How to skin a rabbit

Rabbits are generally underrated as a table dish. The meat is ultra-lean, rich in protein and has a mild, pleasant taste. Processing a rabbit is also easy. Because of its size and delicate anatomy, a freshly killed rabbit is surprisingly easy to skin. Even a dead rabbit or hare that has been allowed to cool for a few hours is fairly easy to handle, although it may require a little more patience and muscle strength than a rabbit with some lingering body heat.

In the not-so-distant past, every twelve-year-old knew how to skin a rabbit, and most could do it with their eyes closed. Unfortunately, growing up in the modern world doesn’t provide nearly as many opportunities to hone skills. The good news is that it doesn’t matter if you’re 12 or well past middle age; it’s never too late to learn. As with any new skill, practice makes the process easier. The more rabbits you skin, the faster, easier and cleaner the process becomes.

If you are new to cleaning game, skinning rabbits is also a good practice for larger mammals with similar biology. Cleaning rabbits is much less intimidating than skinning and butchering a large game animal; however, the process is incredibly similar. So whether you plan to grill, roast, or simmer your rabbit meat in a stew, knowing how to skin a rabbit is the first step to enjoying one of the tastiest game animals on the planet. Here’s how to do it.

A simple method of skinning a rabbit

There are multiple ways to skin a rabbit. For example, advice from an old Air Force Survival manual (circa 1985) recommends putting a lot of pressure on your rabbit. The illustrations in the manual show a man in flight overalls nearly poking a dead rabbit between his legs and sending its innards flying toward the sky.

This method is intended to help you skin a rabbit without the luxury of a knife, but it’s educational for another reason: it reminds you that rabbit skins are quite thin. In fact, many rabbit hunters still practice the pinch method to quickly gut and cool a rabbit in the field while they continue to hunt.

Still, the bladeless method is a fairly unconventional approach to skinning rabbits. If you want to take a more traditional path when separating a rabbit from its skin, heed Scott Perkins’ advice. Not only is Perkins a hunter, but he and his brother Seth own a second-generation butcher shop in Creston, Ohio. With plenty of skinning experience under their belt, the Bearded butchers are an excellent resource for learning the how-to’s of game animal processing.

Please note that their rabbit skin method does not keep the skin intact. Instead, it is best used for rabbits that are intended for the frying pan, not for maintaining their coat.

Step One: Remove the feet

The first step in Perkins’ method is to remove the rabbit’s feet. Place the blade of a sharp knife just above each foot. Press hard on the back of the blade with the heel of your hand while the other hand applies downward pressure to the knife handle. Cut directly through the bone until each leg is separated from the leg.

A sturdy fixed-blade knife is the perfect tool for this type of work, but a sharp pocket knife or other blade will also work. You can also use game shears or heavy duty scissors to remove the feet.

Step Two: Remove the head

To detach the rabbit’s head, use the same technique as with the legs. Place the knife right at the base of the skull and press it down. The knife cuts through the skin without any problems, but cutting through the neck may take a little more effort.

Step Three: Remove the skin

Now that you’ve freed the skin from the appendages, here’s how to skin a rabbit. Pinch the rabbit’s back to pull up some loose skin and make a small cut in the skin. After making the cut, insert two fingers from each hand on either side of the incision. Using your fingers as hooks, apply firm, steady pressure to pull the skin in opposite directions, one toward the head and one toward the hind legs. Once you reach the legs, it may take some wiggling to work the skin over the legs and completely off the rabbit.

“Rabbit skins are very thin, so you may need to remove them in pieces,” advises Perkins. “If you have a flat surface to work on, it makes it a little easier.”

Sometimes the tail pops off with the skin. If not, simply use your knife and apply downward pressure to remove it using the same technique used to separate the head and feet from the body.

Step four: Remove the giblets

Once the skin has been completely removed, insert a sharp knife into the base of the sternum (sternum) and cut upwards toward the neck, exposing the heart. Then pick up the thin muscle of the abdomen with the index and middle fingers of your hand (so that you do not accidentally cut the intestines) and carefully cut the muscle by cutting towards the back of the carcass.

Then use firm downward pressure on the blade and cut the pelvis.

With the insides exposed, grasp the lungs, trachea, and esophagus with one hand and pull, peeling the internal organs back toward the pelvis and removing them from the body. Keep pulling until everything is out of the way.

“By doing it that way, we can keep everything clean,” Perkins explains.

It is important to avoid piercing the intestines with the tip of the knife during this step. You also don’t want to accidentally tear them open and allow the contents to drip onto the meat. If this happens, all is not lost. Be sure to wipe the meat quickly.

Inspect the liver before discarding the giblets

Check the rabbit’s liver for signs of disease before tossing it aside. A healthy liver will be smooth and dark red. If the liver is riddled with numerous lesions the size of a pinhead, discard the entire rabbit without eating it. This is a sign of tularemia. Tularemia, also known as ‘rabbit fever’, is a highly contagious and potentially fatal disease caused by Francisella tularensis bacteria that are not uncommon in wild rabbits.

How to skin a rabbit for fur

If you want to keep a rabbit’s fur intact while tanning, you need to be a little more careful when skinning it. Instead of cutting a small hole in the rabbit’s back, make an incision on the underside of the carcass and use your fingers to separate the skin from the muscle. Finally, pull the skin over the paws, being careful not to tear the skin. Watch the video above for detailed instructions.

Frequently asked questions

Final thoughts on how to skin a rabbit

Now you are left with a rabbit that is ready for the slow cooker or further slaughtering, depending on your culinary plans. If you need detailed instructions on how to break down bunnies for cooking, check out our step-by-step guide to butchering a rabbit.

The best way to learn how to skin a rabbit is to try it yourself. It’s okay to take it slow and make mistakes along the way. The main steps are to first cut off the legs and head, make an incision down the rabbit’s back, and then pull the skin in opposite directions until it is removed. Once you’ve removed the organs and intestines, the rabbit is ready for slaughter or for a recipe that calls for a whole rabbit.