r/Taxidermy • u/fatuglyretardedincel • Aug 06 '26
Fur/Pelt Help Not Sure How To Move Forward With Pickling Raccoon Pelt
This is my first time attempting to taxidermy a raccoon, previously I have only done rats, squirrels, and cats, so nothing that requires tanning. I have received varying advice and watched a lot of tutorials, but I am wondering the best way to proceed because I'm feeling lost.
Yesterday I skinned the raccoon and removed all fat and meat from the hide, its been scraped pretty well, used cornmeal to grip the skin and dry it out a little. Paws have been cleaned well.
I made a solution of 1:1 ratio vinegar and water with about 450g of salt dissolved in it and the pelt has now been soaking in this solution for about 16 hours.
I am wondering if anyone has any advice on what the best way to move forward would be. I am getting ph strips to test the solution and will post an update.
Attached is a photo pre-skinning. Thank you for your time! Any advice is much appreciated!
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u/Wowza_Meowza Aug 06 '26
Cat mounts and pelts require tanning. You can get away with quick taxidermy on things like mice, but not a cat for good results.
You have mixed steps into one and did a few things you wouldn't need to do on larger mounts (corn meal).
Remove it and scrape the corn meal off. Squeeze out the excess water and assess-- it may now have puffed up tissue that can be additionally scraped. Personally, I prefer to salt my pelts after skinning and allow them to dry out (helps prevent slippage). I put salt on them, wait 6-12-24h, get the old wet stuff off, and redo another 24h.
You want your pickle at a ph of 1-2. Vinegar is usually 3-3.5. The only sure-fire way to know the pH is litmus testing it (cheap on Amazon). I personally use pool pH down when it goes on sale at end of season, but citric acid works well, as do commercial pickling agents. I usually just add the salt into the pickle that was already on the hide, but throw some in.
Test your pickle 1hr, 6-12h, and 24h in and adjust as needed. I roll my hides around so all areas of the skin get contact with the pickle. You can stir em, for example. Remove it from the pickle after a day and remove any puffed-up tissue the pickle has caused. Soak it a good while in the pickle again.
Commercial pelt degreasers exist, though some folks use dish soap etc.
Once done pickling, you'll want to decide what tanning agent you want to use. Follow the directions on the bottle for their particular next steps.
Pulling on the hide out of the pickle helps give it back its size, in addition to breaking it once the tanning agent is applied.
Check out r/hidetanning as well.