Can our birds taste the food we feed them?

[my-africangrey-echo]

Yesterday I had someone tell me that birds can't smell or taste the foods we feed them. Is this true?? I tend to think not since my 2 greys each have their fav grape. Vern loves the dark purple ones and Echo prefers the lighter purple ones and neither seem to care for the green ones.

[Lessadalinar]

IMO, that's not true.

They know what they like and don't. Especially whatever they really shouldn't have seems to be their favorite! Little brats!

[amanda143]

Its not that they can't taste or smell...They just don't have as many taste buds as we do, and a lot less saliva. They don't need a keen sense of smell either. Doesn't mean they can't do either though.

[ksuamy20]

Yeah, it's not that they can't taste or smell, they just don't do it in the same way that we do. For instance, that is why some birds love hot peppers and such, they don't have the adaptation to detect the heat (capsaicin? forgot what the chemical is called that makes it hot) like mammals do. Because evolutionarily it was beneficial to the plant for birds to eat the seeds and not mammals because birds spread the seeds through feces and mammals just digest them.

But I also read that catfish have like 10x the amount of taste buds as humans. For a thing that just swims around and eats whatever organic matter that hits its mouth, I don't know what the point of that is.

[KimM]

I agree. They have taste buds, but probably different from ours. Maybe that's why mine like hot stuff so much.. yikes! Newt LOVES hot, spicy foods. And mne definitely have their likes and dislikes as far as food is concerned. Give Elliot a cherry tomato and you'll draw back a bloody stump if you don't give it to him quickly enough.. same way with Newt for a hot wing.

[Zoe's Mom]

In the past, it was thought that birds had a poorly developed sense of taste. Taste buds lie at the base of the tongue, in most species of birds. Some birds have taste buds on the inside of the tip of the lower and upper bills and there are several sites on the roof of the oropharynx, near the choana. In parrots, the taste buds are on the roof of the oropharynx on either side of the choana, and on the floor of the oropharynx at the front end of the laryngeal mound. Humans have around 9,000 taste buds where parrots have only 300-400. Birds do have a sense of taste, and do show definite taste preferences, as we all know!

[MicahEspudo]

Originally Posted by Zoe's Mom

Humans have around 9,000 taste buds where parrots have only 300-400. Birds do have a sense of taste, and do show definite taste preferences, as we all know!

But then again they also have smaller mouths... so maybe it evens out on a ratio of mouth space to amount of taste buds?

[Buteo]

Yes, it's just that parrots have so few taste buds compared to us.....
Red Savina Habaneros or even worse, the Bhut Jolokia are scrotching hot to us,
Yet it's deliciously tangy to our FIDs...
LOL imagine if a Catfish ate one??...
10 seconds later it jumps outta the water, burst into flames and cook itself before it hit the shore.


ksuamy20 - yup, capsaicin (8-methyl-N-vanillyl-6-nonenamide) is the culprit in that instance.

Oh yes and as to the question ya posed, let me put it this way:
If you had no arms/hands & lived in an environment in which vision was almost useless 99.5% of the time, think how important a great sense of smell & taste would become for knowing what to eat & what not.

[my-africangrey-echo]

Yep that's what I thought too. As far as smell I think they have that to. Mainly because Vern will sniff my hand and sometimes her food. It's so funny you can clearly hear her sniffing me...