whole animal frozen or not

Mary Ann's Rabbitry · Nov 28, 2012

I have a friend that caught a wild animal in his trap today. he wants to keep its fur. He was asking me about it. But because he lives quite far and he comes up about every 2 months or so. I was going to put the whole animal in his freezer. I know if i skinned rabbits and i can put in the freezer when i have enough to do at one time. but i never did a whole animal. I wonder if he did this and you thaw the animal out if you can still take the skin off and still be ok to tann.

Secuono · Nov 28, 2012

It would take a long time to thaw out and I personally wouldn't risk it. I would skin it now and put the skin in the freezer instead.
But I guess you can use a hair dryer on high heat and thaw out the hide on one end and skin/thaw as you go.
Might be ok if you thaw it in the fridge...idk. I'd still rather he peel it himself, even if he left a lot of tissue or meat attached to the hide, it'd still be easier that way.

Mary Ann's Rabbitry · Nov 28, 2012

Ya. I thought so. I told him no that i couldnt do it after it was frozen. Unless he wanted to skinn it first. But allot of people gets gross out ... And he is one of them. I thought i ask just in case there was a way. But there is no short cuts in this.

Secuono · Nov 28, 2012

I'm trying to think of it, but I have packs of 5lbs chicken breasts laid out in the freezer and it takes those about 2 days in the fridge to fully thaw. They are 1.5-2in thick breasts, so if it were a whole animal, it'd take 3+ days. I'm sure the fur would end up insulating it from thawing as well...which just equals waiting even longer...

Mary Ann's Rabbitry · Nov 28, 2012

actually i dont care how long it takes to thaw out. You can take the fur off way before it thaws all the way through .. which i dont want anyways. I was concerned about the fur.. because it isnt drain off blood that will stain the fur. So i decided not to go ahead with it.