# How are rabbits feet charms made? **URL:** \ **Category:** Factual Questions\ **Created:** [June 20, 2016, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-rabbits-feet-charms-made/757863 "2016-06-20T01:14:29Z")\ **Posts on this page:** 20\ **Page:** 1
**Author:** ![sara20](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e79b87/32.png) [@sara20](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/sara20)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 1:14am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-rabbits-feet-charms-made/757863/1 "2016-06-20T01:14:29Z")
I got a rabbits foot charm online that I can tell is real, and I noticed it has an acrid odor like I have smelled inside a large mausoleum I was in, and imagine to be formaldehyde. How are rabbits feet made/cured? Are they tanned like leather do the feet contain meat that would rot without a preservative like formaldehyde? ---
**Author:** ![boffking](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/b/858c86/32.png) [@boffking](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/boffking)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 1:15am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-rabbits-feet-charms-made/757863/2 "2016-06-20T01:15:34Z")
All I know is it wasn’t good luck for the rabbit. ---
**Author:** ![Ignotus](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/i/ecc23a/32.png) [@Ignotus](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ignotus)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-rabbits-feet-charms-made/757863/3 "2016-06-20T01:24:46Z")
I guess they’re just hung and left to dry, like beef jerky. Any volatile preservative, like alcohol or formaldehyde, would have evaporated long since. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 1:34am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-rabbits-feet-charms-made/757863/4 "2016-06-20T01:34:31Z")
There are directions to be found out there, commonly suggesting that you soak the foot in alcohol for a couple days, followed by a soak in borax solution, rinse and let dry: > **[How to Cure a Rabbit's Foot: 7 Steps (with Pictures) - wikiHow](https://www.wikihow.com/Cure-a-Rabbit's-Foot)** > > Rabbit's feet have long been thought of as lucky charms, particularly the rear left foot. If you hunt rabbits and want to make use of as much of the carcass as possible, it's easy to cure the foot and use it as a lucky charm. You can keep... ---
**Author:** ![RivkahChaya](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/rivkahchaya/32/8919_2.png) [@RivkahChaya](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RivkahChaya)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 1:39am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-rabbits-feet-charms-made/757863/5 "2016-06-20T01:39:04Z")
> [@Ignotus](#): > > I guess they’re just hung and left to dry, like beef jerky. Any volatile preservative, like alcohol or formaldehyde, would have evaporated long since. They may be dried in a dehydrator, just like the kind used to make jerky, or at any rate, homemade jerky. We have one so we can make cereal marshmallows from vegan marshmallows from the store for our son. We add them to Alpha-Bits (which is kosher), and he gets the joy of cereal with little marshmallows. I had one once. It was dyed blue, and I didn’t click that it was a real rabbit’s foot (I got it as a carnival prize) until I realized it had bones that felt just like the bones in my cat’s foot, so maybe it has some of the chemicals used to preserve hides and fur used in taxidermy. I was horrified when I realized it was real, and buried it in the back yard. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 1:42am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-rabbits-feet-charms-made/757863/6 "2016-06-20T01:42:10Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > There are directions to be found out there, commonly suggesting that you soak the foot in alcohol for a couple days, followed by a soak in borax solution, rinse and let dry: > > [How to Cure a Rabbit’s Foot: Simple Step-by-Step Guide](http://www.wikihow.com/Cure-a-Rabbit's-Foot) ETA Something like formaldehyde might be better, I suppose, but for something as small as a rabbit’s foot, which also has little muscle tissue, a procedure like that, using easily obtained household substances would probably be adequate. ---
**Author:** ![glowacks](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/glowacks/32/5548_2.png) [@glowacks](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/glowacks)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 1:45am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-rabbits-feet-charms-made/757863/7 "2016-06-20T01:45:20Z")
Wow, I assumed that the rabbit’s foot charms were just called that after a resemblance to a rabbit’s foot, not that they were actually made out of them. Even if they had maybe been made out of them long ago, I would have thought it would be much cheaper to make imitation ones anyway. ---
**Author:** ![spamforbrains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@spamforbrains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spamforbrains)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 1:55am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-rabbits-feet-charms-made/757863/8 "2016-06-20T01:55:01Z")
> [@](#): > > I would have thought it would be much cheaper to make imitation ones anyway. they are a re-purposing of something from the rabbit fur/meat industry that would just be thrown away otherwise. ---
**Author:** ![yabob](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/yabob/32/2821_2.png) [@yabob](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/yabob)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 2:04am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-rabbits-feet-charms-made/757863/9 "2016-06-20T02:04:42Z")
Wiki suggests that modern day rabbit’s foot novelties may, in fact, be fake fur over latex “bones”, but some are real. As observed above, the feet would be a by-product of meat packing and the fur industry. Not enormous industries, particularly since wearing of fur has plummeted, but I doubt that a lot of rabbit foot charms are sold either. When fur was commonly worn, rabbit was a cheap fur that most people could afford, and a lot of it was sold, not even counting rabbit fur dyed and passed off as something else. ---
**Author:** ![Colibri](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/colibri/32/1841_2.png) [@Colibri](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Colibri)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 2:43am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-rabbits-feet-charms-made/757863/10 "2016-06-20T02:43:33Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > Something like formaldehyde might be better, I suppose, but for something as small as a rabbit’s foot, which also has little muscle tissue, a procedure like that, using easily obtained household substances would probably be adequate. Formaldehyde smells awful and is a potential carcinogen. There would be no reason to use it. Formalin (a solution of formaldehyde and water) is used to preserve specimens mainly if you don’t want to dry them out. The procedures described of drying the foot with alcohol and then rubbing it with borax would be much better. When preparing study skins for scientific study, the standard practice is to rub them well with borax and dry them. ---
**Author:** ![jasg](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/j/f0a364/32.png) [@jasg](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/jasg)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 2:56am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-rabbits-feet-charms-made/757863/11 "2016-06-20T02:56:04Z")
It is rather like Frog’s Legs on the [menu](http://i.imgur.com/unoIawO.jpg)… ---
**Author:** ![RedSwinglineOne](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/r/a9adbd/32.png) [@RedSwinglineOne](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/RedSwinglineOne)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 7:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-rabbits-feet-charms-made/757863/12 "2016-06-20T19:56:43Z")
> [@boffking](#): > > All I know is it wasn’t good luck for the rabbit. And it had four of em! ---
**Author:** ![Mangetout](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/mangetout/32/19_2.png) [@Mangetout](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Mangetout)\ **Post date:** [June 20, 2016, 8:56pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-rabbits-feet-charms-made/757863/13 "2016-06-20T20:56:50Z")
> [@yabob](#): > > ETA > > Something like formaldehyde might be better, I suppose, but for something as small as a rabbit’s foot, which also has little muscle tissue, a procedure like that, using easily obtained household substances would probably be adequate. Animal feet don’t generally have a lot of ‘meat’ to them anyway. Consider that nearly all of the muscles for moving your hands are actually located in your forearm - the hand (or paw/foot in non-human mammals) is mostly bones, tendons and ligaments - the latter two of which will dry out to tough, horn-like material. ---
**Author:** ![spamforbrains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@spamforbrains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spamforbrains)\ **Post date:** [June 21, 2016, 2:22am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-rabbits-feet-charms-made/757863/14 "2016-06-21T02:22:24Z")
the people I know in the rabbit industry just dry the feet, they don’t bother with any chemicals. Natural mummies. ---
**Author:** ![kaylasdad99](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/kaylasdad99/32/3398_2.png) [@kaylasdad99](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/kaylasdad99)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2016, 2:25am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-rabbits-feet-charms-made/757863/15 "2016-06-22T02:25:24Z")
If they’re mummies wouldn’t they be more likely to carry a curse than bestow good luck? ---
**Author:** ![Ranger\_Jeff](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/ranger_jeff/32/2065_2.png) [@Ranger\_Jeff](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Ranger_Jeff)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2016, 6:21am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-rabbits-feet-charms-made/757863/16 "2016-06-22T06:21:56Z")
This thread reminds me of this routine: [Bob & Ray: 4 Leaf Clover Farmer](https://youtu.be/gdXemaM5XwE) ---
**Author:** ![Alex\_from\_CB](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/a/278dde/32.png) [@Alex\_from\_CB](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Alex_from_CB)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2016, 8:21pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-rabbits-feet-charms-made/757863/17 "2016-06-22T20:21:03Z")
OK. first, get a rabbit. But seriously, what do they do with the rest of the rabbit? I picture footless rabbits sitting in those wooden carts with blocks in their …_hands_… pulling themselves along on the sidewalk. ---
**Author:** ![gkster](https://sea3.discourse-cdn.com/straightdope/user_avatar/boards.straightdope.com/gkster/32/14107_2.png) [@gkster](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/gkster)\ **Post date:** [June 22, 2016, 9:17pm UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-rabbits-feet-charms-made/757863/18 "2016-06-22T21:17:55Z")
From a site on rabbits: Eating rabbit used to be as common as eating chicken, especially during the Great Depression. After that, most of our meat started to be produced on factory farms so beef, pork, and chicken became the most common meats. Commercial farms had to decide between rabbits or chickens. In the end, chickens won out because it is easier to de-bone their breast meat. The rabbit loin is the comparable cut on a rabbit. DID YOU KNOW: Rabbit has the highest protein and lowest fat & cholesterol of all meats. It is also the most digestible. The US Department of Agriculture has stated that domestic rabbit meat is “the most nutritious meat known to man”. Look at the chart below for USDA meat comparisons: Meat Type % Protein % Fat Calories per lb. Rabbit 20.8 4.5 795 Chicken 20.0 17.9 810 Turkey 20.1 20.0 1,190 Lamb 15.7 27.7 1,420 Beef 16.3 28.0 1,440 Pork 11.9 45.0 2,050 > **[About Us](https://bharabbitry.weebly.com/about-us.html)** > > Brick house acres rabbitry is a family-run homestead & berry farm located in central NY. We feel it is important for our children to know where their food comes from. We garden and raise heritage breed rabbits and chickens. ---
**Author:** ![spamforbrains](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/s/e274bd/32.png) [@spamforbrains](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/spamforbrains)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2016, 1:24am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-rabbits-feet-charms-made/757863/19 "2016-06-23T01:24:44Z")
Rabbits are kind of hard to raise en masse on factory farms for some reason, but there are a lot of small backyard farmers who raise and sell rabbits for meat and fur. It’s a pretty economical way to raise meat for home use. Rabbits are quiet, non-smelly, and easily kept in small hutches. And they breed like rabbits. I’ve strongly considered adding them to my livestock collection. Much easier to skin a rabbit than pluck a bird. One rabbit farmer I know sells the cast-off dried ears and feet as dog chews, kind of like bully sticks (dried steer penises) and pigs ears. ---
**Author:** ![Kedikat](https://avatars.discourse-cdn.com/v4/letter/k/ed655f/32.png) [@Kedikat](https://boards.straightdope.com/u/Kedikat)\ **Post date:** [June 23, 2016, 1:29am UTC](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-rabbits-feet-charms-made/757863/20 "2016-06-23T01:29:58Z")
> [@gkster](#): > > From a site on rabbits: > Eating rabbit used to be as common as eating chicken, especially during the Great Depression. After that, most of our meat started to be produced on factory farms so beef, pork, and chicken became the most common meats. Commercial farms had to decide between rabbits or chickens. In the end, chickens won out because it is easier to de-bone their breast meat. The rabbit loin is the comparable cut on a rabbit. > > DID YOU KNOW: Rabbit has the highest protein and lowest fat & cholesterol of all meats. It is also the most digestible. The US Department of Agriculture has stated that domestic rabbit meat is “the most nutritious meat known to man”. Look at the chart below for USDA meat comparisons: > Meat Type % Protein % Fat Calories per lb. > Rabbit 20.8 4.5 795 > Chicken 20.0 17.9 810 > Turkey 20.1 20.0 1,190 > Lamb 15.7 27.7 1,420 > Beef 16.3 28.0 1,440 > Pork 11.9 45.0 2,050 > > [About Us - BHA Rabbitry](http://bharabbitry.weebly.com/about-us.html) There are instances of people dying or getting ill, due to eating only rabbit. Not enough fat. We do need fats of various varieties. [Next page](https://boards.straightdope.com/t/how-are-rabbits-feet-charms-made/757863.md?page=2)