Rabbit's Foot

[Bad Habit]

I don't know that this is the right place to post this, but does anyone here make rabbit's feet?

My niece really wants one, but it's impossible to find them locally, and if I'm going to have to pay to ship one in, I'd rather buy one off someone here than off ebay from someone in China.

 

[mystang89]

I've always been curious about how to make them. I would assume you didn't just take the foot of a rabbit and sell it so I guess its just like mounting a deer. Skin the foot and put the fur on a mock rabbit foot?

 

[Bad Habit]

lol no idea how they're made. All I know is my niece really wants one to hang on her quiver.

Can get them on ebay for about 5$, but most of them are ghastly colours, and don't look like I remember them looking when I was a kid!

 

[SarahMelisse]

Dont quote me on this, but I have heard of two ways to do it. If someone actually knows what they're talking about, feel free to tell me I'm wrong or making it too hard. I would love to know how to *actually* do it.

1) pull as much of the fur inside out, scrape whatever flesh you can off the bone, bury in salt for several days then replace fur back on foot bone.
2) bury in two inches of some sort of mixture of salt and borax until it no longer stinks.

I know... Real scientific. But I heard this second hand.

 

[3mina]

Both of those will work just fine, another option instead of salt and borax is silica gel, the stuff used to dry flowers. I have no idea on times but really I don't think you can keep it in either of those substances too long

 

[Miss M]

I had a blue one when I was a kid, and I could feel the bones in it. How to do it?

Both of the methods SarahMelisse mentioned sound like they would work.

Then there's this: http://www.ehow.com/how_7781382_preserv ... -foot.html<br /><br />__________ Tue Jan 15, 2013 9:52 pm __________<br /><br />

I don't think you can keep it in either of those substances too long

Yeah, you want it in there a while... for just a rabbit's foot, I'd think a few weeks. Longer won't hurt, like you said!

Now... if you want to mummify a chicken, that'll be 4 - 6 weeks. http://library.thinkquest.org/J003227F/howto.html

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

only way i ever saw to do it was just put the feet in a bucket of salt. layering salt, a few rabbit feet, salt, few rabbit feet.... just leave em until they cure...
thats seriously as specific as it got. i wish i knew how as well. i mean with actual directions hahaha

 

[Bad Habit]

lol someone needs to try and tell me how it turns out. I'd really like to make it myself, but we all know I'm a wuss. I'd just love to be able to give her a lucky rabbit's foot for her quiver and tell her it was specially made for her!

 

[ohiogoatgirl]

i have frozen all the feet from my rabbits i've done up so far. though i've still yet to find a way to do them up. if anyone find some ways (like actual directions lol) to cure them and you dont need any fancy stuff i wouldnt mind tryin them and posting how it turns out.

 

[Bad Habit]

Well, the one that Miss M posted seems pretty comprehensive, all you need is Rubbing alcohol and borax, as well as normal stuff.

Here's a few more though, most of them involve the same ingredients

http://www.ehow.com/how_4450030_make-lu ... -foot.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_8277918_dry-rabbit-feet.html
http://www.ehow.com/how_5065702_perform ... -foot.html

 

[Dood]

You could probably ask your reptile guy to snip a foot or two off his bunnies for you to use. I find that garden scissors or pruning shears work very well and most people have them around the house. There is almost no muscle or fat in feet, they are all bones and tendons so they dehydrate very quickly and you dont need to worry to much about decomposition, especially if you use the recipes mentioned above.

 

[Bad Habit]

I don't have anything for him at this point. I should have thought of this when I had to cull the Mop, could have had 4 white feet to dye for her. The reptile guy isn't being very reliable either, when I emailed him about having to cull Mop, he wanted me to put her in the freezer for "a few weeks" until he could come get her. I don't have freezer space for that(plus find it kind of really gross), so I ended up putting her body in the woods to nourish something.

 

[Happy]

Both of those will work just fine, another option instead of salt and borax is silica gel, the stuff used to dry flowers. I have no idea on times but really I don't think you can keep it in either of those substances too long

Those just dry out the tissues. They shouldn't do more than mummify it. Living tissue is another matter entirely, so don't leave a live rabbit to soak in silica gel.

 

[Dood]

If you can find a reptile store in your area it cannot hurt to ask if they would be willing to give you a foot. They dont have much nutritional value to them so it shouldnt be a big deal if you feed a rabbit without a foot to your snake.

 

[Happy]

If you can find a reptile store in your area it cannot hurt to ask if they would be willing to give you a foot. They dont have much nutritional value to them so it shouldnt be a big deal if you feed a rabbit without a foot to your snake.

Somehow I can't imagine they'd simply let you clip its foot off right there, so unless you're purchasing a feeder rabbit that has been in a place where they keep lots of reptiles...

I think I'd just wait if it were me.

 

[Dood]

Ask when they feed their large Burmese, Reticulated or Rock pythons and if they would mind giving you the feet. It cannot hurt to ask.

 

[Jared77]

They may not because it could leave a sharp point on the end of the leg where the bone end sticks out and that's a real risk with a snake, especially since they can be sitting on a meal for quite a while as it digests. A wrong move by the snake could cause the sharp bone end to perforate the lining in the digestive tract and slowly kill the snake from sepsis. If it was my shop and you asked for one, Id sell you the whole rabbit and let you cut the feet off yourself and deal with the rest of it however you wanted to.

 

[Happy]

I know a chick who's really in to snakes. I think I'm going to ask her about that, because I'm intrigued.

 

[Jared77]

My father's a biology teacher and kept a number of snakes including a large Burmese python, a tree boa, and a red tailed boa. We fed rabbits to some of them and if we had one that had any broken limbs we wouldn't feed them for the reason I listed above.

 

[Dood]

I never thought of that, I have only had snakes who's largest meal was a mouse, small rat, or pinky bunny, but I can see your point. The ends would be pretty sharp unless they cut right at the joint.