Specifically, a standard American Shorthair Cat. Please, no jokes about Chinese restaurants: this is a serious question.
I’d guess a typical housecat would yield about one half pound (.23 kilograms) of decent meat. Would I be in the ballpark?
I’ve actually seen skinned cats. They apparently used them for biology classes at the college I attended years ago. I assumed that they were euthanized strays from the pound so they may have been typically lean.
I didn’t weigh one (I didn’t even touch one) but, without the skin and fur it looked like there might be 2 to 4 pounds of muscle depending on the size.
I don’t have data on cats, as mine seem to cute to eat.
On larger animals, I generally expect to get back just slightly less than half of the “dressed” weight as meat. (This is specifically for deer). Using this as a starting point works I think.
My cat weighs about 8 lb, take out about a pound for guts and fur, take half of that for bones & bits, multiply by a “fudge factor” of about 1/2, and I’d say you’d probably get about 2# of meat from a standard cat.
Of course, it’s likely to be stringy, and in small pieces.
If I had to eat one of my cats though, I’d go for the lazy 12# one. More marbling.
If only there were some way to be sure the feeling was mutual.
There isn’t.
In fact, I’ve seen this question on a cat message board but phrased somewhat differently.
It’s not. Cite.
I agree. Based on comment from my grandfather, who was an old-fashioned butcher for some 50 years. In early days, he actually went out to people’s farms and picked out cattle or hogs to bring back to his shop. He always said that you get about half the ‘live weight’ in salable meat.
Unfortunately there isn’t much marbling. Most of the fat is deposited under the skin, with a big pile on the belly, close to the hind legs.
Sigene…personally involved with >40 skinned and dissected cats
Well, I did say MORE, not GREAT! Besides, the fat cat doesn’t move nearly as much, so is likely to be more tender than my speedhound 8# cat.