How to tan a squirrel hide?

[Betta132]

I just found a dead squirrel on the road, perfectly intact except for one eye being completely dislocated, (EWWW!) and would like to try skinning it and preserving the hide.
It doesn't smell at all, nor did it have flies/ants/other bugs on it, so I'm thinking it's very fresh. I found a few sites that say how to skin it, and it looks easy, but I can't find how to tan it and have a nice soft pliable skin with the fur still on. If possible, I'd like to have the head, tail, and paws intact.
Does anyone know a good way to tan a perfectly intact squirrel hide?

[Soothing Shrimp]

When I tried a rat hide from my science class when I was in HS upteen years ago, the skin got hard. heh No ideas on tanning.

[Nubster]

Salt and Alum Tanning
This is an old, widely used method for fur skin
tanning. When properly carried out, it produces
skins with stretch and flexibility. However, alumtanned skins often come out stiff and hard and
must be worked repeatedly or sometimes retanned.
Materials:
• Non-metallic container
• Ammonia alum (ammonium aluminum sulfate)
or potash alum (potassium aluminum sulfate)–
may be available at local pharmacy, farm supply
store or through taxidermy supply catalogs
• Washing soda (crystallized sodium carbonate)–
available in laundry section of many
supermarkets
• Salt (preferably technical grade, but non-iodine
will work)
• Flour (if applying as a paste)
• Brush or scraper knife
• Borax
1. Prepare a salt-alum tanning solution by
dissolving 1 pound of ammonia alum or potash
alum in 1 gallon of water. Dissolve 4 ounces of
washing soda (crystallized sodium carbonate)
and 8 ounces of salt in 1/2 gallon of water. Pour
the soda-salt solution very slowly into the alum
solution while stirring vigorously. The soda-salt
solution must be poured slowly enough to
prevent an overflow of foam from the container.
Amounts may need to be increased
proportionately for larger skins.
2. Immerse the skin in the tanning solution for 2 to
5 days, depending upon its thickness. Two days
should be sufficient for a rabbit skin, while a
deer hide may require up to 5 days. Since a hide
cannot easily be over-tanned using this process,
it would be better to leave the hide in solution
too long rather than not long enough.
OR:
Because alum affects some furs, it may be best
to first test a scrap piece of the fur in the tanning
solution. If the test fur is affected or there are no
scrap pieces to test, it may be best to apply the
tanning solution as a paste to the flesh side only.
• Mix the tanning solution with sufficient flour
to make a thin paste, adding the flour in small
quantities with a little water and mixing
thoroughly to avoid lumps.
• Spread the hide so it lies smoothly and tack
down, flesh side up. Using a brush or scraper
knife, coat the skin with the tanning paste
about 1/8" thick. Let stand until the next day.
• The next day, scrape off most of the paste and
apply another coating. Apply two or three
coatings at daily intervals. Only thick hides
should need as many as three treatments.
Leave the last coating on for 3 to 4 days.
• Scrape off the paste.
3. Rinse the hide clean in a gallon of water containing about 1 ounce of Borax. Rinse again in clean
water. Put the skin on a smooth board and use a
dull edge to press out most of the water. Proceed
to the oiling and finishing process.

[Nubster]

Or skin it, tack it flesh side up to a board, cover in salt. After a couple days (the salt will become saturated), clean off the salt and replace with fresh, dry salt. This will cure the hide to preserve it until you are ready to tan it. There are also commercially available tanning solutions you can get that may be easy and produce more consistent results.

[rbarn]

You have to work the skin while it is curing to keep it from hardening. Very labor intensive.

[Betta132]

Okay, thank you! Regarding squirrel/raccoon tails... If I want to preserve it bone and all, can I just cut off the tail and hang it in a garage or something to dry it out? I know a tail is mostly fur and bone...

[stevenjohn21]

i think i just puked a lil

[TheGuy]

Originally Posted by stevenjohn21

i think i just puked a lil

Pitiful

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[Virto]

When we did squirrel tails after a hunt, we'd just string them up to dry in the air. They will end up hard as a rock.

You could salt the cut end to dry it and prevent critters. Might not be a bad idea.

[mordalphus]

My grandpa used to tack them up after skinning, stretched taut, feed the carcass to the cats.

After drying he'd work it with a stone while it was still stretched.

Watch for fleas and other nasties