Do predators care about taste?

I am not too sure about wolves, but some predators definitely have a certain preference for the taste of their prey. For example, lions can't stand the taste of a water-buck because of the horrible odor that comes from their sweat glands. It is in fact at the bottom of the lions' food menu.

Their most preferred prey are wildebeest, zebra, and buffalo because they provide enough meat to feed a whole pride, and of course they taste good.

They certainly have preferences, yes. Anyone who's ever had a cat or dog will know that. If they have a choice, a wild predator will hunt the prey they like the taste of over one they are less keen on, but obviously if they're hungry enough they will eat whatever they can. For example, lions are known to dislike the taste of waterbuck flesh. They will not kill waterbuck when other prey is available, and only resort to hunting them if they have no other choice. Even then you can tell they don't like the taste when they're eating it, they wrinkle up their faces and look disgusted.

Cal King - "few humans would eat rabbits"? Lots of people eat rabbit regularly. It's delicious!

Owls are one of the few predators that would eat skunks. Owls also have a poor sense of smell. The sense of taste is not independent of the sense of smell, but intimately connected. A lot of what we think of as taste actually is odor being detected by our noses. Since most mammalian carnivores have good senses of smell, they are unlikely to hunt animals that are malodorous, such as skunks.

As long as the prey does not have an offensive smell, it is doubtful that predators would discriminate between deer meat, lamb, pork and beef, even though humans may not eat one or the other because they don't like the taste. To a dog, a squirrel and a rabbit would taste just as good. Few humans would eat rabbits, however, because they just don't taste very good to us.

I agree with Wolf Lover. I don't think they care about taste. I do think they care about diet. I think what matters is the predator at least having something to eat. Yes some animals may taste different than other animals but I wouldn't think it matters.

I doubt that carnivores would mind what kind of meat they eat, just as long as they do have something to eat.

For herbivores (yes, I know they aren't predators), they may not like pine needles because they are sharp and poison ivy, because it's poisonous.

No.

They only care about the temperature of their kill.

Meaning if it's cold blooded(roadkill or already dead meat) or hot(fresh).