Do Animals Have Taste Buds. With that in mind, let’s explore how snakes can smell and taste their food. Many animals can taste sweet, sour, bitter, salty and umami.
Parrots’ taste buds are found in the back of their throats and on their tongues and, like ours, can distinguish sweet, sour, bitter and salt. A parrot has around 400 taste buds and a chicken has just 24 taste buds. Pigs, for example, sport around 15,000 taste buds.
A parrot has around 400 taste buds and a chicken has just 24 taste buds.
Pigs, for example, sport around 15,000 taste buds. But whereas humans have about 9000 taste buds, parrots have only about 350. Omnivores, or animals that eat both plant matter and meat, tend to have taste buds that allow them to taste all five flavors, including sweet, causing them to have more taste buds than carnivores. Having an abundance of taste buds increases an animal's ability to detect even trace amounts of food.