Can Cats Smell Canned Cat Food Thru the Cans, or Is Kitty "Reading" the Label?

[shadyferret]

Can cat smell canned cat food through the can? I'm curious and amused. I tried googling my question and I couldn't find an answer. If not, then background:

My parents have one of my cats right now (long story, but not necessary for the question). Blue is raw fed but my dad has tried feeding him canned cat food before discovering that I wasn't wrong about his adverse reaction to guar gum and thus has to be on raw. The canned cat food wasn't anything like the cans in my parents' pantry. He was fed a tall can of Wysong chicken, and the food in the pantry, for the cat before him that recently passed, are short cans of Whisker's chicken-flavored food. The cans of these two were nothing alike.

My parents were stuck out of town and missed Blue's lunch by hours. When they got home they found their very full pantry had been broken into and the leftover cans for the other cat spewed across the floor. My parents pantry is big and contains a lot of cans, among other foods, but only the canned cat food was disturbed.

I've had this cat for less than a year and his chip says he's six years old, so I have no background on him that may help (another unrelated story about how he ended up becoming mine but it appears he was abandoned). He's opened the pantry several times - just to show that he could - and Mr. Eats-Everything left the cans alone then.

I'm just curious if he's more of a handful than he's lead us on to believe and can "read" labels (like maybe he figured out what the picture of a cat on a can means), or if he only went after the cans because Whiskers smelled enough like same meat as Wysong that he decided to go after that.

 

[vball91]

I don't see how it would be possible to smell food through properly sealed metal cans. However, I guess it's possible that there is some residual smell from the canning process? Or maybe he has somehow figured out how to read??? Cats! Nothing surprises me anymore about the different things they can do.

 

[catspaw66]

I believe he was going by size - the small cans were easier to move than the large cans of everything else. A large can of vegetables or soup weighs about a pound, a small can of cat food, 3.5 to 5.5 ounces. He was probably just dragging out the small cans to tell them, 'you missed my dinner, I'm going to mess up your pantry'.  My cats know when the cat food is being opened, but I keep it in a different place than the human food cans.

 

[catnamedpanda]

If my dog can smell it through the can, I am sure a cat can. I left a bunch of cans of food on the table once. When I came home all the cans had been destroyed from her chewing them down to flat pieces of metal. She goes after anything edible, but I didn't think she would know there was food in the can.

 

[shadyferret]

@vball99: Maybe they're improbably sealed cans, although there was six cans and that seems odd, or maybe he's figured a picture of cat or brightly colored cans mean food in general or cat food. He's a fairly smart cat. Tried breaking out of my parents room once by turning the door knob but he couldn't get them to turn far enough. I'm pretty sure he broke into my room by pushing down my door handle.

@Catspaws66: As far as size goes, apparently the cans were next to a bunch of tuna and beef cans that were the same size. He does have allergies to both meats but I seriously doubt he'd knowingly avoid them for that reason, so perhaps they were better sealed. My mom thinks he went after them because they're pop tops.

@CatNamedPanda: When you say you didn't think she'd know there was food in the can, was that before or after she chewed up the cans?

My dad and I figured we might try an experiment when he gets back to my place.

 

[catspaw66]

Ah, pop tops. He was probably grabbing the rings as a play toy. Sugar, Spice and Sheba all use their paws like hands.

 

[catnamedpanda]

I didn't think she would know there was food in the cans before she ate them. She is 13 and past the stage of eating things that are inedible. She had to have know there was food in them for her to eat them like that.

 

[nebula]

I have to crack up because a cat we used to have would do the same thing. He was able , among 30 or 40 cans to pick out hte cat food , knock it down and bat it around LOL while chewing off the label!!