Taste of the cat

Taste

The whiskers of a cat are highly sensitive to touch.
Cats have relatively few taste buds compared to humans (470 or so versus more than 9,000 on the human tongue).[88] Domestic and wild ca

ts share a taste receptor gene mutation that keeps their sweet taste buds from binding to sugary molecules, leaving them with no ability to taste sweetness.[89] Their taste buds instead respond to acids, amino acids like protein, and bitter tastes.[90]

Cats also have a distinct temperature preference for their food, preferring food with a temperature around 38 °C (100 °F) which is similar to that

of a fresh kill and routinely rejecting food presented cold or refrigerated (which would signal to the cat that the “prey” item is long dead and therefore possibly toxic or decomposing).[88]