The Palatability Of The Cat, What Is It?

You may never have heard the word palatability. In itself it is a term that encompasses several things about your cat’s diet. We invite you to know what such a peculiar word means. Are we going to meet her?

What is palatability?

Palatability is defined as the response of an animal to a certain food. It comes from the word palate and has to do with the taste that your feline feels for certain foods. Referring to processed pet food, it is measured in proportion to how much is eaten based on a daily diet, which is chosen from several options when offered simultaneously.

A palatable diet can be acceptable when the amount of food meets the nutritional and energy requirements that the animal needs or is simply the one that most cats prefer. At first it was thought that palatability was determined by the sensory characteristics of the food – its smell, taste and texture on contact with the mouth – as well as previous experiences of the cat.

Felines are highly specialized carnivores, requiring a high protein diet and this is obviously reflected in their sense of taste. Their natural prey are usually vertebrate animals. This is due to their nutritional needs, their anatomy, and their digestive physiology. Unlike dogs that hunt in packs, cats are solitary predators that hunt prey and eat it freshly killed, so they prefer food with a certain temperature.

Their sense of taste is very similar to that of other carnivores, but because they have specialized in eating only meat, they are attracted to foods that contain high protein content and certain amino acids and do not choose their food based on its salt content or sugar. These preferences are also strongly associated with what they ate as puppies, taking a reference from the foods to which they were exposed. It is just at this age when their food selection is most malleable, being strongly influenced by what the mother eats.

Cats feel a certain aversion to always eating the same type of food, which may be a defense mechanism that makes them avoid a potential nutritional imbalance associated with a diet based on a single food and reflects a congenital need to seek diversity of dams. House cats also show this pattern.

What is the best diet for the cat?

Unlike other species, there is very little information about the specific role of certain nutrients in the eating habits of cats. Nutrition scientists have worked to try to understand what attracts kittens to their food. Recent studies have yielded a surprising fact and that is that the little furry ones demonstrated to have “nutritional wisdom” and if they are given the freedom to choose their food, they look for foods with specific protein, fat or carbohydrate objectives.

The daily diet of an adult domestic cat is composed of 52% protein, 36% fat and 12% carbohydrates.

While wet cat food contains about the same amount of protein you need, but more fat and fewer carbohydrates, dry food has a considerable amount of the latter. However, many cats prefer dry food, which leaves many doubts as to what they naturally require. All this suggests that the nutritional content of foods is the key to identifying palatability, which would help identify the components and qualities necessary for food manufacturing.

This is essential, as the purpose of pet food is to provide the necessary calories and nutrients, but this can only be achieved if the animal is willing to eat it. This desire is not always linked to the properties of the food, as it depends on different factors what influences that food is ingested. The challenge for both manufacturers and owners is to give the kittens a varied food, which in addition to complying with what the pet needs, also covers the interest of the same to eat it. If you have a little furry, you know what we mean: if he doesn’t like it, he just won’t eat it. Cats are decisive when it comes to food.