Cavy pelts

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Zass

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I know this is the rabbits for fur forum, but since it was about fur, I thought it might it belong here more than in around the coffee table.
Feel free to move it if you'd like to. :)

Just wanted to make a thread where people could toss out thought or ideas on the subject in general.
I did tan one guinea pig pelt, for my daughter. A mature boar.
The hair is soft, but not exactly plush like rabbit fur, as there is no undercoat. The skin itself is thick, kind of like the thinner parts of deer hide.
I can't think of much of a use for the skins, other than to sell to taxidermists, taxidermy students, or collectors.

The skin and fur do reminds me of rat pelts some, and I could see why there was fear of slip. I think, a lot of people who have worked with them must have worked with whole frozen ones intended for snake food, as that is the most common source I've seen. The pelts would have stayed on body heat much longer than pelts removed intermediately with tanning in mind.

In these pics, the pelt is greasy from over oiling. I'm in the processes of correcting that by washing the fur with soap and water, and than rebreaking. I left all his foot bones in, just because she really didn't want his feet damaged, and I'd never skinned a guinea pig before, so I didn't know how easily they might tear. Didn't want to risk it.

The way he's tanned, he's be suitable for soft sculpture taxidermy. Such skins usually fetch good prices, due to their rarity.

Anyone have any thoughts or ideas about guinea pig or cuy pelts? Possible uses? Pics of tanned ones?

__________ Wed Aug 31, 2016 8:26 pm __________

I wonder what a peruvian pelt would be like. I bet they would have all sorts of crafty uses.
 

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It may take a lot of animals but I do 10 at a time sometimes 2 or 3 days in a row. If I transfer that to cuy size with occasional full adults it adds up. I just have too much hand and wrist problems to scrape their greasy hides and then break them.
 
The leather itself is nice, and the fur is soft. It's just small. I was hoping I wasn't the only one on here weird enough to tan one. :oops:

One thing that jumps out at me was that I didn't find him especially difficult to scrape. Often fatty animals are really gross, but I noticed the piggy fleshed pretty easily. Infinitely more easy than say...real pig hide.l
 
I can't flesh rabbit hide. I had to give up and throw than all away for freezer space.
 
akane":56ux0koq said:
I can't flesh rabbit hide. I had to give up and throw than all away for freezer space.

I put them in a salt/acid solution (ph3) for about 2 days, then they are easier to flesh. After that I add alum to the solution and tan for a week.
 
Done it. I can't scrape hides. It doesn't matter what I soak them in. I even forgot some for about 5 days.
 
akane":39bnm2sb said:
Done it. I can't scrape hides. It doesn't matter what I soak them in. I even forgot some for about 5 days.

I was thinking about that. The only way I could see anyone with serious hand and wrist issues doing any amount of scraping, would be if they invested in a quality fleshing machine.

Something like this would probably work, but, I kind of doubt it'd be worth the investment for anyone who is not already quite well off, or not intending to make a career out of it:

http://www.fleshingmachine.com/
 
Zass":xj7cad4n said:
I was thinking about that. The only way I could see anyone with serious hand and wrist issues doing any mount of scraping, would be if they invested in a quality fleshing machine.

Something like this would probably work, but, I kind of doubt it'd be worth the investment for anyone who is not already quite well off, or not intending to make a career out of it:

http://www.fleshingmachine.com/


Wow, what an awesome machine! Think of how many pelts you could go through in an afternoon! Just WOW!
 
Yeah I have to use things like chopsticks left handed because of my wrist and my left isn't great. Plus my right shoulder and my back. It would be cool to do but there doesn't seem to be a cost effective way. If someone wants to venture into cut I can provide pelts to specification but I'd rather save my wrist for computer use stressors. <br /><br /> __________ Sun Sep 04, 2016 3:26 pm __________ <br /><br /> Despite saving it to my phone dictionary it insists cuy = cut. Which is better than some other "fixes" it insists on.
 
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