# The Urban Squirrel



## BillHoo (Mar 16, 2005)

It's generally accepted that once TSHTF, small game will be depleted very quickly as everyone starts subsistance hunting.

It's hard enough finding a WMA that has a handful of squirrels to hunt. Made harder by the fact that the squirrels in the wild are more cautious and harder to get a bead on.

Got me thinking about the semi-domesticated city squirrel.

He will easily approach people for a handout, or to check out the castoff from lunch in the litter basket.

Considering that he has almost no predators, the Urban Grey Squirrel seems to thrive.

Now, I wouldn't eat one freshly killed. The city has too many toxins for him to get into and which he may have developed a resistance (rat poison, squirrel baits, roofing tar, fiber glass, etc.)

If I were to go after city squirrels, I suppose I would trap them. 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.

Then it would be eatin' time!

As I was jogging around Crystal City, VA I once saw a possum disappear into a thicket of shubbery. The cover was no bigger than a car and this was in the middle of an area with nothing but hi-rises for a 3 mile radius! Probably some raccoons too.

Maybe a city rat would not be a bad idea to cultivate for meat. Just put 'em through a detox and fattening period before butchering.

Anyone ever consider this?


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## NoClue (Jan 22, 2007)

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.


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## AngieM2 (May 10, 2002)

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


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## Lindafisk (Nov 17, 2004)

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!


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## Ernie (Jul 22, 2007)

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."


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## BillHoo (Mar 16, 2005)

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!




NoClue said:


> 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.


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## gideonprime (Oct 17, 2007)

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)


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## hoggie (Feb 11, 2007)

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


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## NoClue (Jan 22, 2007)

BillHoo said:


> 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


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## virtualco (Feb 3, 2006)

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:


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## tn_junk (Nov 28, 2006)

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.


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## tamsam (May 12, 2006)

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


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## Wanderer0101 (Jul 18, 2007)

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


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## Freeholder (Jun 19, 2004)

hoggie said:


> 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


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## JGex (Dec 27, 2005)

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?


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## Ernie (Jul 22, 2007)

JGex said:


> 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.


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## Ohio Rusty (Jan 18, 2008)

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 ><>


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## JGex (Dec 27, 2005)

Ernie said:


> 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.
> 
> ...


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!!


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## Ernie (Jul 22, 2007)

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.


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## JGex (Dec 27, 2005)

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.....


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## Ernie (Jul 22, 2007)

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.


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## JGex (Dec 27, 2005)

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


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## hunter gatherer (Dec 6, 2002)

BillHoo said:


> 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.


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## JGex (Dec 27, 2005)

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.


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## Ann-NWIowa (Sep 28, 2002)

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.


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## JGex (Dec 27, 2005)

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.
> 
> ...


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## Ann-NWIowa (Sep 28, 2002)

I'm not so fond of squirrel as to actually spend money buying it. Its more of a shtf food item for us. Sort of a prep on the hoof so to speak or in this case on the paw. If dh was still hunting, we'd still be eating squirrel but until and unless its legal or we're hungry enough to do illegal he won't be shooting them out of his lawn chair. (DH is disabled and can no longer walk well enough to go hunting and I'm a lousy shot. The rat trap sounds about right for me.) BTW dh has scars on his thumb from picking up a squirrel the "thought" was dead. Had to beat it to death to get it to let loose...they are not friendly animals.


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## Jim-mi (May 15, 2002)

My mossburg likes to talk to those nasty inbred tree rats. Far to much damage caused by them.


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## tamsam (May 12, 2006)

We have these squirrels up here when you can find them that will feed several families for a week. Only thing is you need a good 30-30 or a like gun to get them and you don't go after them alone as they can be pretty mean. Just had to share this picture. Sam


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## tamsam (May 12, 2006)

It took me several minutes to figure out that the men are GI Joe action figures. Sam


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## JGex (Dec 27, 2005)

Ann-NWIowa said:


> I'm not so fond of squirrel as to actually spend money buying it. Its more of a shtf food item for us. Sort of a prep on the hoof so to speak or in this case on the paw. If dh was still hunting, we'd still be eating squirrel but until and unless its legal or we're hungry enough to do illegal he won't be shooting them out of his lawn chair. (DH is disabled and can no longer walk well enough to go hunting and I'm a lousy shot. The rat trap sounds about right for me.) BTW dh has scars on his thumb from picking up a squirrel the "thought" was dead. Had to beat it to death to get it to let loose...they are not friendly animals.


lol, they're not really selling dehydrated squirrel..... you have to follow the link:

http://www.internet-grocer.net/squirrel2.htm


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## unregistered29228 (Jan 9, 2008)

Thanks for the link, JGex. I bought one of the sample cans just to let the family try it. If they like it, I'll order more.....


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## Thomas G. (Feb 26, 2021)

JGex said:


> 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.
> 
> ...


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 😔


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

You dredge up a 12 year old post and quote a person who hasn't been here in 8 years with an incoherent post complaining about how that poster is incoherent?

I love squirrel, they are very good when fried like chicken. Unfortunately the season is almost over here.


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## Wellbuilt (Dec 25, 2020)

dinner is served Bon appétit Dinner fit for a king .👍


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

Looks more like a guinea pig. The ones here are longer with more muscular hind legs. Those tree rats spend too much time tearing up my gardens and tearing up my bird feeders. 

I know hawks take their share, I would love to see a hawk catch one!


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## Wellbuilt (Dec 25, 2020)

😆you know your rodents, bingo South American guinea pig , the dam thing was tasty .
I like squirrel ,rabbit , I could eat just about any thing .
When I was a kid , 10 years old
There was a old black lady that lived a few doors down and she could deep fry a rattler like no mans Business.
I just did not have a good pic of a Squirrel plated up .
I think they taste very nutty .


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## Danaus29 (Sep 12, 2005)

I know several people who go absolutely nuts if you mention eating cavies. They are similar to people who go nuts if you mention raising rabbits to eat. I was having a conversation with a co-worker from Vietnam about "poor man's meat" and a young lady overheard the part about cats and dogs and nearly fainted.

While I have never eaten one I have heard guinea pigs are pretty good. I had a gp once, they really don't make good pets, IMO. I would eat one if it was offered. 

Would you eat balut? I don't think I could eat that. Just the thought of it makes me queasy.


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## Wellbuilt (Dec 25, 2020)

I am not eating cats and dogs but poodle is it delicacy in China .
my daughter is Chinese and she just loves the nastiest stuff .
🤣 just had to Google balut , yep I had on of those on my plate after a trip to China town.
I feed it to the poodle when she was not looking .
they do a lot of nasty stuff with eggs .
1000 year old egg .
I had the prettiest little Spanish girl in my yard in a white mini skirt
and pumps cooking the little rodents on a fire pit she dug .
They where smuggled in to the country in luggage Thru the air port
I’m half Norwegian and we eat all kinds of gnarly stuff we eat mostly rain dear or mutton
Not much beef there lots of sardines and little fish with the heads on .
squirrel season ends tomaro here I’ll get some next year


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## kinderfeld (Jan 29, 2006)




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## GREENCOUNTYPETE (Jul 25, 2006)

I clean out a bunch of squirrels every other year , box traps in town, yes legal.


trapping is a far better way to subsistence hunt small game than making a lot of noise with a gun. it is best if it is below 40 and you check traps regular 1-2 times a day

that said you will go through the available population rather fast

raccoon , beaver , muskrat . possum , squirrel , rabbit

A voice from heaven told Peter to kill and eat


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## Wellbuilt (Dec 25, 2020)

In a shtf situation a trap would be best , I like the sport of shooting them . 
I use a Remington 22 with scope . 
And go for head shots , If Ikill it I eat it . 
I have to get a few of them to make it worth the trouble .


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