If a dog’s sense of smell is so sensitive, and smell is so closely linked to taste, why does dog food smell so strongly? Wouldn’t it be overwhelming? Shouldn’t it be a milder smell/taste?
If a dog’s sense of smell is so sensitive, and smell is so closely linked to taste, why does dog food smell so strongly? Wouldn’t it be overwhelming? Shouldn’t it be a milder smell/taste?
Comments
“My dog has no nose.”
“How does he smell?”
“Awful.”
Dogs like the smell of decayed meat. Manufacturers of dog food have to strike a balance between making the food smell good enough or a dog to eat it, and not so foul that the dog’s owner won’t buy it.
Dogs like smelly things. Source: we lived next to Lake Erie and birds would sometimes drop fish in our yard. Our dog adored rolling around on the carcasses
Dogs perceive smell differently than humans. What might smell horrible to you might smell amazing to your dog, and vice versa.
I don’t think the smell is intentional. There’s a lot of oils in dog food which has a naturally strong smell.
I read an interview with a dog food researcher who said that it was easy to make nutritious food that dogs loved, the hard part was making it so that the human opening the can didn’t immediately vomit.
Dog food is made with cheap foodstuff, so lots of rancid fats. Rancid fats have a very pungent smell and taste, which transfer over to dog food (I can attest for that last one).
Dogs evolved from part-time scavengers, so they like decaying and rotting smells. Dogs like to bury bones for a reason, it serves an instinctual “caching” drive that also serves to “marinade” the meat. Compare to cats, which are much more picky since they only ate fresh prey they themselves hunted as part of their evolutionary history.