# Dressing out a cat. **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [January 22, 2019, 2:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180 "2019-01-22T02:58:59Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 2
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 5:26pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/21 "2019-01-22T17:26:27Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > I suppose that there might also be an issue of size: It’ll be easier to use a pig’s or a cow’s intestines as sausage casings or whatever than a cat’s or a rabbit’s. We’ve all heard of catgut, but I don’t believe anybody ever made some out of cat. That does not mean some other poor animal was not slaughtered, though. For your garters human guts are best, I hear. ---
**Author:** ![Little\_Nemo](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/little_nemo/32/3120_2.png) [@Little\_Nemo](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Little_Nemo)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 5:59pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/22 "2019-01-22T17:59:24Z")
What does it say about me that I understood what the topic was before I opened the thread? ---
**Author:** ![Ulfreida](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ulfreida/32/8014_2.png) [@Ulfreida](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ulfreida)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 6:05pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/23 "2019-01-22T18:05:58Z")
> [@Si\_Amigo](#): > > I’m guessing you haven’t tried[bacon wrapped free range cat](https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=aHSw3R1F1Sw) then. It’s cheating to use bacon. ---
**Author:** ![spifflog](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/c5a1d2/32.png) [@spifflog](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spifflog)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/24 "2019-01-22T18:21:39Z")
My uncle was a “live off the land” kinda guy. He’d eat anything he could catch, including dogs and cats. He wouldn’t kill them if they had tags, but if they didn’t . . . He stated that there just wasn’t much meat on a cat when all was said and done, similar to squirrles. He said that he could get $2 per squirrel pelt, where you couldn’t get anything for a cat, so it was a lot of work for the cat when you could only use the meat. He liked dogs. I remember reading that Lewis and Clark would eat dogs whenever they had a chance (not their dog of course) because they were so tasty. ---
**Author:** ![DPRK](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/d/4491bb/32.png) [@DPRK](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/DPRK)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 6:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/25 "2019-01-22T18:21:43Z")
> [@Ulfreida](#): > > Cats taste terrible. This is a bad idea. I won’t ask how you know this… Makes me wonder, whenever you see a cat-food ad, it’s always mentioning turkey or duck or fish or whatever. Why not genuine rat flavour Meow Mix? ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 9:19pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/26 "2019-01-22T21:19:52Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > I won’t ask how you know this… > > Makes me wonder, whenever you see a cat-food ad, it’s always mentioning turkey or duck or fish or whatever. Why not genuine rat flavour Meow Mix? The answer, as usual, is money. Unless you’re trapping your own rats, they’re more costly per pound than poultry or fish. ---
**Author:** ![AskNott](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/asknott/32/5790_2.png) [@AskNott](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/AskNott)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 9:22pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/27 "2019-01-22T21:22:52Z")
> [@Spiderman](#): > > Use the bones to make soup stock. Ahh, cat soup! Oddly, the government called it a vegetable for some time. 😉 ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 9:42pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/28 "2019-01-22T21:42:32Z")
That, and cats don’t buy Meow Mix; humans do. And humans have this irrational prejudice against rat flavor. ---
**Author:** ![penultima\_thule](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/penultima_thule/32/3833_2.png) [@penultima\_thule](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/penultima_thule)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 9:48pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/29 "2019-01-22T21:48:58Z")
> [@Chronos](#): > > Ah, gotcha. I suppose that what you do with the viscera depends on where and how you’re killing the animal. Apologies for the confusion. DPRK has it right. About 30% of liveweight is edible meat. Even in an commercial abattoir the question of usability of offal gets trumped by economics. The vast bulk of offal goes to the by-products line and then rendered down into tallow (fat) and meat & bone meal. … and for giggles whilst we are into nasty ends for felines. Eric Bogle > [@](#): > > Somebody’s moggy by the side of the road > Somebody’s pussy who forgot his highway code > Someone’s favorite feline who ran clean out of luck > When he ran on to the road and tried to argue with a truck > Yesterday he purred and played in his pussy paradise > Decapitating tweety birds and masticating mice > Now he’s just six pounds of raw mincemeat that don’t smell very nice > He’s nobody’s moggy now. ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 10:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/30 "2019-01-22T22:21:07Z")
> [@SmartAleq](#): > > Cats and rabbits are so anatomically similar once you take the head, paws and fur off that it’s been common in many places for one to be substituted for the other in butcher shops. Apparently the placement of the kidneys is the biggest tell. As someone who has skinned and gutted many cats and rabbits, I’ll have to disagree with this. as to the OP, I think the guess of 50% dressed weight and 30% meat after deboning is probably pretty close. THey aren’t much different than other animals. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 10:43pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/31 "2019-01-22T22:43:22Z")
A slim Siamese as opposed to a large Maine coon, that is the question. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 10:47pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/32 "2019-01-22T22:47:54Z")
> [@DPRK](#): > > We’ve all heard of catgut, but I don’t believe anybody ever made some out of cat. That does not mean some other poor animal was not slaughtered, though. > > For your garters human guts are best, I hear. Catgut is actually made from sheep intestine. ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 11:28pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/33 "2019-01-22T23:28:24Z")
> [@Sigene](#): > > as to the OP, I think the guess of 50% dressed weight and 30% meat after deboning is probably pretty close. THey aren’t much different than other animals. This agrees with what I heard from my Grandpa, who was a butcher all his life. About half of the live weight is edible, and then about 1/3 is sellable meat. Slightly more if people are hungry: bones are sellable as soup stock, intestines become sausage casing, etc. Also, it varies by species and type: beef cattle produce more (and higher quality) than dairy cattle; cows & pigs produce more edible meat than sheep or goats; fowl (geese, turkey, chickens) produce more meat by percentage but require more work from the butcher (and sell for less). Goats, like cattle, have meat animals vs. milking goats. And cooking chickens have more meat than laying hens. ---
**Author:** ![Apollyon](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/apollyon/32/4238_2.png) [@Apollyon](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Apollyon)\ **Post date:** [January 22, 2019, 11:34pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/34 "2019-01-22T23:34:18Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > A slim Siamese as opposed to a large Maine coon, that is the question. OP stated 8lb 6oz, so very much on the slender Siamese end. My smaller cat, a slim and sneaky domestic short hair, weighs in a bit over that figure. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 12:10am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/35 "2019-01-23T00:10:52Z")
If you’re hungry enough to eat a cat, go for the fat one, IMO. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 12:20am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/36 "2019-01-23T00:20:57Z")
> [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#): > > This agrees with what I heard from my Grandpa, who was a butcher all his life. About half of the live weight is edible, and then about 1/3 is sellable meat. Slightly more if people are hungry: bones are sellable as soup stock, intestines become sausage casing, etc. > > Also, it varies by species and type: beef cattle produce more (and higher quality) than dairy cattle; cows & pigs produce more edible meat than sheep or goats; fowl (geese, turkey, chickens) produce more meat by percentage but require more work from the butcher (and sell for less). Goats, like cattle, have meat animals vs. milking goats. And cooking chickens have more meat than laying hens. Just curious: What kind of percentage is available WRT fish and seafood? ---
**Author:** ![Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/46a35a/32.png) [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Tim_T-Bonham.net)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 12:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/37 "2019-01-23T00:21:16Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > If you’re hungry enough to eat a cat, go for the fat one, IMO. No, you want the muscular one. Muscle is the meat, that’s better eating than the fat. ---
**Author:** ![thelurkinghorror](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/t/7c8e57/32.png) [@thelurkinghorror](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/thelurkinghorror)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 12:23am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/38 "2019-01-23T00:23:43Z")
Mountain lion (or cougar, or puma, or whatever you prefer) is actually supposed to taste good, like pork. Dressed weight is probably closest to a pig which dress out to about 72 to 79% of their weight. So your typical 150 lb mountain lion is 110 lbs of meat, so about 6 pounds of cat meat. ---
**Author:** ![Chronos](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/chronos/32/134_2.png) [@Chronos](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Chronos)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 12:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/39 "2019-01-23T00:29:23Z")
But you can only carry 100 pounds back to your wagon. ---
**Author:** ![Beckdawrek](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/beckdawrek/32/3647_2.png) [@Beckdawrek](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Beckdawrek)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 12:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/40 "2019-01-23T00:42:00Z")
> [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#): > > No, you want the muscular one. > Muscle is the meat, that’s better eating than the fat. Yeah, yeah but the fat gives it flavor. (I just threw up a little in my mouth. Yuk!) [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180.md?page=1) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180.md?page=3)