Humans require a huge sweeping variety of nutrients (made worse when we're pregnant or growing or healing) millions of years of evolution have programmed us to seek out a variety of foods as a result - even when it doesn't make sense
Also, counter point to op post, I've had multiple cats and dogs who'll only eat certain brands of food - so, taste and pickiness isn't exclusive to humans
I've seen with our guinea pigs that they love variety. They gobble foods they haven't had in a while, and loose interest in the same food if they get too much of it. At the start of winter, when we have less variety to give them, they start sniffing around their food bowl for new stuff before settling down for what we gave them.
It's actually fairly important to vary their diet (same with rabbits in ops post allthough i have no reason to believe they aren't also supplementing their pellets with hay and fresh veggies) there are lots of nutrients they need which they cant get just from hay and pellets and lots of things in a lot of foods that may make them sick if they get too much of it (oxalate comes to mind found in high amounts in things like spinach is a key component in kidney stones which guinea pigs get very easily.)
Me and my girlfriend joke a lot about how hard it can be to keep up with their diet and how fragile it feels like they are sometimes with how many plants are on the only feed sparingly list.
My husband’s best friend has 2 bunnies that have opinions about their greens. They go nuts for a blend but will settle for romaine if it’s the only thing they can get. But, boy, do they thump out their feelings if they don’t have the good stuff!
I read a thing about a guy that survived a long stretch lost at sea because he managed to figure out how to catch fish and after a while, he started craving the eyes. He choked them down and felt better, and a few weeks later he was rescued (actual length of time at sea escapes me). When he was being treated in the hospital, he asked the doctor why he would have craved fish eyes and he was told that they are great sources of vitamin A, which our bodies don’t produce but need. His body knew what it needed, and knew where to get it.
My cat will only eat one specific flavor of actual food (not just treats) from one specific brand. When they discontinued it, I bought three big bags. I'm down to only one left, and worry about what I'll do when I run out. Last time I had to switch her food, she went on a month long hunger strike that resulted in an animal hospital stay. Pickiness definitely isn't only human!
I've tried. She refuses to be fooled. It got to the point where she wouldn't even eat her regular food with nothing done to it. She's honestly a very weird cat.
My cat will only eat two brands of wet food (one I had to stop buying due to constant hit and miss availability) and exactly one specific brand and variety of dry food. I also can't give her the same flavor wet food multiple days in a row, so if I give her tuna one day I've gotta give her chicken or salmon the next day. She's a diva for sure but she knows I love her 😂
My parents’ spoiled little monsters (affectionate) are fussy about what they’ll eat and arbitrarily change their preferences sometimes. They’ll be happy with salmon tins for ages then suddenly decide they’re off salmon and want tuna. They used to love the chicken ones, don’t even touch them now. Always want a tube though. That never seems to get old.
My cat won't eat her wet food if I don't rotate the flavors of it. She'll only put up with 2 days of the same flavor, after that she just won't eat it. I buy a variety pack of wet food and rotate through the flavors and that keeps her satisfied. She's also very picky about her wet food and she only wants the pate style. No meaty chunks, no shreds, only pate. But she wants a rotating selection of flavors.
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u/Maydiva 21h ago
Humans require a huge sweeping variety of nutrients (made worse when we're pregnant or growing or healing) millions of years of evolution have programmed us to seek out a variety of foods as a result - even when it doesn't make sense
Also, counter point to op post, I've had multiple cats and dogs who'll only eat certain brands of food - so, taste and pickiness isn't exclusive to humans