How do cats know that they like fish?

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I know that may sound a really stupid question, but please bear with me as this has puzzled me for quite a while.

A number of years ago I lived and worked in Botswana, a land locked country in southern Africa that is predominantly arid desert. I sort of adopted a feral little kitten, and from the very first time it went crazy whenever I opened a tin of tuna.

I could never understand how it knew that it would be a treat.

Maybe it is a stupid question.

It's not a stupid question but my feeling is - I don't know how they know they like anything until they smell something.

The faintest hint of some sort of strong smell when you opened the tin (and remember how good their sense of smell is compared to ours) might be enough to evoke some sort of ancestral memory.

I should add, though, that tinned tuna and salmon are about all my boy will eat of the fishy kind. He dislikes other fish, including fresh fish.

And it isn't likely that your boy would have an instinctive reaction to tuna per se is it? They're huge great ocean beasts and not even freshwater. It must be something to do with the constituents of the smell (being particulate and all that.)

Which boils down to - I guess I don't know!

Thanks for not making me feel stupid.

I don't suppose there is some inherant (sp?) love of fish food, they just somehow recognise good stuff

I have to guess that that might be it. Smells being particulate and all, maybe the constituent molecules contain some magic 'this is good' factor - might be common to really fresh mice, tuna, who knows what!

It's the smell, the stronger smelling something is the more it appeals to cats.

But yet mine won't touch mackerel, tabulahrasa which is about as strong smelling as you can get.

For myself, I guess I'll just never understand cats fully.

I expect it smells like "dead animal", and cats have quite high (and quite specifically dead-animal-related) protein requirements.

I don't know that a cat would like a tin of tuna more than it would like a tin of beef. (especially if the beef was in nice easy-to-eat chunks/flakes like a tin of tuna)

Smell.

Have you ever walked passed a cafe and thought "That smells good"? Even though you don't know what it is?

Mackerel might not smell nice though, lol.