Pets can sniff out unusual smells in their food and may reject even favourite treats if they don't smell right. If your pet has foiled your plans in the past, hide the pill or medication in a smelly food, like salmon or a particularly stinky type of soft cheese.
Dogs and cats have much keener senses of smell than humans. It's that sense that tips them off that you're trying to slip them some medicine. One way to overcome that problem is to hide the medicine in wet, strong-smelling food.
Some recommendations for food in which you might hide pill include: canned cat food, strained meat (human) baby food, tuna or other canned fish, plain yogurt, Pill Pockets™, cream cheese or butter. Butter is helpful because it coats the pill and eases swallowing.
— Cats can be incredibly picky and sassy when it comes to their food. But with medication flavors, they have little preference, according to a recent study by the University of Wisconsin-Madison.
For liquid medication — if it doesn't taste bad, you can just squeeze the medication into the tube, and squish the meat purée around to mix it up. Give it to your cat as you would a normal meat tube. A bitter pill goes down easier with a gel cap to hide the taste.
Cats also do not like bitter-tasting drugs. Flavors that cats respond well to include fish (e.g., tuna, salmon, shrimp, whitefish, sardine), bacon, beef, and chicken. Dogs like meat, cheese, and sweet flavors.
Sweeteners For Medicines That Taste Bad:
Mix the dose of medicine with a strong-sweet flavor. You can try chocolate syrup, strawberry syrup, or any pancake syrup. You can also use Kool-Aid powder. Medicines can safely be mixed with any flavor your child likes.
They can't stand citrus and as much as you might love the smell of fresh herbs, cats hate rosemary and thyme. Banana and mustard are a big no-no too, as well as lavender and eucalyptus.
Cats Lack a Sweet Taste Receptor.
The easiest way to give your cat a pill is to hide the pill in food. This usually works best if the pill is hidden in a small amount of wet cat food, tuna, or a soft treat that can be molded around the pill (i.e., Pill Pockets™).
Mix the Medicine with Canned Food
Like children, your cat can sometimes be distracted from realizing he's getting medicine if you hide it in his food. If your veterinarian gives the okay, consider mixing your cat's medicine with wet food.
Lavender, which has natural sedative properties, may help soothe an anxious cat. Copaiba, helichrysum, and frankincense are also considered safe for cats.
Although many cats love the taste of this salty and sweet spread, cat parents should avoid giving their feline friends peanut butter. It provides no nutritional value and, more importantly, certain ingredients, like fat and added artificial sweeteners, can be harmful or even toxic to cats.
Despite having fewer taste buds than other animals, cats seem to be able to taste sour, bitter, salty, and umami flavors well enough.
Plus, they probably have a general curiosity about anything with a new texture or mouth feel. Or perhaps they just like the taste of whatever their version of “sweet” is. Whatever the reason, it certainly isn't uncommon for cats to take a few licks of some sweets.
In scientific observations, cats do not appear to perceive the full range of colors that humans can. Some scientists believe that cats see only blue and gray, while others think they see also see yellow like their canine counterparts.
The cat's favorite food
Cats love pork, chicken and beef. Beef is the only type of meat that can be given to a cat raw, as long as it is fresh. As well as meat, there are also other foods that your kitten likes to eat, perfect for making him happy on Christmas Day. Salmon and tuna are among the cat's favorite fish.
Texture: Sticky paper, aluminum foil, heavy plastic or a plastic carpet runner (knubby side up) can be placed in areas you want to be off limits. Cats hate walking on these surfaces.
You also can ask for a syringe at your local pharmacy and use it to inject liquid medicine into candy, like a peanut butter cup. “The peanut butter and chocolate will disguise the taste without affecting the medicine, and your child will get a little treat,” says Dr. Sherman.
Covert administration is when medicines are administered in a disguised format. Medicines could be hidden in food, drink or given through a feeding tube without the knowledge or consent of the person receiving them. This means the person does not know they are taking a medicine.
Oil-based liquids help mask bitter tasting drugs by providing a coating that protects the taste buds from the sensation of bitterness. Fixed oils, such as almond, peanut, sesame, olive and corn oil, are often necessary in preparations in which the stability of the drug is in question because of hydrolysis.