I've thought of this, and I feed my neighborhood squirrels (and birds) - sunflower seeds all year round with some suet in the winter - our winters aren't that cold here. The result is I have some of the fattest squirrels I've ever seen running around my back yard.

I haven't set a snare since I was a kid, and I haven't eaten a squirrel since I was a young teenager, but they're still there if I ever need them.

 

the thought passed my mind when I had 6 -9 fat squirrels dining on the seeds I putout on my front porch. they would chatter when seeing me.

I've not fed them in awhile, but thinking about it - neat entertainment.

Use to be country setting, city coming out to get us.

Angie

 

When we lived in the suburbs we had LOTS of squirrels and fat, fat doves. Everywhere- in the yard, at the feeders, all over the neighborhood. Here we have NONE! The only thing we seem to have is buzzards and swallows and I'm not eating them! We also seem to have a lot of tarantulas and wolf spiders......bleck!

 

If squirrels were a good converter of food to meat calories, then people would probably already have domesticated them in some way like we did rabbits.

A rat is the same animal as a squirrel, just without a cute fluffy tail to get it a free break from society. You can eat them, and live on them, but don't expect to turn a calorie surplus by feeding them your existing food. Better to catch them, kill them, and eat them right away.

As for toxins, even a city squirrel is not going to eat fiberglass or roofing tar or similar poisonous substances. They may gnaw it, but not in concentrated amounts. I think if you're reduced to eating those for meat, you're not going to be as picky as to worry about putting a squirrel through a detox program.

Also, if the food supply chain is sufficiently reduced to cause you to seek wild game within the city limits, what do you think those 3 million other people in your surrounding area are going to be doing? Most likely some of those good citizens have already formed hunting parties and are thinking, "the joggers in Crystal City would be great eating if you put them through a detox and fattening period before butchering."

 

Oh nooooo!

Don't feed them in the wild. They will start to come into your home via the soffits in the roof and rip holes in your walls and cut up your wiring!

I've thought of this, and I feed my neighborhood squirrels (and birds) - sunflower seeds all year round with some suet in the winter - our winters aren't that cold here. The result is I have some of the fattest squirrels I've ever seen running around my back yard.

I haven't set a snare since I was a kid, and I haven't eaten a squirrel since I was a young teenager, but they're still there if I ever need them.

 

No need to fatten up an urban squirrel. Most of the ones I see in the city are planty fat eating from trash bins and resturant dumpsters.

MMmmmmmm . . . Squirrel pie . . . . (drool) (See Homer Simpson)

 

another thought along similar lines is a pigeon loft. They are a bit like bees in that they go off and find their own food, and jus tcome home at nights to sleep.

used to be considered so valuable that only the lords of the manor were allowed to have a dovecote.

hoggie

 

Oh nooooo!

Don't feed them in the wild. They will start to come into your home via the soffits in the roof and rip holes in your walls and cut up your wiring!

I've never had this problem and I've been feeding squirrels and birds for a long time.

The difference between me and my neighbors is

1. I know how to set a snare
2. Eating squirrel isn't an act of desperation for me
3. I know what to do with the squirrel once I've caught it and it doesn't bother me in the slightest

 

Where I live here is SW FL there are Muscovy ducks running wild. They get 10-15 lbs and just waddle from driveway to driveway crapping anytime, anywhere. They are considered a pest but I have been keeping my eyes on them...

...just in case.:stirpot:

 

I had some folks from Korea working with me one time. Got to talking about squirrels, fried with gravy and biscuits, and they got plum ill. Said no person should ever eat a "tree rat" no matter how hungry they were! Glad we didn't mention the 'possum and sweet 'taters.
This is from folks that admit to eating, and liking, all sorts of things we wouldn't want to eat.
Just depends on how you were raised.

 

When I lived in Fla there was ducks every where. Thet were trying to get rid of them but didn't have much luck. They were wormy back then but don't know about now. And yep don't go out bare footed in Fla till you wash off the walk. Sam

 

Most of these urban squirrels are pretty old. Ever tried to eat an old squirrel? Your teeth bounce.

 

another thought along similar lines is a pigeon loft. They are a bit like bees in that they go off and find their own food, and jus tcome home at nights to sleep.

used to be considered so valuable that only the lords of the manor were allowed to have a dovecote.

hoggie

Hoggie, actually the reason that dovecotes used to be limited is because the flocks of pigeons were death on newly planted grain. In order to be able to have any grain crops, they had to make it so that every Tom, Dick, and Harry couldn't have a dovecote.

When I was growing up, ALL of our meat came from hunting and fishing; where we lived, there was plenty of game, and more than plenty. However, somewhere along the way, I decided that raising your own meat was both a more certain way of having meat, and also safer, since wild animals are usually infected with various parasites and who-knows-what germs. Trichinosis and tularemia are only two of the diseases you can get from wild animals.

Rather than depend on an uncertain supply of possibly infected meat in the cities, where you have a lot of competition for the available wildlife, get a few rabbit cages going, or even guinea pigs. You can raise caged animals in your apartment as long as you keep the cages clean, and they can eat weeds harvested from alongside the roads, or in parks or wherever. You won't have much competition for that (until everybody else starts doing the same thing, at least -- and by that time, I would think a lot of folks would already have died). People can't eat grass and twigs, or old weeds that have gotten woody and bitter, but rabbits certainly can, and will do well on them.

Kathleen

 

Let me tell you a little story as to "why" I would be hesitant to eat city squirrel.....

So my best friend is a tattoo artist. He started out at a shop in New Jersey where, as all tattoo shops everywhere are required to do, they put their medical bio-hazard waste out for collection curbside in the little bio-hazard waste can.

One day after the trash went out, someone in the shop noticed a fat little grey squirrel diggin around in their trash.... and then he managed to breach the bio-hazard box with all the disposed tattooing needles.

Every week thereafter, the guys in the shop watched and each week the little squirrel repeated his dumpster diving in their trash. They affectionately nick-named the little squirrel Heppy the Squirrel.... as in Hep C.

Think about it.... do you want to eat a squirrel that's been playing with used needles?

 

Let me tell you a little story as to "why" I would be hesitant to eat city squirrel.....

So my best friend is a tattoo artist. He started out at a shop in New Jersey where, as all tattoo shops everywhere are required to do, they put their medical bio-hazard waste out for collection curbside in the little bio-hazard waste can.

One day after the trash went out, someone in the shop noticed a fat little grey squirrel diggin around in their trash.... and then he managed to breach the bio-hazard box with all the disposed tattooing needles.

Every week thereafter, the guys in the shop watched and each week the little squirrel repeated his dumpster diving in their trash. They affectionately nick-named the little squirrel Heppy the Squirrel.... as in Hep C.

Think about it.... do you want to eat a squirrel that's been playing with used needles?

I find it terribly evil that "human beings" who don't have any respect for Gods creations would be so incoherent a selfish to the nature that surrounds them urban or not. Its to bad and ver terribly sad 😔

 

Think about it.... do you want to eat a squirrel that's been playing with used needles?

Faced with starvation? You betcha.

Also consider that many human diseases do not transfer over into animals. The only animal we've ever seen successfully contract (with our help in a lab) hepatitis is a chimpanzee.

There was a time, during a particular brutal phase of military training, that I almost came to blows with a good friend and a fellow soldier over the prize we found under a rotting log ... about a dozen fat grubworms. If when we'd started that training someone had told us we'd be so happy to find worms we would have never believed them. Somethings you just can't believe until you've really, really been hungry. Like going on your twelfth day with no food. Not a little food, but no food. None. And during high stress, high activity days as well. After the third day your stomach isn't even rumbling anymore because it's stopped expecting food.

If the world collapses and you're reduced to hunting squirrels in an urban environment, it'll be because you can't find any dogs. And you'll also be in such a lawless environment that you won't be bopping along down the street with your squirrel gun over your shoulder. You'll be doing sneaky-peek up and down the alleys and hiding behind the stripped and abandoned husks of cars. Because while you're hunting a squirrel, someone else will be hunting you.

 

At a rental place I lived at years ago, there were squirrels EVERYWHERE !!
I baited them into the yard using walnuts. When they made a habit of coming to the yard, I baited one of the BIG rat traps you buy in the store with peanut butter and mounted the trap on top the wooden fence. My best take was 6 squirrels in one evening. Once I pulled a deceased squirrel from the trap, walked away and before I could get in the house WHACK !! there was another one in the trap. These traps have plenty of power and they work very well on squirrels. Easy way to harvest game in an urban environment without the noise of a gun.
Ohio Rusty ><>

 

Faced with starvation? You betcha.

Also consider that many human diseases do not transfer over into animals. The only animal we've ever seen successfully contract (with our help in a lab) hepatitis is a chimpanzee.

There was a time, during a particular brutal phase of military training, that I almost came to blows with a good friend and a fellow soldier over the prize we found under a rotting log ... about a dozen fat grubworms. If when we'd started that training someone had told us we'd be so happy to find worms we would have never believed them. Somethings you just can't believe until you've really, really been hungry. Like going on your twelfth day with no food. Not a little food, but no food. None. And during high stress, high activity days as well. After the third day your stomach isn't even rumbling anymore because it's stopped expecting food.

If the world collapses and you're reduced to hunting squirrels in an urban environment, it'll be because you can't find any dogs. And you'll also be in such a lawless environment that you won't be bopping along down the street with your squirrel gun over your shoulder. You'll be doing sneaky-peek up and down the alleys and hiding behind the stripped and abandoned husks of cars. Because while you're hunting a squirrel, someone else will be hunting you.

See, you're expecting a break down far worse than I expect it to. Indeed, if the world gets THAT bad, I'll even eat cockroaches. Until then, I'm not eating the city squirrels!!

 

In case you should ever face the need, the proper way to eat a bug is to pull the legs off and then toss it back and swallow in one gulp. Unless it's something pretty heinous (stinkbug) then there's no flavor. Once it's in your belly the protein is there and will stay, but if you have to bite into a bug and have its nasty little bug guts squirt into your mouth then you are going to gag and spit it out and possibly lose whatever of the other little contents are in your stomach. You pull the legs off because you don't what the bug scratching at your throat on the way down.

And I'm not eating city squirrels either. In fact, I make it a point to be as far from any major city as possible already. Most days I can hear my future potential meals crowing out in the barnyard or singing sweet songs in the garden. Sometimes I hear them "baaaa" at me from the barn. Sure beats a needle-loving squirrel.

 

Man, I just watched Andrew Zimmerman's show on eating "exotic" bugs like tarantulas and Madagascar Hissing Roaches.... I could do it if I had to as I eat raw sea urchin roe and raw quail eggs and some other fairly nasty stuff that "normal" people don't usually eat, but the tarantula on the stick did make me gag just a little!

I think none of us really know what we are capable of because I doubt very few of us have ever been TRULY hungry before.

I've eaten nutria, snake, frog, alligator, and all other domestic raised animals. I love my pets, but if I had to, my cat would be a nice stew.....

 

Just discard the innards when eating your cat. The liver and other internal organs store up too much Vitamin A and it can poison you. Same with the eyeballs. They have massive amounts of Vitamin A that will make you sick real fast.

Be careful when skinning it too. Though they say there is more than one way to skin a cat, the only good way is any way which doesn't allow the hair to ever come in contact with the meat. You think it clings to your sofa? Wait until you're trying to get it out of your stew.

 

Ya know, I don't even want to know how you know all of that......

 

Then feed them nutritious foods, high in fiber to clean their insides and to detox them. I'm guessing two weeks should be enough time. Maybe get them a bit fatter too.

I think I would just eat those nutritious and high fiber foods myself....and bypass the squirrel. Much more simple in my opinion.

 

Roving Rogue Russian Squirrels Kill Dog

http://news.bbc.co.uk/2/hi/europe/4489792.stm

Watch out... them city squirrels could get mean if they catch wind they're being considered as Food.

 

I've got my eye on several fat squirrels that keep raiding our bird feeders plus even more fat rabbits that eat grain from bird feeders off the ground. They also raid my garden every year. Squirrels love to take a bite out of each tomato so as to ruin as many as possible and rabbits will eat any/everything. SHTF they will become dinner.

Dh once shot a squirrel that was skinned, gutted, soaked in salt water then slow roasted for an afternoon...could not even dent it with our teeth...I'm convinced dh didn't shoot it, that it died of old age. A powerful pellet gun will take out a rabbit or squirrel but not your neighbor. I'm sure pellet guns are illegal in town let alone the city, but shtf might be worth considering. Dh currently uses an old bb gun to 'discourage' squirrels, rabbits, neighborhood dogs and cats from our garden. The rat trap idea is very good and we have a walnut tree for lots of bait.

 

http://www.internet-grocer.net/squirrel.htm

Well, now there's no need to go to all that trouble to befriend and betray a squirrel, nor to have to trek into the woods with a shotgun to hunt them. Just add some water to our (exclusive) dehydrated squirrel, let it sit overnight and, next day, sit down to a delicious, non-gamy rehydrated squirrel.

These little beauties are raised on a certified organic farm in Tennessee, are carefully eviscerated and skinned (choose from bone-in, the more expensive bone-out, or from the deluxe squirrel filet) and they're certified rabies-free by the FDA. (Since this is such a new product, FDA inspectors are onsite constantly and they inspect the meat much more closely than beef or pork.) Each carcass is inspected twice by line workers to be sure it is hair-free.

The squirrels are allowed to free range on a 3 acre, tree-filled lot, so they live a full, rich life before they are harvested. This gives them the same muscle-tone that you find in a wild squirrel. Because the farm can control what they eat, their taste is not nearly as gamy as wild squirrels. If you're a lover of squirrel meat, this is a product you've got to try!

Click here to go to the exclusive Squirrel Meat ordering page.

#10 Can (gallon) #2.5 Can (quart)

Dehydrated Squirrel Meat, bone in 25.95 (40 squirrels) 7.00 (10 squirrels)
Dehydrated Squirrel Meat, bone out 31.95 (40 squirrels) 8.50 (10 squirrels)
Squirrel Filets 42.95 (82 filets) 12.00 (20 filets)