my cat caught me a mouse... should I?

[yon yonson]

so i woke up this morning to a dead mouse on my back porch (pretty clean kill, no blood to speak of). my cat must have caught it and brought it to me. awesome. now, what to do with it? i know mice can be pretty dirty animals (especially in the city - but i live in the suburbs), so i'm seeking your opinion on whether or not i should eat it. i'm definitely going to skin it just because i've never skinned anything and want to learn. i was thinking i could freeze it for two weeks or whatever to kill any kind of parasites it may have and then eat it. i dunno guys. haha, am i crazy?

[Hannibal]

i was thinking i could freeze it for two weeks or whatever to kill any kind of parasites it may have and then eat it.

So you are really scared of them, arent' you?

[TylerDurden]

 Well, I wouldn't bother eating it - not because of the supposed parasite problem, which I understandably ignore given my past experiences, but because I have found it to be a major hassle to get any decent amount of flesh from raw rabbit-carcasses, which are much larger than those of mice. I am sure it's easier to get at the flesh if one cooks it as it then hangs off the bone, but in the raw state it sticks to the bone too easily, making it a hassle to remove. So, my rule is to not eat any raw carcasses which are smaller than a raw wild hare(as regards land mammals, not, of course, raw shellfish or raw fish).

[yon yonson]

So you are really scared of them, arent' you?

ha, i knew someone would say that. even after 2 and a half years eating all kinds of raw meat with no problems, yes, i guess im a little afraid of possible parasites in mice. this is kinda like the last step i could take: raw meat, raw insects, raw organs, high meat, and now raw rodents. haha. hannibal, would you just eat the mouse whole or what? have you eaten mouse before? has anyone? i know sully's had raw squirrel which is similar i guess but mice don't have as clean a diet i think. they eat more trash and stuff than squirrels. maybe i'll cut open it's stomach to see what it's been eating

[yon yonson]

So, my rule is to not eat any raw carcasses which are smaller than a raw wild hare(as regards land mammals, not, of course, raw shellfish or raw fish).

yeah, but i've actually read of people eating mice whole and raw. in jared diamond's 'collapse' he mentioned easter islanders eating raw mice whole once they depleted they're island of everything else. i guess that's not exactly and endorsement for eating mice though, ha

[TylerDurden]

Avoid eating mice or rats given their appalling junk-food diets in cities. Now in the country it would be fine as all that greenery would make a good diet, most likely. One common Roman delicacy was dormice, so I would be interested to see what a mouse fed on a decent raw diet tasted like.

[Hannibal]

i guess im a little afraid of possible parasites in mice.

Yeah, I understand that
If I were given that kind of sheep liver - http://www.kashvet.org/oasis/wp-content/uploads/2009/06/liver2.jpg, with Fasciola hepatica parasites I'd rather not eat it.

hannibal, would you just eat the mouse whole or what? have you eaten mouse before?

No, I've never eaten mice or that kind of rodents before.
I prefer large land mammels

[Iguana]

Cats eat it whole, with the skin, hair and stomach content. But there's a specie (shrew) they hunt by mistake but finally don't eat. Must be that. Even if it were edible for humans (I don't know, it's not for cats) I wouldn't eat it unless I'm very hungry and sure it has not eaten garbage from our civilization. It's so small, too much work for very little to eat I guess.  

[TylerDurden]

Well, pets do leave carcasses out for owners. I've seen it happen before.

[yon yonson]

just skinned it. the hide actually looks really nice and soft! gonna dry it now. i also gutted it. the stomach contents had no sign of trash or anything. looked just like a brown mush with a few hard white bits (bone maybe?). the liver also looked very clean. it looks like a really clean animal from what i can tell. nothing alarming about it really. but im still not sure. i'll probably just put it in a bag in my refrigerator until i decide whether or not to eat it.

thanks for the advice guys. i realize it's very small and not really worth the effort, but i am just really intrigued by wild natural animal products. maybe i'll even end up cooking it if i can't bring myself to eat it raw... or make some very small pieces of jerky, ha

[RawZi]

    I don't know.  Where did it live?  My cat caught moles in my yard.  I'm sure the moles were healthy.  I didn't eat them.  I probably really should have.  My loss. 

[yuli]

Ha ha, this is the cutest thread here.
Yon for sure make some nano-jerky, mouse jerky...lol!
My cat once skinned a mouse and left it beside my bed, I woke up to this slimy little cacoon thing, didn't look that appetizing.
If I had to eat mice I'd probably eat them whole since the bones are soft, tiny and chewable.
Or I'd skin and gut the mouse, put some seasalt over it and hang it to dry then eat it, or give it as a treat for a dog, lol

[yon yonson]

   Where did it live?

my backyard i guess. after looking at the stomach contents again, im pretty sure all he was eating was acorns (which are literally everywhere right now). pretty well fed it seems... and the skin is drying nicely.

[yon yonson]

Or I'd skin and gut the mouse, put some seasalt over it and hang it to dry then eat it

i was thinking about this too. it's so weird though, i skinned him so he (most definitely a he) pretty much looks like a tiny skinned rabbit but the skin immediately around the whiskers (and the whiskers themselves) didn't pull off with the rest of the skin. so it's this carcass with whiskers, ha. looks kinda cool actually.

[donrad]

Eat the liver for sure. Don't think twice it's all right. Let the carcass dry age, the meat will become tender and you can suck it off the bones. Or if the bones aren't too hard eat those too. If the bones are hard use them as toothpicks. I have a 1920's National Geographic that tells about Eskimos catching small birds and just eating the whole thing. They had nice teeth.

At the very least give it back to the cat.

[kurite]

i was thinking about this too. it's so weird though, i skinned him so he (most definitely a he) pretty much looks like a tiny skinned rabbit but the skin immediately around the whiskers (and the whiskers themselves) didn't pull off with the rest of the skin. so it's this carcass with whiskers, ha. looks kinda cool actually.

Me want pics! but seriously this is a really fun thread.

[yon yonson]

Eat the liver for sure. Don't think twice it's all right.

really? i've heard a lot about this hantavirus. sounds pretty shitty. not something i want really. does freezing 'kill' viruses? anyone know?

Me want pics!

ha, i'll try and do that. the carcass looks awesome actually. really clean. im proud of myself. first skinned animal well done

[chucky]

That's weird.

[Alan]

i'll buy that cat from you

[yon yonson]

no deal man. i like this cat.

by the way, i didn't ever eat it. threw it out. wasn't worth the risk

[miles]

What do you think about http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Rabies?

[Raw Kyle]

does freezing 'kill' viruses? anyone know?

I'm fairly certain freezing doesn't "kill" viruses. I used to think deep freezing killed bacteria, but where I work they store bacteria in a freezer that is on average -45 degrees Celsius. They are shipped with coolant that might be even colder. Eventually cold would break down proteins and viruses wouldn't be able to work after being thawed, but nothing you or I have would be cold enough for that.

[miles]

I only know about rabies because I was reading some stuff on it, but freezing preserves rabies(a virus) indefinitely Whereas if you leave a dead rabid animal at room temperature the virus would be gone after ~3 days. Less in warmer temperatures. This was only from one source, and it wasn't necessarily so clear as it was gone then it wasn't, but maybe it was gone in some parts but remained in others, or was gone but left traces, I don't remember.

Freezing does destroy parasites though.

I thought that freezing only de-animated bacteria.