Cats, like humans, have
The sense of touch is acute in cats. The
Cats’ sense of smell is vastly better than that of humans: they have 200 million odor sensors compared with humans’ 5 million. Their sense of smell is crucial to sensing prey and evaluating food. Cats whose nasal passages become clogged because of illness may lose their appetites. Furthermore, cats have a special sense best described as a cross between taste and smell. The Jacobson’s, or vomeronasal, organ is situated between the nose and the palate, and cats access this sense by “flehming,” which looks like a cat grimace or sneer. Also,cats use this sense to examine odors they find interesting.
The cat’s tongue is covered by numerous sensory knobs called papillae, of which several types exist. In the center of the tongue, the papillae form backward-pointing hooks that rasp meat from the bones of prey and scoop up water when the cat drinks. The taste receptors are located on the front, sides, and back of the tongue. However, the cat has relatively few taste receptors—only 473 compared with humans’ 9,000.These taste receptors react to salty, sour, and bitter tastes, but very few respond to sweet tastes. Protein-based compounds activate the receptors, but fats seem to be perceived as smells rather than tastes. The senses of taste and smell are closely related in cats and, because of this, the aroma of food is vital to a cat’s enjoyment. For this reason, cats prefer their food to be warm, as odors are released by heat.
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