Does Your Cat Sniff New Food?
There are certain things we can take for granted when
feeding the cat: the pitiful miaows that become increasingly strident, the
anticipatory purring when you move towards the cat food, and the way the cat
wraps herself around your leg as if you’re her best friend ever. But when you
put the food down, is there any guarantee she will eat it?
Cat food manufacturers have teams of cats that work as food
testers, to make sure new foods are as tasty as can be. This study, by Aurélie
Becques et al (in press) took place at the Panelis Diana Pet Food Division. Here,
cats are housed in groups in an indoor environment with access to the outdoors.
Two such groups of cats (17 cats in total) took part in this study.
The cats are given free access to kibble for twenty hours of
the day, to mimic the most common way of feeding cats in the home. They are fed
via a feeding station, which only one cat can enter at a time. The length of
time they spend in the station and the amount of food they eat is all measured.
A video camera captures their behaviour.
The study investigated feline behaviour when eating a Very
Palatable Kibble (VPK) compared to a Less Palatable Kibble. In fact, both
kibbles were the same (Royal Canin), but different coatings were applied. The coatings were both made of poultry fat and had the same number of
calories, but one was previously shown to be very tasty to cats and the other less
so. Both sets of cats had in fact been fed these two foods at some point in the
past.
To further enhance the tastiness of the Very Palatable
Kibble, it was mixed with some tuna. This combination was something the cats
had not experienced before. It also had the effect of making the VPK slightly
less calorie dense.
The cats were given a two day test of each type of food.
Since this is a working cat food testing environment, in between the sessions reported here, they were given a different food according to the
current rotation.
The results showed that when cats were offered the Very Palatable
Kibble, they ate more each day (81g on average compared to 53g). Because cats
made different numbers of visits to the feeding station each day, the
researchers compared the first three visits and the last visit of each day.
With the exception of the last visit on the first day, the cats ate more of the
VPK every time they went to the feeding station.
Cats are good at regulating their food intake, and so it is
surprising that they ate more calories when fed the VPK. However, since the
study only had two days per food, it is possible the cats would have adjusted
their food intake over time.
Whether the cat was eating in a sitting or standing position,
the speed at which it ate, the length of time from approaching the bowl to starting to eat, and the total amount of licking, was the same for the
two foods. Previous research has suggested that licking the lips and grooming
the face is associated with finding food tasty, whereas cats lick their nose
when they don’t like it so much. The researchers sometimes couldn’t tell
whether the cat was licking its lips or its nose, especially at night when it
was dark, so this remains a question for future research.
Sniffing behaviour turns out to be an indicator of a new food’s
perceived tastiness. On the first day of LPK, the cats spent a lot more time
sniffing the food on the first two visits to the feeding station.
The researchers say, “One may have expected that the novelty
of the diet should have caused more sniffing. On the contrary the cats tended
to sniff more LPK, a diet that they have already experienced, than VPK that
they have previously experienced but without the addition of tuna. The tuna was
very odorant and it seemed that this odor was attractive enough to elicit
eating in a short lapse of time. On the other hand the longer duration of
sniffing the LPK diet may correspond to a hesitation to consume a less
palatable diet.”
The researchers say the cat’s behaviour is an indication of
how tasty it finds the food. So if you offer a new food and your cat is
sniffing at it, it’s probably not a good sign.
Is your cat fussy about food?
P.S. Enrichment tips for cats (that many people miss) and where cats like to be stroked.
Reference
Becques, A., Larose, C., Baron, C., Niceron, C., Feron, C., & Gouat, P. (2014). Behaviour in order to evaluate the palatability of pet food in domestic cats Applied Animal Behaviour Science , 159, 55-61 : 10.1016/j.applanim.2014.07.003 
