tanning hide with intact ears, tail, feet?

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ohiogoatgirl

ohiogoatgirl

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i was wondering if it was possible to do a rabbit hide with all the feet, both ears, and tail intact. was thinking it would make an awesome little wall hanging type deal. or for a side table. or you could put a backing on it and have a sweeeet pillow... :mrgreen: i have a billion and ten ideas and no rabbits. hee hee. :lol:
so is this possible? how hard would it be? read about the battery acid recipe. the thread with the S.S.R. link. i would really like to try that and see how they turn out.

also with the S.S.R. link recipe would you suppose i could use that for a deer or goat hide? small-ish hide of course. i may have to just try it out myself and tell you guys if it worked. :roll: of course that also hinges upon me getting a deer this season... fingers crossed!!!

thanks! :bunnyhop:
 
I've read of the Indians making blankets with pelts that still had the ears on. After a while, they go back over the blanket and twist the ears to break them off of the blanket. They grow hard over time, since the skin has not been fleshed and "broken".

I imagine the same thing would happen with the feet and tail, but even more so, because they'd still have the bones inside. Did you ever have a rabbit's foot as a kid? I did... not for good luck, but because it was so soft. The fur was soft, but that foot was hard as a rock.
 
well i expected the ears and feet to be hard. hmm... so if i wanted a pillow from it i wouldnt want the ears/feet. but it would still make a sweet wall hanging.
 
You can do that but you have to flesh out the ears and tail and toes. I have helped a friend of mine who is a taxadermist (spelling?) do this with deer and it is difficult. Practice on a few that you wouldn't mind messing up on first,and be sure ears and toes are inside out for soaking and tanning so the the skin inside gets saturated. A surgical razor blade is best used since its small.


Edit: flesh out , meaning remove cartilidge bones and meat...
 
I think the easiest would be to do a normal skin and tan with the pelt but cut the feet and ears off, cure them (not sure how they cure rabbit's feet), and then sew back on with least likely to be noticed thread. It would save a lot of effort skinning and make tanning as simple as usual. For a wall hanging you could even just salt the hide and be done. So long as it doesn't get wet and you don't want it soft salt drying the flesh side will keep it from going bad and it takes minimal work. Just lots of noniodized salt and a few minutes a few times over a couple days rubbing salt in until dry and then brushing the fur out.

Now for a pillow you'd need a proper tan. I'd probably do a commercial tan so it could be washed without concern and you'd get a softer hide if you use the right stuff rather than most homemade solutions which are more pickling than tanning.
 
As said before, you need to flesh out the feet and ears, and it would also help to split the lips as well. As for preserving the feet, You can use a hypodermic needle with formalin in it to inject this inside the feet which will help preserve. You can do the same as well for the ears. This doesn't mean that you can skip the fleshing, that still has to be done, but you wont be able to get 100% of it all out, thats where the formalin comes in to play. You can either purchase this online at amazon or other online stores, or at your local pet store they sell it with a green dye in it to be used to kill bacteria and parasites in fish tanks, but still the same stuff
 

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