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How to skin a fox

Question:

Well, I imagine that people do this in different ways.   I have found it very helpful to hang the fox from one foot with a leather lace or something as strong.   You then cut from the ankle to the other ankle on a paralell line with the rectum or the back of the leg. You can slit the tail up a small distance  and pull out the bone or easier, use a tail boner. once you get the tube started you can work on the fox as you go.   Tie up other foot, skin it first if you leave feet on. Skinning from there on is fairly simple. Keep it high enough to work comfortably as you move towards the head. When you skin the head take care at the ears. You should be able to work it right to the nose. Maybe someone has another method as well. Good Luck! Al

Response:

Can anybody tell me how to skin a Fox?

are you skinning the fox to sell or to keep for your own use? In this area, the fur buyers prefer to buy the whole unskinned animal. That way they are insured the skinning, preperation, and preservation is done properly. They retain their own trained skinners in the belief that most trappers/hunters mess up more hides than are done properly.

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Can anybody tell me how to skin a Fox?

Response:

Hello!  Yes they are "tubed".  Hang fox by hind feet and spread them apart.  Start by cutting around the paws about 2 inches  below the high toenail. Cut all the way around.  Do not draw blood, just cut the skin, it will be white.  Slit down the inside of the legs to the groin area–both cuts should meet there.  About the base of the legs and stop. Go back to the circle cut and start to pull.   Use your knife and help the skin come off. The skin with heavy fur will be fairly tough.  Fox is a little lighter than coyote or coon though.  You can pull fairly hard and it will pull away.  Use the tip of the knife to cut at the white skin below the fur and pull as you cut.  It will peel easy as you pull. When you reach the groin area you will have to cut around the butt and tail.  The tail is pulled off the bone.  Some inexperenced  will split the skin–others use a split peice of wood with a hole in it to peel the skin .  I recommen that you skin it back a little and cut the bone and come back to it.  Do not leave the meat though as it will spoil and you willl loose the tail. Now you are going to go back to the skinning.  Continue to pull the skin inside out down the body helping it with the tip of your knife.  DONOT split the skin like you did the legs.  Cut and pull.  You should be able to pull a lot and cut a little.  Pull down to the legs and stop.  Now cut arond the paws again but DO NOT split the legs.  Go back to the bod and continue to skin.  Pull-pull-pull and work on each leg and skin like you did the body. You will skin each one and pull the paw through.  It too will be inside out.  Now back to the neck–skin the same to the ears. Pull at the ears and find them.  CUt deep into the ear canal–deep. It should be about 3/4 of an inch around–if bigger you are to high.  No need to skin the ears.  Cut through and continue to skin the head.  Use the tip of the knife.  Skin close to the lips.  Use the weight of the skin to help pull the skin off the head.  At the eyes cut very close or the holes will be too big. At the nose cut deep again or you will cut of the black part. Leave the skin inside out and place over stretching board.  Clean off all fat and meat. If you are going to have it tanned just roll it up and keep it cool.  DO NOT SALT unless you just want  to dry it out and keep it. FUr buyer and taxidermist will not want and salt on it. I hope this helps.  Write if you need more.  Jim Schmidt

Response:

Can anybody tell me how to skin a Fox?

Yes carefully, I am a lic taxidermest and there  are different ways depending on the what you are going to do with it after it is skinned. I would first put in a freezer for a couple of weeks before I did anything that will kill any rabies etc. Email me with more info and Larry, Wildlife Artistry Taxidermy

Response:

Can anybody tell me how to skin a Fox? Yes…with rubber gloves, and then only if you have personally assured yourself the fox was acting normally when it was killed.  This means passing up roadkills, incidentally, no matter how tempting them may look as a "free pelt."  Foxes are a major rabies reservoir in many areas, and I personally wouldn’t handle one unless I had been immunized against the disease.

        I’ll second this.  This was one of the reasons I quite trapping, as well as the plummet in pelt prices.  There was a fur buyer in Chelsea, Iowa who would buy ‘fresh’ road kill during season.  You could take the whole carcass in, and his helpers would skin it.  Same price as pre-skinned.  I found this better than skinning skunks myself :(  I don’t know if he has survived the Fur-is-Murder campaign.         Again, especially with road kill, wear protective gloves.  A question to the Elitist: How long will viral pathogens remain viable on a cold corpse?  Isn’t rabies deactivated by cooling?  I don’t want to mislead anyone though, as there are some pretty hardy pathogens out there.         As a side note, fox have scent glands around the anus. I found this out down my parent’s basement, next to the air intake for the running furnace.  For some reason, my parents lacked to see any humor in the event :) — Randy Nessler

Response:

Can anybody tell me how to skin a Fox?

Yes…with rubber gloves, and then only if you have personally assured yourself the fox was acting normally when it was killed.  This means passing up roadkills, incidentally, no matter how tempting them may look as a "free pelt."  Foxes are a major rabies reservoir in many areas, and I personally wouldn’t handle one unless I had been immunized against the disease.  The chances are slim but they exist and if you turn up with symptoms, it’s too late to do anything about it.  You are as good as dead. If the lovely fresh road-killed fox you happen to see on the side of the highway was killed because he wandered out into traffic dazed with the disease, you can get it from handling the carcass with bare hands.  Around here ANY skunk, raccoon, or fox seen out in broad daylight is assumed to be rabid; daytime prowling by normally nocturnal animals is very suspicious. See your doctor about immunization if you plan to trap foxes, raccoons, and skunks; these are all major rabies carriers.  The shots are expensive but nowhere near as expensive as a funeral.  I work in a veterinary school and we routinely immunize our students and faculty members against unknown exposures, such as might be presented by an injured animal brought in for treatment. Bottom line: be careful and consider the risks as well as the rewards. The Elitist PS: Oh, I should mention that nobody really knows for sure if that vaccine works…it’s very hard to get volunteers to serve as "positive controls" in the case of a 100% fatal disease, so it’s the one example of a biologic that’s been approved for use by the FDA in humans but which has never been clinically tested.  You pays your money and you takes your choice…

Response:

Can anybody tell me how to skin a Fox?

Response:

Can anybody tell me how to skin a Fox?

        It depends on what you intend to do with it.  Are you trying to sell it or have it mounted?  For sale, I always make a slit up the back of one rear leg, going between the ‘vent’ and base of the tail, then down the back of the other rear leg.  Cut around the ‘ankles’ of the rear leg, sever the tail at the base, then ‘tube’ out the carcass, pulling the skin off like a pillow case.  Care should be taken to cut the cartilage in the base of the ears free from the skull, as well as the eye and lip areas.  I always froze hides until sale, alot less work than drying and stretching.  Too bad hides aren’t worth what they used to be, as last time I trapped, I made about $8.00/hr.  Not bad for a hobby. — Randy Nessler

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