Why do dogs eat anything but cats are picky?

Cat are not picky eaters per se. There is one major reason and one minor reason why dogs eat anything can cats are pickier:

• Dogs are omnivores which means that they eat a variety of both plant and animal foods and;
• There may be an issue with bitter taste receptors in the cat which makes them pickier.

Strangely, the articles on this topic seem to hint that the major difference is that cats have more bitter taste receptors than dogs but it seems obvious to me that it must be because dogs are omnivores and cats are strict carnivores.

You can almost stop the discussion there because the range of foods available to an omnivore is much wider than that which is available to a carnivore. This naturally means that dogs are able to eat almost anything while cats have to eat prey animals such as mice and birds or manufactured foods that mimic these prey animals. 

Cats might eat a little bit of grass to aid in digestion or to obtain the folic acid from the grass but by and large domestic cats are genuinely carnivorous and you won't see them eating plant type foods. P.S. there are seven possible reasons by cats eat grass - click this to read about them! P.P.S. the snow leopard is the world's best cat plant eater!

It is just not in their character and their character has been created through evolution over eons. Don't forget that the carnivorous nature of domestic cat is directly inherited from the North African wildcat which is a small wildcat living in semiarid conditions.

Click this to read about the bitter taste receptors of cats.

Note: cats are not picky eaters. Just sensible and in line with their evolved anatomy.

Why do cats eat grass?

I am referring to the domestic cat. Although, it should be said, that wild cat species do eat vegetation as well such as the snow leopard which in particular likes to eat a certain bush! So why do domestic cats eat grass? There have been many theories for this and perhaps the most prevalent is that domestic cats want to make themselves sick, to sick up hairballs. Or, a slight alternative to this theory is that grass helps to push hairballs out of their digestive system so that they are defecated i.e. it is roughage. Another theory is that when cats are ill they want to make themselves sick so the grass is eaten to achieve this. And a further theory is that they like eating grass because it tastes nice.

The best theory is that the juice of grass contains folic acid, a vitamin which is not available to them within the flesh of animals. Folic acid is a naturally occurring B vitamin, specifically vitamin B-9. It is also called folate and is important in prenatal health in people. It is especially important to pregnant cats and dogs and it plays an important role in the production of haemoglobin. It is part of the cell multiplication process and helps to synthesise DNA. 

Domestic cats can also eat grass which is in the belly of prey animals such as rabbits. So cats eat vegetation or plant matter via their prey animals in any case. It is not something which is bizarre or out of the ordinary. What is out of the ordinary is that 50% of dry cat food is plant-based! How about that for a carnivore? People say that you should never feed a domestic cat a plant-based diet but we're doing it all the time anyway seems to me.