Crows and seagulls taste terrible - even with hot sauce. Rats are questionable. Chipmunks are a lot of work for little meat.

 

Rat traps will do the chipmunks without much work.

 

From my experience of my "evil father" if you killed it you ate it. My little brother and I have eaten a lot of stuff. You can eat just about anything out there, even the breast of a robin will provide enough meat for a small sandwich. I've heard to stay away from moles, pigeons, gulls and couple others. There are a lot of third world survival books out there, actual stories not survival how toos, that tell tails of folks eating rats, cats, dogs anything they can get there hands on. I don't know if there are any particular this will make you sick, but of course you have diseases too, like I'm thinking if you ate a dog with rabies you'd get pretty dang sick, but I'm not a doctor. Snake is pretty good eating and easy to kill and to skin.

Just my experience

 

There are a lot of third world survival books out there, actual stories not survival how toos, that tell tails of folks eating rats, cats, dogs anything they can get there hands on. Just my experience

Dude, you can watch on TV and see markets that sell bat/rat/cat on a stick.
You think it's an outdoor pet store, but it's food they're selling.
There's one program that shows a guy eating anything and everything all over the world.

Heck, some folk won't eat hot dogs, unless they're kosher.

 

Turtles are very difficult to clean, but delicious.
I have never eaten pigeon or rat, but as long as the animal seems healthy, I would SHTF Call me nuts, but I believe post SHTF, rats (and possibly other urban creatures) could be easily bred as a food source.

 

I cleaned a snapping turtle once by shoving a water hose down its mouth and turning the water on...my intent was to put enough water in him to get his head out of the shell and cut his head off however it cleaned him right out and quick. I did not know how much pressure that hose could produce

 

Feral pigeons, a very common bird in my area, would be an excellent source of food, you could even catch a few and breed them. After SHTF if you find an old barn or feedlot, and even now, there will be hundreds if not thousands of pigeons.

 

Pigeons taste great.

Some of my family lives in downtown Washington D.C., so it was a good experiment a few years ago to shoot some pigeons for dinner. We scattered bread pieces on the roof of the 10 story apartment building, and his behind the air conditioning shack. When pigeons would land to eat the bread, we ( cousin with his Crossman and me with my Fienwerkebau would shoot. In about 20 minutes we had a half dozen plump pigeons. Once plucked and dressed, marinated in some soy cause, and grilled on a hibachi out on her 8th story balcony, it was as good as any Cornish Hens.

Roof top air rifle hunting is viable!:thumb:

 

We kept a coop with white homers in the back yard and raised them for our consumption.

 

Pigeon tastes just fine as long as they are healthy specimens.

Rat is not bad and takes spice easily.

Mouse is not worth the work involved in cleaning them for the meat, and tastes sort of...well...like meat...its generic as heck.

Squirrel I have had only once, and it was good in a stew.

I hear crow is not all that palatable, because they eat everything. I hear the same of gulls.

Rabbit is not too bad, but lacks certain essential proteins so don't use it as your primary.

Frog is not bad, if you are hungry.

I still want to try snake. I want to try turtle too.

 

The only problem with city pigeons is that they do carry a disease which can be harmful. In London a lot of the Europeans came in and started to eat them and got sick, so the Government had to release a public warning not to eat them.

It's all to do with the junk food they eat like cigerette butts and the like. Those outside the city are fine, it's just those in centralised areas.

 

In London a lot of the Europeans came in and started to eat (sic pigeons) them and got sick, so the Government had to release a public warning not to eat them.

The east European gypsies also caught, cleaned and cooked a couple of the swans in St.James Park.... just one more small bit of evidence of the serious difference in what is acceptable behaviour and what is not between the countries in Europe. Heaven help us Angela Merkel is now pushing hard for political integration to deal with the failures of financial integration.

 

Around here, some of the immigrants catch wild duck. That is probably a good idea.

Pigeons and rats, why not?

 

Around here, some of the immigrants catch wild duck. That is probably a good idea.

That's funny, we always hunted wild ducks.
The farmers would get mad if you shot their pet ducks.
Some city slickers think that all turkeys are wild too. When they're strutting in the yard, that means they're pets.

Great-grandmother had a turkey that would chase me and my bro when we were little.

 

I personally would have a hard time eating scavanger animals: valtures, rats, mice, coons and possums. I have seen some of the above rabid, and not to mention have seen then some of the stuff they have eaten. I know people have eatten the above, and lived, but how safe is it actually?

Also, some fish may not be edible if the mercury levels in the water are unsafe... for those that may not now.

-------

 

Vultures and possum would be the absolute bottom of the barrel for me. You never know what might look like good eatin when you are truly hungry.

I have eaten coon meat which was very well prepared and very good.

 

I have eaten a gull and swore never again, it had really tough meat with a "weird" taste, sort of dry and gamey. I regularly eat squirrel which is delicious. I have friends in Europe who regularly eat wood pigeon which is meant to be superb, but I would personally avoid the feral "flying rat" type. As for other animals, well I have read about urban sieges where after the zoo was picked clean, people have taken to the dumps and sewers seeking rats so I guess if people are desperate enough anything is possible. The main thing would be to really boil it like your life depended on it; because it may well do so.

 

I understand pigeon is a delicacy in some cultures, and was somewhat popular amongst the nobility during the middle ages.

Closely related is dove. I see beau coup around my neck of the woods (which is the city . Since I hunt dove every year anyway, I would have no problems doing that in the city.

As far as everything else, remember, Tobasco is your friend!:thumb:

 

My father used to keep pigeons as pets or an interest and a first generation Italian guy would come looking for the young pigeons to bring home to his family to eat. He always said they were good of the women and children but I'm sure he was into it as much as they were.

In a survival situation, "If its brown, it's down." Eat any sort of meat you can find.

 

If it gets that bad you will have a hard time finding anything. I know the Virgina Dept of Game estimared the deer population would not last 4 weeks in a situation that people HAD to hunt for food. That was an eye opener for me. First of all that aint long. Second, what caused them to figure that scenario out?

 

Probably data from the Great Depression that nearly wiped out the deer population of the entire US. Now, there's a lot more people around than in the 1920's.

 

It's my opinion that city critters would be fine for consumption. If they were ingesting enough of something that would hurt you then they wouldn't be alive.
I have squirrels, rabbits, doves, etc roaming around my yard in the burbs. There's also cattails and other eatable plants, catfish, frogs, ducks, deer, and beaver in the stream/wetlands adjacent to my neighborhood. I plan to have some of them for dinner ASAP if SHTF. They won't be around long if a major event happens.
Check out the wild places near you so that you know what and where eatable things are. Who knows, you might need them one day.

 

I eaten dog before and it's not bad. I know some people (like my wife) look at it as being terrible because we try to domesticate everything. But, if the shtf and you need food then domestic animals are fare game.

 

I imagined people would keep dogs for food and added benefit of some security.
Not much different then having pigs or chicken.

 

You can eat any animal that isn't toxic. Some taste better than others. Diseases are either bacterial or viral. Cooking effectively takes care of that. But you have to be careful not to get parasites, flea, ticks, etc., from the animal. Wear gloves and wash up carefully after cleaning them.

As a kid, I used to take all sorts of birds off the power lines with an air rifle and eat them. Sparrows, crows, pigeons, you name it. Cities where squirrels are common offer some good eating.

Rabbits are common in my area. They lack essential fats, so you can't live on just them for long without some side source of added fat. Well, you can if you eat the *entire* thing, brains and all. I tend to avoid the brains of rodents and critters because of possible prion contamination. Cooking has no effect on prions.

 

I wouldn't mind rats because I've had them and I can see how you can stuff them with carbs and they get FAT. It's unusual for an animal to produce fat that easily, so a wild rat will probably also have fat on its body. I don't think I'd wanna eat magpies and jackdaws. They just don't look tasty.

 

I've eaten rattle snake and desert ground squirrels. My aunt use to cook coon. (her husband was a big time coon hunter) I know that sounds weird but he was one of the more successful coon hunters in IN. (about 50 years ago)

 

Thanks for the replies everyone, I figure that it would depend on which SHTF scenario happens on weather or not it would be viable. Nuclear war could potentially make animals too radiated to eat.

And if there was something like an economy collapse, and not a lot of initial deaths...I don't see there being enough wild game to go around for everyone for very long...but even so, Fo' weeks is betta than No weeks lol.

 

anything with 4 legs and fur is good to eat.
insects with 6 legs are good.

cooking is the key to taking care of disease.

and remember, hormel chili doesn't run fast lol.

 

you can find deer, turkeys, ducks, geese, rabbits, doves/pigeons, and sometimes other animals like pheasants or grouse in suburban areas. you just need to know where to look and keep your eyes open.

 

All birds for sure. Rats and mice. Even bats.

 

most things in the city are edible that said as to what is killable with a pellet gun all depends on your shooting skill and the gun are we talking about a quackenbush air rifle capable of killing buffalo or we talking about a red ryder? that said if you get a decent pellet gun .22 cal you should be able to kill most things in your area with a well placed shot

 

I have a Gamo Silent Cat. I snagged a squirrell the other day, skinned it, gutted it and fried it up. Tasted great. I wasn't sure at first, because some people warned of "city squirells" But I live in a more suburban area, with woods all around. These squirrells eat the same as any wild one and it looked healthy.

 

I have had pigeon in a fancy restaurant. They call it "squab".