Can dogs taste the difference between dog food and human food

Do Dogs Have Taste Buds?

Our canine companions use their sense of taste in combination with their other senses to explore the world around them. Sometimes it seems like dogs will eat anything, from garbage and fecal matter to undigestible items like toys and fabric. And other times dogs may be very picky about their food.

So how do they determine what tastes good to them? Do dogs have taste buds like we do? Why do dogs want to eat things that we would never eat?

Do Dogs Have Taste Buds?

Yes, dogs have taste buds that give them the ability to taste things. Taste buds are found on papillaesmall, visible bumps on the tongue. Dogs have about 1700 taste buds, while human mouths have approximately 9000.

Puppies develop their ability to taste after a few weeks of life. This is one of the earlier senses that develops, even before hearing and vision. As dogs mature in age, their number of taste buds decreases, along with a decreased sense of smell, which may play a role in picky eating or decreased appetite.

Each taste bud has an ability to sense all tastes if the flavor is strong enough. Taste buds in different areas on the tongue are slightly more sensitive to certain flavors in comparison to others. Bitter and sour taste buds are located toward the back of the tongue. Salty and sweet taste buds are found toward the front of the tongue.

Dogs have specific taste receptors that are fine-tuned to meats, fats, and meat-related chemicals due to their ancestral diet being primarily comprised of meat. The reduced number of taste buds in dogs as compared to humans may explain their decreased ability to distinguish between subtle flavors, like the differences between types of meat (chicken, pork, or beef) or different berries (strawberries, blackberries, raspberries, and blueberries).

Dogs also have taste buds that are fine-tuned to water. This ability is also seen in cats and other carnivores, but not in humans. Special taste buds on the tip of a dogs tongue react to water as they drink and become more sensitive when thirsty or after eating a meal, which encourages them to drink more water.

Dogs Taste Buds vs. Their Sense of Smell

Taste is directly linked to smell, and an items scent can enhance its taste. The smell of a food item plays a much larger role in how dogs experience the flavor of their food.

Dogs also have a special scent organ along their palate that helps them taste through smell. When a dog smells something, they capture molecules that tell them how a food will taste. Dogs can taste without smelling, but not as well as people, due to fewer taste buds. However, their sense of smell is much more defined. They intuitively know when food isnt safe for consumption by combining their senses of smell and taste.

Can Dogs Taste Spicy, Sweet, Sour, and Salty Food?

Dogs have receptors for the same taste types as humans, including spicy, sweet, sour, bitter, and salty foods. However, dogs never developed the highly tuned salt receptors that humans have. This is a result of their heavily meat-based ancestral diet being naturally high in salt. This meant they did not need to seek additional salt sources in their diet and have less of an affinity for salty foods.

Sweet flavors are especially preferred by dogs, which likely stems from their ancestral diet including wild fruits and vegetables. However, this does not mean that they should overindulge in pet-safe fruits and veggies. Too much sugar is detrimental for dogs, so sweet produce should be offered in moderation. Dogs should not have other sugary human foods.

What Tastes Bad to Dogs?

Dogs generally avoid salty, spicy, sour, or bitter tastes. Many of these may be unsafe to eat. The presence of toxins or spoilage from bacterial contamination will cause food to taste bad to dogs.

This is why many chew-deterrent sprays for dogs include bitter ingredients. Dogs may also reject many medications due to their bitter tastes.

The burning heat from spicy foods is caused by a compound called capsaicin and can cause physical reactions in dogs despite an inability to detect much of the flavor.

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How Good Is Your Dogs Sense of Taste? What Science Tells Us

The information is current and up-to-date in accordance with the latest veterinarian research.

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If you have ever watched your dog consume their daily meal, whether a pellet, raw, wet, or homemade food, you may wonder how they can enjoy eating the same type of food every day.

Dog food might not seem appealing to us, but it is something that your dog looks forward to. This can raise questions as to whether dogs can truly taste their food, and how good their sense of taste is in comparison to ours.In short, humans have a better sense of taste than dogs.

Well, we have all the answers to your questions in this article.

Dog vs Human Sense Of Taste

A dogs sense of taste is not as great as a humans. In fact, we have way more taste buds than dogs do. The average dog has around 1,700 taste buds, cats around 470, and a human has anywhere between 2,000 to 9,000 taste buds, making our sense of taste much better than dogs, while a dogs sense of taste is much better than a cats. Even though dogs have fewer taste buds than us, they can still taste their food quite well and even enjoy the different sensations on their tongue.

When it comes to dogs sense of taste, they seem to have features that we as humans lack. Dogs have special taste buds for water on the tip of their tongues, these become more sensitive if the dog is thirsty.

Animal	No. of Taste Buds
Human	2,000 to 9,000
Dog	1,700
Cat	470
Pig	15,000
Catfish	27,000
Parrots	300

Can Dogs Taste Their Food?

Even though dog food might seem boring and even bland to us, our dogs seem to love their food. Some of you might even agree that a dogs favorite time of the day is mealtime when they get to enjoy their food with a wagging tail.

The truth is that dogs seem to get more enjoyment from the smell of their food rather than from their taste since dogs have a much greater sense of smell than taste. Therefore, dogs can willingly eat dry dog pellets (kibble) and enjoy them, since the aroma of dog food entices them.

Although, some dogs find certain foods unappealing because the texture or taste isnt enticing enough for them, while other dogs are not picky over what they eat.

Even though the smell of the food is the main reason dogs will like a particular food, some dog owners will still go the extra mile to make sure that their dogs food looks as appetizing as possible. Regardless, most dogs enjoy commercially prepared foods if it has an aroma, flavor and texture that your dog enjoys.

What Flavors Can Dogs Taste?

Dogs can taste the five main flavors that humans cansalty, bitter, sweet, sour, and umami and they have additional receptors for tasting water. Just like humans, dogs can distinguish between different tastes, which is why they react to sour flavors from lemons which can be quite unappealing to your dog.

Some dogs have a better tolerance towards sweeter foods, like fruits and they may find these foods more appealing. However, since dogs are omnivores and primarily eat meat, the most favorable flavor that your dog can eat is likely savory flavor-umami.

Unlike humans, dogs dont have to have their food seasoned (especially since dogs shouldnt eat human spices), and they are quite content to eat meat-based foods. Whether it is from a meaty aroma in their pellets or the meaty flavor of wet or raw dog foods, dogs dont seem to mind.

Final Thoughts

When it comes to a dogs sense of taste, their sense of smell is much better. With only a sixth of the number of taste buds in comparison to a human, dogs senses are quite limited when it comes to taste. However, they are still able to taste their food and distinguish the difference between multiple flavors. Their wonderful sense of smell works together with their sense of taste to decide if a meal is appealing to them.

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Accounting for Taste: What Do Dogs Find Most Delicious?

Your dogs tongue is his stomachs gatekeeper. By recognizing some foods as yum and others as yuck, it encourages him to eat high-calorie foods and discourages him from scarfing down poison.

If you look in your dogs mouth (and yours too) youll see lots of small bumps called papillae, each of which contains clusters of taste buds. Each taste bud contains about 50 taste-receptor cells. Dogs have fewer taste buds than we doabout 1,700 in the average dog compared to 9,000 in us.

Taste buds in different parts of the tongue respond to different microscopic molecules. Like us, dogs can identify sweet, sour, salty, and bitter. Unlike us, they also have special taste buds aimed at tasting only water. So for dogs, water is probably not tasteless, as we usually describe it. These water receptors are located at the tip of the tonguethe part the dog dips in the water and curls under when drinking.

In people, the tip of the tongue is most sensitive to sweet tastes, which is why you like to roll candy around your tongues tip. In dogs, the rear of the tongue is most sensitive to sweets. That may be why they seem to gulp them down.

Dogs also have taste buds in the back of their throat, so they can actually taste that food they seem to inhale without chewing!

Light on Sodium

Compared to people, dogs cant taste salt very well. Thats because they evolved to eat meat, and meat naturally contains enough salt to satisfy their bodys need for it without them having to seek it out. But they can still taste, and appreciate, salt.

Different species have different taste preferences depending on what they evolved to eat. Wolves eat a diet of about 80 percent meat in the wild, so your dog also has a strong preference for meat. But as much as dogs like meat, theyre actually omnivores, which means they eat both plants and animalsand your glasses, and your cats poop, and your furniturepretty much anything!

Tests have shown that most dogs prefer beef and pork over chicken and lamb. They also prefer warm, moist foods over cold, dry foods.

Of course, just like people, each dog has individual preferences. That can partly arise from preferring what food they ate as a puppy. One study even suggests that the food their dam ate while pregnant can influence a puppys future preferences.

Most dogs like variety, and if you feed them the same thing every day, they get tired of it. Give them something new and theyll gobble it up. The exception is dogs who were raised with no variety at all. They are hesitant to try new foods, and often seem to avoid any culinary adventures.

Canines Choice

How do you know what taste your dog prefers? One way is to give him a bowl filled with a different food every day and see how much he eats. If you want to be really scientific you can weigh the bowl before and after he eats to see how much he consumed. But what if he licks his bowl clean every day? Or what if hes just hungrier one day than the next? What if one food is more filling than the other? You might instead try offering two bowls of food side-by-side and letting him choose. Which one does he eat more of? But again, what if he licks both bowls clean? What if he just continues to eat out of whichever bowl he gets to first? What if he prefers to eat only from the right-hand bowl or left-hand bowl?

Dog food companies test hundreds of dogs to see what tastes they prefer, and they have to carefully take into account all questions that could bias the results. They can measure second-by-second how much the dog is eating of each food, and even how often he chews or how big his bites are. You can do your own taste test at home:

1. Make sure your dog isnt food aggressive, as youll be working around him with tasty goodies.
2. Youll need two bowls, a piece of screen, and two types of food that are the same small size.
3. Place one piece of each type in each bowl and cover both bowls with a screen so your dog can sniff each one.
4. Now place the bowls an equal distance from him and remove the screen.
5. Record which food he eats first.
6. Replace the screen and do it again, alternating sides.
7. Do this until your dog consistently shows he has a favorite. Then compare with another flavor.

Originally appeared in the May/June issue of AKC Family Dog Magazine