Purchase finished pelts or learn how to make it yourself

Remove frozen rabbits and thaw in warm water. If you have enough culls to do a batch you can put in fresh rinsed pelts right into the brine.

 

Brine: 5 gallon bucket filled 3/4 with warm water. Add 1C non iodized salt and 1C Alum. Stir until dissolved.

 

Add 5-10 hides to the brine making sure it comes in complete contact with the brine.

Add weights to keep the hides fully submerged.

Stir 2-3 times a day for 2-4 days

 

Remove hides, removing as much brine as you can (don’t ring them out, stripe it out). Do not toss your bribe, you will need it after fleshing.

Start at the tail end of the hide and remove the flesh, gently pulling it off. Take your time on this step, this will make a difference on how soft and supple the pelt ends up being. You can do this step while it is still in a tube shape or cut down the middle first. I’ve done both ways, leaving it in the tube gives you a better chance of not ripping it. Rabbit hide is thin and tears easily. Be very gentle around your edges.

 

Add 1C of salt and 1C of alum to your brine. If you didn’t cut the hides down the middle in the previous step then now is the time to open up the tubes. Carefully slice down the middle (stomach) of the hide. Once open add fleshed hides place back in the brine and put weights back on top. Discard the flesh you removed it is not safe to feed to animals. Stir 2-3 times a day for another 5-7 days.

 

Remove pelts and dump the brine (don’t do it where children, pet or animals might drink it). Thoroughly wash the hides. I like to use a nice shampoo, washing and rinsing twice. Then I add a little conditioner and rinse one more time. Make sure you have removed all of the brine from the fur. Remove as much excess water as you can (remember not to ring the hide but strip the water out). Hang up to dry.

This final step can be time-consuming, but it is worth going slow and taking your time. By doing that you will get a much softer more supple pelt. There are a lot of different ways people do this step how I like to do it is starting first thing in the early morning, washing, and setting them out to dry. You can also wash late and night and set out to dry, getting up early to start breaking the pelts. Throughout the day as I see the hide is starting to dry, I start breaking the hide, gently pulling it apart in all directions. You should see the fibers pull apart and change colors. Be careful around your edges as they are easy to tear. If they are not fully dry I lay them back out and keep checking on them throughout the day, stretching any spots that are drying out. I find it is easiest to break when it hasn’t over dried.

 

Once the pelt is fully broken and soft, I toss them in the dryer with some tennis balls and put on air dry. Make sure your heat is turned off! I leave them in there for 10 to 20 minutes. This removes any loose hair and fluffs up the the coat making it soft. Your end product should be flexible and soft. If your rabbits have long hair, gentle brush the coat. At this point you can add mink oil to the pelt. I choose not to so when I stack them for storage so the mink oil doesn’t get on its neighbors hair making it greasy.

​

You did it!! If they didn’t turn out how you had hoped, don’t give up! It takes some practice to get the process down good.

​

Videos that show the steps can be found on our Facebook or Instagram page.