort of fish in it. But she will definitely let you know when her bowl is empty!

[Dark Skies]

I've got a Siamese that likes corn on the cob (no butter or salt)...always eats half an ear when we cook corn on the cob. He holds the cob steady with one foot and eats it row by row.

[concerned about politics]

I had an older cat that liked to steal the kids Oreo's when they were babies. Bad kitty!

[Bon mots]

The Associated Press version of this appears OVER HERE

[cjshapi]

My cat loves cherry gobs. She will chew through plastic to get to them. But she ignores chocolate.

[GSlob]

I used to know a cat who liked fresh sliced cucumbers and rye bread.

[Bon mots]

Then why are cat's tongues so sweet?

[ValerieUSA]

My black cat loves melons.. honeydew, cantaloupe, casaba.. he cannot resist.

[non-anonymous]

My cat goes nuts over my homemade chocolate milk - just sugar and some unsweetened cocoa, sometimes a drop of vanilla. She reacts about the same to store-bought chocolate milk as she does regular milk.

I guess I'm just a good cook. :)

[Old anti feminist]

My cats love oleo, icecream and icing on cake. Whoops!

[11Bush]

Corn on the cob is the only item that my cat will raid the trash to get his paws on. Usually see him running up the stairs with the full size cob clamped in his jaws. Always goes to the rug in the middle of my study of eat it. Maybe he thinks he is a lion on the velt carring off his kill.

[RushCrush]

I have one cat that goes nuts for catnip and the other who is repelled by it. Weird.

[ElkGroveDan]

entire stick of butter gets eaten in seconds.

Or a greasy frying pan left on the stove overnight gets licked clean.

[skimbell]

Boy this is really swell stuff to know. My wife had a cat one time that ate a half bag of Doritos a day. Cute huh?

I'm more interested in how much this cost the taxpayers to find out. Does anybody really care if cats can taste their candy?