Preserving Rabbit Pelt

[shantiah]

My neighbour just gave me a meat rabbit which he just killed. The dogs thoroughly enjoyed eating the meat but I want to somehow preserve the pelt for them as a play toy but have no idea how to do it or if it is even possible in a normal backyard situation

It is currently sitting in the dog fridge. Dont want to do anything toxic to it as the dogs are likely to injest some of the fur

Hoping the DOL collective wisdom may know

[Bilbo Baggins]

My neighbour just gave me a meat rabbit which he just killed. The dogs thoroughly enjoyed eating the meat but I want to somehow preserve the pelt for them as a play toy but have no idea how to do it or if it is even possible in a normal backyard situation

It is currently sitting in the dog fridge. Dont want to do anything toxic to it as the dogs are likely to injest some of the fur

Hoping the DOL collective wisdom may know

Is the pelt intact or has it been split???

My father used to dry them inside out over a piece of No 8 fencing wire. It was U shaped probably about 50 cm long.

He would pull the pelt over the wire and the "legs" of the wire would stretch the pelt tight. Then hung up in the dairy to dry out.

We then sold them in town.

[shantiah]

Thanks heaps

Have cut the head and legs off but otherwise it is one big round hollow piece so Im guessing that will work.

How long do you have to hang it for ?

[Erny]

I took a dried rabbit pelt into 'Show and Tell" at primary school one day. Teacher was horrified as wriggly things were falling off it (I didn't know until I held it up). She quickly thanked me and shuffled me off. I didn't understand what the fuss was about. They were only wrigglies. They would give me the heebee jeebies now. Funny what age does to you. Anyway, obviously the rabbit pelt I had wasn't dried properly.

Sorry for the OT chat.

[Rebanne]

dry it or tan it? is there a difference?

to me drying it, the pelt would end up really stiff but tanning it makes it supple

[Aidan3]

Google "brain tanning", it's certainly something you can do at home. Get enough of them and you could make yourself a fine coat or a pair of chaps.

[Souff]

I took a dried rabbit pelt into 'Show and Tell" at primary school one day. Teacher was horrified as wriggly things were falling off it (I didn't know until I held it up). She quickly thanked me and shuffled me off. I didn't understand what the fuss was about. They were only wrigglies. They would give me the heebee jeebies now. Funny what age does to you. Anyway, obviously the rabbit pelt I had wasn't dried properly.

Sorry for the OT chat.

[Souff]

My neighbour just gave me a meat rabbit which he just killed. The dogs thoroughly enjoyed eating the meat but I want to somehow preserve the pelt for them as a play toy but have no idea how to do it or if it is even possible in a normal backyard situation

It is currently sitting in the dog fridge. Dont want to do anything toxic to it as the dogs are likely to injest some of the fur

Hoping the DOL collective wisdom may know

Is the pelt intact or has it been split???

My father used to dry them inside out over a piece of No 8 fencing wire. It was U shaped probably about 50 cm long.

He would pull the pelt over the wire and the "legs" of the wire would stretch the pelt tight. Then hung up in the dairy to dry out.

We then sold them in town.

My father also did that when I was a kid. There were often bunny skins, turned inside out and hung up on wire to dry. A bloke used to buy them for about a shilling each (i think) and I think that they finished up as Akubra hats

You can also SALT small skins:

http://www.instructables.com/id/Curing-Sma...o-properly-dry/

[Polecatty]

I would stretch it over a piece of wire and let it dry- it'll retain more scent. Once it's dry you can split the skin and let them go for it.

I wouldn't bother tanning it. Tanning is smelly, time consuming and complicated. Rabbit skins are quite thin and delicate, so you can expect it to be in parts very quickly, tanned or not.

[shantiah]

Thanks everyone. Think I will just dry it. The idea of curing one sounds good but the dogs are greyhound puppies so I dont expect its not going to last all that long anyway. I can see white rabbit fur snow is going to be spread everywhere very soon. A greyhound white Christmas Oh well, they will have fun

[Kirislin]

I dried and salted the ones I got. I have a beautiful fox pelt out there right now. They go stiff and if they got wet they'd get smelly again if you didn't dry them out properly. Sounds like it wont be around that long with the pups though.

[shantiah]

I dried and salted the ones I got. I have a beautiful fox pelt out there right now. They go stiff and if they got wet they'd get smelly again if you didn't dry them out properly. Sounds like it wont be around that long with the pups though.

Souffs link tells you what to do to make it not stiff, but I have no idea where to get the alcohol stuff although the neetsfoot oil is easy