# 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:** 3
**Author:** ![River\_Hippie](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/river_hippie/32/26_2.png) [@River\_Hippie](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/River_Hippie)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 12:47am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/41 "2019-01-23T00:47:31Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Not much meat there. Mr.Wrekker often brings squirrels and rabbits for me to butcher and cook. Similar size. You’ll have a better meal with a skinny chicken. IMHO. > ETA,plus there’s that fishy cat taste you’ll have to get by;) Have you butchered and eaten raccoons? I’ve never had it but have heard and read that they can be quite tasty compared to most “varmints”. ---
**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, 12:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/42 "2019-01-23T00:55:34Z")
> [@River\_Hippie](#): > > Have you butchered and eaten raccoons? I’ve never had it but have heard and read that they can be quite tasty compared to most “varmints”. I have butchered and cooked them. I ain’t eating that crap. Mr.Wrekker eats pretty much anything he hunts. He ain’t got no class. ETA, coons are good smoked, so he says. ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 1:57am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/43 "2019-01-23T01:57:32Z")
> [@Tim\_T-Bonham.net](#): > > No, you want the muscular one. > Muscle is the meat, that’s better eating than the fat. Again based on experience, I would prefer a younger smaller one that isn’t so muscled. The big muscly ones are harder to skin and most definitely tougher of flesh. Fatty ones…well…are fatty…They don’t store fat in their muscles so much like cattle do so they aren’t well marbled. THey store it in large deposits under their skin and especially on the belly under their hind legs. They are more disgusting because they are so greasy. ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 2:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/44 "2019-01-23T02:14:06Z")
So, about 2.5 lbs of Cupcake the Destroyer? And a fur lined hat or pair of mittens. Maybe something with ground cat. l could stretch her out with some ground turkey. And hit the seasonings shelf at the grocery. Maybe a meat loaf or sausages. Hardly worth the effort. But I guess it was wise to not get the motor driven spit for the smoker/grill. Or fireplace. ---
**Author:** ![excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/e/e8c25b/32.png) [@excavating\_for\_a\_mind](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/excavating_for_a_mind)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 2:19am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/45 "2019-01-23T02:19:17Z")
> [@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. I don’t know about guitar strings, sutures, or even garters, but the story is that Doc Watson (Arthel Lane Watson), the old-time country guitar picker made famous, in part, by the Nitty Gritty Dirt Band’s “Will the Circle Be Unbroken” album, made his first banjo from the skin of a neighbor’s cat for the banjo head, because the head his father made from hog hide did not have a proper tone ([Cite](https://www.flatpick.com/category_s/2226.htm)). The neighbor was his grandmother, and the cat died of natural causes, and this would have been in the early 1930’s in Appalachia (Big Gap, North Carolina), where people had been living for decades without money, even without the Great Depression. It all just goes to show that use of animal parts, even those of pets, wasn’t unheard of in the production of musical instruments. ---
**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, 2:28am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/46 "2019-01-23T02:28:35Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Yeah, yeah but the fat gives it flavor. > > (I just threw up a little in my mouth. Yuk!) Deer fat is nasty. ---
**Author:** ![nightshadea](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/7ba0ec/32.png) [@nightshadea](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nightshadea)\ **Post date:** [January 23, 2019, 3:26am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/47 "2019-01-23T03:26:09Z")
don’t ever go to the “little tiger festival” in an SE Asian counyry its based off a ancient myth about a tiger saving a village from starvation during a natural disaster by self sacrifice …… I was invited by a family as a child and since it was all about cats and something new I went watching the plays and music got my face p ainted the usual and then the banquant of little tiger … it was done up like a sweet and sour dish with a few pieces on a little plate for each person now there was a buffet also and I was hungry so I ate my little plate while I was waiting for the buffet line to ease the people I was with watched me carefully I it was ok … but I wanted orange chicken so I went to get some …… Told dad about it since hed been ot asia …… and he said cool but when I went to the part about the snack , he was erm son you know what that was right ?..…. yeah … these days its just pork or something ---
**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, 3:36am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/48 "2019-01-23T03:36:01Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Deer fat is nasty. Yes it is. ---
**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, 6:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/49 "2019-01-23T06:15:47Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > 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. I’ve heard that feral pig is some of the best eatin’ out there, if you can bag one. I’ve seen ads for wild game dinners here in the Midwest that included beaver, opossum, and bobcat although I never attended one. As for raccoons, I used to work with a woman whose husband and his family hunted them and sold the pelts, and since none of them liked the meat, they stored it in their freezer and fed it to their dogs, who loved it. ---
**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, 7:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/50 "2019-01-23T07:34:38Z")
You couldn’t pay me to eat feral hog. It’s full of worms. If they catch it and worm it and wait the amount of time you need to then you have regular farmed pig. With a nasty aftertaste. It’s not good. I prefer my pork to come from PigglyWiggly.🙂 ---
**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, 7:48am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/51 "2019-01-23T07:48:20Z")
> [@nearwildheaven](#): > > I’ve heard that feral pig is some of the best eatin’ out there, if you can bag one. I’ve seen ads for wild game dinners here in the Midwest that included beaver, opossum, and bobcat although I never attended one. Sow is tasty. Most people don’t like meat from bigger boars, YMMV. I know of one guy who will live catch them, neuter the males, and slaughter them if sow or castrated. Beaver is supposed to be very good, if you can ignore the inevitable jokes. > [@](#): > > As for raccoons, I used to work with a woman whose husband and his family hunted them and sold the pelts, and since none of them liked the meat, they stored it in their freezer and fed it to their dogs, who loved it. Coastal Oregon bait shops all have mink meat for crabbing. Raccoon meat has a poor reputation and seen as low class, but there are [breeds](https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Coonhound)dedicated to hunting them so it can’t be all bad. > [@Beckdawrek](#): > > You couldn’t pay me to eat feral hog. It’s full of worms. If they catch it and worm it and wait the amount of time you need to then you have regular farmed pig. With a nasty aftertaste. It’s not good. I prefer my pork to come from PigglyWiggly.🙂 Some do, but the biggest vector of trichinosis is actually bear meat. Half the fish you buy is full of parasites, it’s just flash frozen and possibly cooked to make sure you’re only eating corpses. A lot of the “Hogzillas” that make a good photo op are probably somewhat fattened up artificially; they didn’t stumble across it. ---
**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, 8:09am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/52 "2019-01-23T08:09:01Z")
Mr.Wrekker has killed many feral hogs. In fact he just came home from a hog hunt in Texas. He reports he’s never seen one with out many types of worms. He won’t eat them and he usually will eat ANY wild game. They give/sell the carcasses to wild life refuges. The only other game he absolutely won’t eat is possum. ---
**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, 9:06am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/53 "2019-01-23T09:06:29Z")
> [@Beckdawrek](#): > > Mr.Wrekker has killed many feral hogs. In fact he just came home from a hog hunt in Texas. He reports he’s never seen one with out many types of worms. He won’t eat them and he usually will eat ANY wild game. They give/sell the carcasses to wild life refuges. The only other game he absolutely won’t eat is possum. The trichinella larvae are so tiny, best not google how many can be found per kg of meat. I think can be on the order of millions. Still not as alarming as potential prion diseases. ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2019, 12:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/54 "2019-01-24T00:45:25Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > Coastal Oregon bait shops all have mink meat for crabbing. I had wondered what was done with the meat from animals raised specifically for fur. I have heard that it used to be made into pet food; is that true? Are there mink farms in the region, or is it brought in from elsewhere? ---
**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 24, 2019, 12:58am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/55 "2019-01-24T00:58:38Z")
> [@thelurkinghorror](#): > > The trichinella larvae are so tiny, best not google how many can be found per kg of meat. I think can be on the order of millions. Still not as alarming as potential prion diseases. Yep, I don’t need to know that. They also carry round worm, tape worm and liver flukes. Too many for my taste. Ugh. ---
**Author:** ![Guinastasia](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/guinastasia/32/5751_2.png) [@Guinastasia](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Guinastasia)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2019, 2:02am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/56 "2019-01-24T02:02:01Z")
> [@Sigene](#): > > As someone who has skinned and gutted many cat Uh, why would you do that? ---
**Author:** ![dropzone](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/dropzone/32/7515_2.png) [@dropzone](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/dropzone)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2019, 5:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/57 "2019-01-24T05:25:48Z")
If you have to ask you probably don’t want to know. ---
**Author:** ![Sigene](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/df788c/32.png) [@Sigene](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Sigene)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2019, 3:37pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/58 "2019-01-24T15:37:50Z")
> [@Guinastasia](#): > > Uh, why would you do that? Taught Anatomy for several years. You would think big cats are easier to work with…they aren’t. Go for the medium ones, much easier to dissect. I also pulled many a tapeworm and scads of roundworms out of them, excellent learning opportunity! ---
**Author:** ![BenedictusXIV](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/b19c9b/32.png) [@BenedictusXIV](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/BenedictusXIV)\ **Post date:** [January 24, 2019, 4:16pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/59 "2019-01-24T16:16:33Z")
Smelly cat, smelly cat, who are they feeding you? ---
**Author:** ![nearwildheaven](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/n/90db22/32.png) [@nearwildheaven](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/nearwildheaven)\ **Post date:** [January 25, 2019, 12:16am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180/60 "2019-01-25T00:16:46Z")
> [@Sigene](#): > > Taught Anatomy for several years. You would think big cats are easier to work with…they aren’t. Go for the medium ones, much easier to dissect. > > I also pulled many a tapeworm and scads of roundworms out of them, excellent learning opportunity! Aha! Hadn’t even thought of that. I never had to do cat dissection, although nursing students did. They used pre-dissected cats, with the arteries and veins injected with latex, and also had an anatomy lab with human cadavers similarly prepared. [Previous page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180.md?page=2) [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/dressing-out-a-cat/828180.md?page=4)