Trapping for food

Setting aside the legality and broad questions of ethics (for the cider press), if one is trapping for food, how does one make sure the animals are in a state that’s wholesome and good for eating? How long in what sort of weather can one wait, for instance?

We do wildlife management and take care of our game by furnishing food, water and shelter.

Just like with farm animals I would look for signs of disease.

From my experience most wildlife are healthy.

It might be wise to check with wildlife authorities as to what disease might be in your area.

My area of Texas is having a New Screw Worm epidemic so I would look for maggots or larva.

We also have a disease called Wasting Disease where the wildlife are thin or wasting.

I trap a few beaver every year - very good eating. Muskrat as well. Mammals that live in water have a lot of subcutaneous fat, which is high in calories. These are focused, targeted catches, where we're trying to catch specific animals. Ironic as I was having this conversation earlier today in real life (not online). To trap legally in Maine (all laws are state by state), you have to check your traps every day. And you want to, so you can process anything you catch right away. The difference between great meat and tastes kind of off is only a few hours of exposure to heat. Trapping season is during the colder part of the year here (with the exception of nuisance beaver), so caught animals are often dead and cold when we get to them. But it is all about getting the animal cold, fast, if the weather is warmer, to get good tasting meat.

If meat tastes a bit gamey, a good fix is to soak it in salted water overnight before cooking.

As far as the health of the animal, I agree that most wild animals are very healthy. As the other poster mentioned, it is a good idea to check with local fish and game to learn about any diseases in the area and what to look for.

Anne Miller wrote:We do wildlife management and take care of our game by furnishing food, water and shelter.
Just like with farm animals I would look for signs of disease.
From my experience most wildlife are healthy.
It might be wise to check with wildlife authorities as to what disease might be in your area.
My area of Texas is having a New Screw Worm epidemic so I would look for maggots or larva.
We also have a disease called Wasting Disease where the wildlife are thin or wasting.

So correct, Anne: in the same way that we can't expect our soil to keep producing without putting something in, so it is with animals. That's why I don't worry too much about "waste", and it's not a bad idea to grow "decoy foods", provided you can make your cherished crop produce at the same time as your decoy food, of course.
I use some road kill to give more protein to my chickens. It's free, so that's a good price.
If I were to trap around here, it would be rabbits. I'm only a fair shot, so trapping might be a good sport to engage in. I have a "Havahart" trap, but I never caught anything  in it.  I'm not sure what I'm doing wrong: they just don't visit the trap. The carrots stay in, uneaten. I'm told that for rabbits, I must wait util hard frost, as they occasionally have worms in the summer.
I shot and killed a rabbit when it wasn't quite cold enough yet. It was good and killed and I proceeded to skin it when I noticed a mass moving under its skin, in the neck area. That cut off my appetite right away. Yuck!

I agree checking with your local wildlife agency is the perfect place to start. Most states require checking the traps every day but I suggest at least twice per day, especially in hot weather.

Cooking the meat thoroughly will eliminate many potential problems. A diseased animal is sometime fairly obvious. Sometimes not. I think avoiding the organs might minimize risk from disease.

I have trapped probably more than 1000 wild pigs. All except one became food. That one obviously had problems so it was composted. I am not aware of anyone ever getting sick from any those pigs.

About the Havahart trap ... try baiting the desired trap location for a while without the trap. Then keep baiting a while longer with the trap close by but not set. Gradually leave the bait closer & closer to the trap. Then put the bait inside the trap.

Mike Barkley wrote:I agree checking with your local wildlife agency is the perfect place to start. Most states require checking the traps every day but I suggest at least twice per day, especially in hot weather.

Cooking the meat thoroughly will eliminate many potential problems. A diseased animal is sometime fairly obvious. Sometimes not. I think avoiding the organs might minimize risk from disease.

I have trapped probably more than 1000 wild pigs. All except one became food. That one obviously had problems so it was composted. I am not aware of anyone ever getting sick from any those pigs.

Wow! I had heard that wild pigs were a real problem in several southern states, but WOW! I'm a big partisan of eating that kind of problem: invasive mussels, invasive pigs, snails, nutrias... I'm not enough of a hunter, plus living in central Wisconsin is a bit far to go hunting in Texas myself, but if folks down south would kill and sell these animals, first, is it legal? second, how much would they go for?  I wonder how large they get... but I'd love to try and get one.
Just wondering...

Mike Barkley wrote:About the Havahart trap ... try baiting the desired trap location for a while without the trap. Then keep baiting a while longer with the trap close by but not set. Gradually leave the bait closer & closer to the trap. Then put the bait inside the trap.

Thanks for the tip, Mike. (It may ruin me in carrots, but hey. It's worth a try). We have piles of disparate logs where they like to lay low.
It's quite warm right now, but in a couple of weeks, around the 24th-25th of September, we get our first frost. I'll have to try that...

but if folks down south would kill and sell these animals, first, is it legal? second, how much would they go for?  I wonder how large they get... but I'd love to try and get one.

In general it is not legal to sell them. There might be some very special exceptions though. Meat processors need a special permit to process wild game for the hunter/trapper's consumption. We had so many we usually didn't dress them out ourselves. We took them by the truckload to a professional processor. I don't know what they might sell for if that were an option. We gave away all we couldn't eat.

Some get huge if they avoid traps long enough. I caught some that were in the 400 pound range. Maybe more. Huge. Mostly they were in the 50-200 lb range because we set traps constantly to try to keep the population down. They breed young & fast so it's almost an impossible task.

We have piles of disparate logs where they like to lay low.

That's where to put the trap. Another suggestion with that type of trap is to open only one door. Put the bait in the back of the trap so they have to cross over the plate  on the bottom that activates the trap door(s).