dead pets' bodies

>>2407293
The vet will let you take the body but don't mention your plans, just say you'd like to give your rabbit peace at home. We always keep some fur but that's just shaven - I know people who taxiderm their small pets (not cats or dogs) and don't think they're weird but it's deviation from the norm is probably area specific.

If you're keeping fur, shave a patch off and keep that. Keeping the bones will require more work, and you should probably skin the rabbit then put it in some sort of container of water that you can keep warm for a long time (weeks, a month) and at the end drain off the decaying fat and tissue to retrieve the bones. You could do the thing with the beetles, but I don't know how easy they are to source. If you're keeping the pelt, get prepared for things to get hella messy and sorta gross, but no more gross than retrieving the bones. The entire curing process should take about 6 to 9 days.

If you haven't done taxidermy before, you will need:

For skinning:
- a sharp blade (scalpel)
- small sharp scissors
- blunt butter knife
- something to dispose the rest of the body into
- somewhere well ventilated
- something to puke in if you're squeamish

For the curing:
- 1 8oz. bottle of Deer Hunter's & Trapper's Hide Tanning Formula
- 3 or 4 pounds of non-iodized salt
- Clorox
- 1 large bucket (10L+)
- A dry place to store the hide while you salt it
- Somewhere to hang the hide up to dry after you wash and degrease it, and then again after you apply the tanning liquid to soften the hide

Once skinned, you can roll the hide up and put it in the freezer in a plastic bag until you're ready to proceed with the curing.

Read the instructions on the back of the bottle of the Deer Hunter's & Trapper's Hide and Tanning Formula. It has step-by-step instructions on exactly how to cure your hide.

>>2407386
i was planning on using a more traditional method involving the sun and the rabbit's brain, but thank you

>>2407425
>traditional method involving the sun and the rabbit's brain

wut?

I don't think it's morbid. People deal with death and loss of loved ones in different ways. Just because it's different from the norm doesn't mean it's inherently morbid or any nonsense like that. You do you.

Yes, the vet should let you take her body home if you ask.

For the bones, once you've skinned her, you can place the rest of the body in a bucket of water and leave it outside in a warm place. The bacteria will rot the flesh off, leaving the bones. This will probably take a couple weeks. This is called maceration and it's one of the best ways to clean bones because it has little risk of damaging them (trying to boil or simmer the flesh off the bones can damage the bones, for instance. And rabbit bones are especially delicate.) Be warned though, it smells really awful so I recommend keeping the bucket covered and in a place away from neighbors.

Afterwards, you can wash the bones/soak them in soapy Dawn dish soap water, then rinse and soak for 3 days in hydrogen peroxide to sanitize them and remove any discoloration (maceration water can turn funky colors.)

>>2407435
He's talking about brain tanning. In which case, OP, be aware that it isn't the brains that actually tan the skin, it's the smoke in the smoking step. The brains just oil the pelt to keep it soft. You cannot skip the smoking step if you want a truly preserved and tanned pelt.

That said, brain tanning is kind of tough and if you want a better outcome that will last longer, I'd recommend using something like Trubond 1000B instead, just follow the instructions they have.