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You are here: Home / Life With Cats / Why do Some Cats Like Olives?

Why do Some Cats Like Olives?

My friend Anna-Marie told me recently that one of her cats is crazy for olives. I was surprised, and I had never heard of that. Then again, since I don’t like olives, there’s no likelihood that one of my cats would find one around the house, either.

cat reaching for olivesFor the purposes of science, that was going to have to change.

In the meantime, I did some research. Olives are well-known for containing oleic acid. In fact, oleic acid is the component of olive oil responsible for its ability help to lower blood pressure in humans.

Oleic acid is also a component of the facial pheromones your cat spreads by rubbing her chin against you or objects in the house. In fact, the artificial pheromone diffusers for cats you can purchase to plug in around the house have oleic acid as an ingredient in the synthetic pheromone.

It’s likely that cats who enjoy olives are actually responding to the oleic acid in the olives. They aren’t hoping to drop one into a martini or anything.

Cats have been known to go wild over squished odorous ants, which also contain oleic acid. So there seems to be a connection. My cats may never have seen an olive, but we have had ant invasions in the past, and they were completely uninterested. Maybe the ants in Florida wear deodorant.

At any rate, it was nearly time to try this olive thing at home. Not knowing anything about olives except I don’t like them on my pizza, I went to Whole Foods and selected four different olives from the olive bar. My main criteria was that they were all different and that none of them contained garlic or onions in the ingredient list.

olives in a takeout container

I cut up very small pieces and put them on a plate for the cats to inspect.

Pierre: What did you get on your ear? It smells funny!

Ashton: It’s not me!    * SNIFF SNIFF *   It’s the stuff on this plate.

gray cat sniffs brown tabby cat as she sniffs olives

Newton: What ARE those things? They’re on a plate like food, but they don’t smell like food.

orange tabby cat reaches out a paw to touch olives

Ashton: If it’s on a plate, I think you’re supposed to eat it, not play with it.

Newton: I don’t see YOU eating it, Miss Smartystripes.

Ashton: I was saving whatever it is for you. Go right ahead.

Newton: No, that’s all right.   * SCRATCH  SCRATCH *

orange tabby cat buries olives as brown tabby cat looks on

Newton: We don’t know what it is, but we’re holding out for something more appetizing.

orange tabby cat stares over a plate of olive fragments

Our household test was a bit of a failure. Olives got twelve paws down here, but apparently there are lots of cats out there who really love them. Do your cats love (or hate) olives?


References and further reading

J Comp Physiol B., Dietary fats and body lipid composition in relation to hibernation in free-ranging echidnas
Proceedings of the National Academy of Sciences of the United States, Oleic acid content is responsible for the reduction in blood pressure induced by olive oil
Google Patents, Properties of cats’ facial pheromones US 5709863 A

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October 8, 2015 Filed Under: Life With Cats Tagged With: Ashton, Newton, Pierre 29 Comments

Comments

  1. Summer says

    October 8, 2015 at 3:41 am

    My human LOVES olives but I haven’t seen any since I’ve lived here. She will have to give this a try. I might like them!

    Reply
  2. Ilse says

    October 8, 2015 at 4:59 am

    That’s seriously intriguing – there is so little we really know about the world of Scent given that it is really our weakest sense, especially the world of Scent our kitties live in.

    Reply
  3. marg says

    October 8, 2015 at 5:45 am

    No we haven’t tried Olives but I know the kitties wouldn’t like them. I can’t imagine a cat would eat them unless they had something else on them. Interesting facts though.

    Reply
  4. The Island Cats says

    October 8, 2015 at 5:46 am

    The mom hates olives so she won’t even give them to us to see if we might like them.

    Reply
  5. Madi says

    October 8, 2015 at 6:13 am

    My mom loves olives too…as for me they look like they would be fun to knock around
    MOL MOL
    Hugs madi your bfff

    Reply
  6. Melissa & Mudpie says

    October 8, 2015 at 8:07 am

    I’d never heard that either but it sounds like the makings for a fun experiment!

    Reply
  7. Random Felines says

    October 8, 2015 at 8:25 am

    huh – we never knew the science behind that. Mozart LOVES olives…. mom was making dinner once (she loves olives too) and Mo was being a pest so mom gave him a small piece thinking he wouldn’t touch it. He loved it!! And now pesters her more when he hears a lid come off a jar in the kitchen. MOL

    Reply
  8. Caren Gittleman says

    October 8, 2015 at 9:01 am

    I loved this post because it brought back some GREAT memories! Cody is not an olive eater but my Angel Bobo was CRAZY for them!
    He used to LOVE when I ordered Pizza with black olives on it. He ALWAYS was begging for me to give him some and I happily obliged!

    Reply
  9. Brian Frum says

    October 8, 2015 at 10:13 am

    I’m not sure we would like those things either, but we never get any human type foods anyways!

    Reply
  10. Annabelle says

    October 8, 2015 at 12:07 pm

    Not much of an olive fan either, but I will wager my cats would sniff and walk away. They do that with nearly all treats too!

    Reply
  11. da tabbies o trout towne says

    October 8, 2015 at 1:33 pm

    guys…fun & kewl post two day 🙂 we lurned sum thing….we haz troo lee never tried olives; we will hafta give it a try…olives two day, cheese two morrow & de hole pizza next week ♥♥

    Reply
  12. Deziz World says

    October 8, 2015 at 3:50 pm

    Hmmmm mommy dusn’t like those eever so weez never even seen ’em till today. MOL

    Luv ya’

    Dezi and Lexi

    Reply
  13. Emma and Buster says

    October 8, 2015 at 4:17 pm

    the humans love ’em; we haven’t tried getting close to them but we’re sure we’re not going to like them.

    Reply
  14. Flynn says

    October 8, 2015 at 4:42 pm

    My mum loves olives and eats lots of them. She is going to see if I like them but thinks I will turn my nose up because I am so picky.

    Reply
  15. Robin says

    October 8, 2015 at 5:01 pm

    This is really interesting! I don’t like olives, so I never thought about how cats might like them. Needless to say, Cinco and Manna have never encountered olives. It looks like your kitties had fun with the experiment! That’s what really matters. 🙂

    Reply
  16. Kitties Blue says

    October 8, 2015 at 6:45 pm

    Our angel, Madison, was crazy for green olives, specifically the brine they came in. And the kitty in the book mom is reviewing for tomorrow eats olives. Guess they are an acquired taste whether you are a human or cat. XOCK, Lily Olivia, Mauricio, Misty May, Giulietta, Fiona, Astrid, Lisbeth and Calista Jo

    Reply
  17. katie Isabella says

    October 8, 2015 at 6:59 pm

    We’ver not tried them in my household. None of the ones who came before, or me. Ewwww.

    Reply
  18. Just Ducky says

    October 8, 2015 at 7:15 pm

    Mum does not like olives, so I will not get to taste them.

    Reply
  19. Annie says

    October 8, 2015 at 7:17 pm

    I love that top pic! I love olives but I’ve never thought to let the kitties try them. I’ll be sure to do that the next time we have them.

    I wonder if for those kitties that don’t like them, the whole round ones would be fun to play with.

    Reply
  20. William says

    October 8, 2015 at 7:18 pm

    We’ve never had olives. Of unusual foods, one of the cats who came way before me loved fig newtons. And I rather like V8. I think olives might make a better toy, though.

    Reply
  21. Mark's Mews says

    October 8, 2015 at 8:52 pm

    OK, we just demanded that TBT provide us with an olive do test. He asked “real or jarred”? Well that baffled US as we dint know there were choices. Does it matter?

    Reply
  22. Connie says

    October 10, 2015 at 2:04 pm

    I seriously love this post. I too have heard that cats like olives but none of mine do.

    Reply
  23. Maxwell, Faraday & Allie says

    October 10, 2015 at 6:22 pm

    Nope, none here either. But garbanzo beans and canteloupe? Maybe. Maybe.

    Reply
  24. Anna-Marie @BeautyAndTheBeets says

    October 10, 2015 at 7:01 pm

    HA! Now I can tell Sullingham WHY he loves olives. Not that he would care- and he isn’t picky. He likes green or black olives and he is very aggressive when he hears the jar being opened. Just recently I was very cruel to him and made an entire pan of roasted olives- I wasted his precious olives on the humans!

    Reply
  25. Kjelle Bus aka Charlie Rascal says

    October 11, 2015 at 4:42 pm

    Sixten the cat who lived here before me was CRAZY about Olive´s 🙂

    XOXO

    Reply
  26. Janet Dunn says

    April 20, 2018 at 2:13 am

    Piggy thinks green olives are catnip she tries to roll on them. Has no desire to eat one however.

    Reply
  27. Techlady33 says

    November 25, 2018 at 1:08 pm

    My cat rubs her face in the olive juice but does not eat the green olives. Her humans DO love the green olivies.

    Reply
  28. Drystan says

    December 1, 2020 at 1:54 am

    My cats go crazy when they smell olives, some like to eat them

    Reply

Trackbacks

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