# Rabbit pelts



## danarutan (Mar 13, 2011)

How much do rabbit pelts go for these days?


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## feedbunns (Jul 6, 2013)

That is a good question....
And I would like to know were we can sell them???
Thanks Lisa


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## TheDerek (Mar 5, 2013)

I think young pelts are worth little to nothing, the skin is too thin and the fur isnt thick/mature. Rabbits for fur should be older from what I have read, a year or so. Fur is good fertilizer though, it breaks down slowly. You could try burying them in a garden over winter, might get some smell when you till them up the following spring though.


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## simi-steading (Sep 27, 2012)

I've seen them selling on Etsy and Ebay for $6 or $7 lately.. maybe a little more if they are some really different markings... Lots of work for a few bucks..


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## TheDerek (Mar 5, 2013)

Id guess that is already tanned, raw pelts would be worth significantly less. Are you asking about tanned or untreated?


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## redneckswife (May 2, 2013)

We have a furbearer & trapper about 20 minutes from us.He buys the "raw"hides :rotfl: but not for much, a couple of bucks for a 10-12wk old NZ hide. However, they're meat rabbits that are being culled & skinned anyway. We were just throwing the hides away before we found him so I'm pleased with just a couple of dollars for something we had anyway;just like the rabbit manure that we sold.

My hubby has a friend who tans hides at work and I have a couple of extra Jr. Buck Mini Rexes:teehee:, so he's gonna process one for us just to see what that type of fur would turn out like(I'm gonna eat my first Mini Rex:teehee:,so no waste).

If I can keep from wasting any part of the animal or help someone else out with a by-product of my animal it makes me feel a little better....


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## FloridaHillbill (Dec 5, 2012)

I have a friend that tans all of the hides I send him. In exchange I get half of them back for my troubles. He is part of a black powder reenactment group, so puts them all to use.

He's recently complained about all the hides being white (New Zealand whites), so I've now added a new Zealand black to my breeders. 

It pays to keep the customers happy!


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## danarutan (Mar 13, 2011)

Redneckswife -- I agree I don't like to waste anything, and these are meat rabbits that we butcher so I was just trying to find a way to use the fur. Even at a dollar a piece that would help pay for feed.


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## Bluefirephoenix (Feb 19, 2013)

I make parchment out of mine. There actually is a market for it. The thinner and finer the better for parchment, so it's perfect for young rabbits. It's easy to make. I just salt the hides for a week or so, soak them in garden lime til the fur is loose scrape the fur, stretch dry and sand it with 180 grit and scrape the gunk off the inside. With rabbits there isn'tmuch gunk or grease but soaking again in salt will help cut any that's left. Be careful sanding as it pokes holes in it easily. Then once they're dry store them between sheets of papertowels with weight on them to flatten them out. Parchment isn't perfectly flat anyway. I slaughter late because there's no commercial market here for rabbit meat and I prefer a bigger meatier rabbit for cooking. Right now my minumum is 12 weeks and I try to go 16. I got some nice 6 month olds from a breeding cull and I was quite pleased the meat tenderness isn't all that important to me anymore as I can cook it til it's tender regardless of the animals age at the time of butchering. Honestly there wasn't that much difference other than getting twice as much meat from the older rabbits. They are harder to process but to me it's worth the trouble.


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## redneckswife (May 2, 2013)

Wow, didn't know about using it for parchment.I'm gonna give it a try


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## Caprice Acres (Mar 6, 2005)

Parchment is a cool idea!

I tried to tan Jr hides and it wasn't horribly hard but they are very, very delicate. We can't get the hides really soft, I want to try rubbing milk oil into them or something. They're flexible but not 'soft'. 

The jr. coats also are not very good looking. They're between adult and Jr coats on some and you can see along the edges where it's still Jr coat.

I do save all of my good older furs and hope to work with those someday. 

Another thing I've done to sell at farmers markets that's REALLY easy is make lucky rabbits feet. I have SF so the blue/black feet from them are really fuzzy. I'm going to try for more NZW's out of my NZBs as well (most of mine carry white as well) so I can get some white feet to try dying next time.  They sold OK at the market. The only time consuming part is washing all of them and then sewing up the 'hole' at the end, but it doesn't need to be very pretty. Drying takes a week or so.


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## LFRJ (Dec 1, 2006)

I have 8 or 10 hides in the freezer I'm waiting to tan. I've done it with alum and salt a few times. It worked out okay, but what the heck do you DO with them once you have nice tanned hides? I thought about mitten tops, but never got around to it. Any thing else that can be done with them? I too hate wasting them.


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## redneckswife (May 2, 2013)

Found out the hides of the 12wk old Mini's are tougher and don't tear easily like the NZ's hides. And wow are they pretty and velvetty


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## briesgrams (May 10, 2014)

What is the best way to tan


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## Shayanna (Aug 1, 2012)

We just bought some dehydrated rabbit feet for our dogs. Its marketed as a treat. You could probably do ears too?


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## Master_Don (Jun 15, 2015)

If you tan the furs I would be interested in buying Rabbit Furs at a decent price.. 

I use them for crafts... Color can be very. Not worried about that.


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## cfuhrer (Jun 11, 2013)

FloridaHillbill said:


> I have a friend that tans all of the hides I send him. In exchange I get half of them back for my troubles. He is part of a black powder reenactment group, so puts them all to use.
> 
> He's recently complained about all the hides being white (New Zealand whites), so I've now added a new Zealand black to my breeders.
> 
> It pays to keep the customers happy!


They can always be dyed.


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## Nandjsdad (Jun 26, 2015)

I just harvested my first Rex pelt, even though he was my favorite bun I can't wait to make a hat.


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## WildPrGardens (Mar 8, 2014)

Nandjsdad said:


> I just harvested my first Rex pelt, even though he was my favorite bun I can't wait to make a hat.


Great!

What color? How old? How big?

Why your favorite?

I hope to use Rex's for meat and pelts myself. 

Goodluck


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