It seems like cats actually do have a perfectly valid reason for throwing up grass in your carpet right after munching on it. A recent study from the Monell Chemical Senses Center in Philadelphia has found that pickiness is not the cause of your feline's food aversions. It is actually due to the fact that cats have bitter taste receptors in their tongues, according to Gizmodo.
These bitter taste receptors are typically found in herbivores, who munch on plants to get their fill. Since toxins used by plants as defense mechanisms are usually bitter by nature, animals seemed to have gone through evolution with the idea that bitter things are better left untouched.
The researchers were able to find that cats have 12 genes that are able to detect bitter taste in food. These findings were quite a surprise for the researchers, who have long considered carnivores such as cats to have no bitter tasting genes at all, reported the Daily Mail.
While other carnivores such as dogs, ferrets, and polar bears have been found to have bitter taste genes as well, the researchers in the study have hypothesized like those found on cats are particularly potent.
This means that for your cat, some food is just downright unpleasant.
Overall, the results of the study really just gives cats a more valid excuse to, well, act like cats.
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