How to Skin a Rattlesnake
If you intend to skin a rattlesnake, you can use two distinct methods. One involves removing the skin from the meat for the purpose of cooking rattlesnake meat which can be used in a number of tasty recipes. The second method is for taxidermy purposes. Many people like to preserve exceptional specimens of rattlesnakes for show. Follow these steps to skin a rattlesnake.
Things You'll Need
- Latex gloves
- Scalpel
- Cold water
- Knife
- Small needle-nose pliers
- Paper towels
- Hydrogen peroxide
- Measuring tape
- Sharp scissors
- Sharpened spoon
- Small surgical scissors
Instructions
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For Food
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1
Make sure your rattlesnake is dead before moving forward with the skinning. Put on latex gloves.
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2
Turn the rattlesnake belly up. Starting at the head, make an incision with a sharp scalpel down its stomach to its tail, where the white and black colorings meet.
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3
Cut through the tail meat and peel away the meat from its skin. Gut your rattlesnake meat and wash it off with cold water.
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4
Cut the rattlesnake meat into three-inch pieces with a sharp knife. Freeze in water.
For Taxidermy
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5
Put on latex gloves to remove the fangs. Insert a small pair of needle-nose pliers into the rattlesnake's mouth and break each fang off at its base. Place a wadded up paper towel in its mouth, then milk its venom glands. Start behind the eyes and move forward until you remove all the venom. Clean the fangs in hydrogen peroxide overnight.
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6
Take all measurements with a measuring tape. Measure its largest girth, the nose to base of tail and its eyes. Measure the entire snake, as the skin stretches after skinning.
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7
Cut an incision around its entire mouth with a scalpel. Turn your rattlesnake belly up and using sharp scissors cut from the vent to the head along the middle of the belly scales. Stop cutting where the incision may show upon final display.
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8
Slide your finger between the meat and skin at the area of the snake's largest girth. Be sure to free the skin from the meat all the way around the girth. With one hand holding the body and the other holding the skin gently pull and invert the skin toward its head, stopping at your incision point. Run your finger around the skin to loosen, and then pull the body out of the skin.
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9
Cut the skin away from its eyes, loosen the skin toward its nose, then stop and deeply sever the heat pit skin in front of each eye. Pull skin to the mouth incision and cut through its nose cartilage with scissors. At this point, the skin comes completely off its head.
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10
Move down to the tail area, cutting around the vent with your scalpel. Gently and slowly pull the skin toward its rattle until you reach the base of the first button. Cut the tail off with scissors and gut the area between the tail and rattle.
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11
Clean the skin with a sharpened spoon, scraping all fat from the skin. Use elbow grease if necessary. Use a pair of small surgical scissors to cut and remove the muscle running around the rattlesnake's lips. Cut out any leftover nose cartilage.
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1
Tips & Warnings
If any of the meat has been tainted with venom, it's harmless to eat after cooking properly.
Initially try to keep the scissor tip inside the skin as close to the skin as possible. This helps avoid gut puncture.
The rattlesnake's skin is tightest along the backbone, so use care not to tear.
Be sure to pull the skin slowly toward the rattle, as it's attached tightly to the large tail muscles.
Don't handle the rattlesnake's head, as dangerous venom still remains in its mouth and glands.
Handling a dead rattlesnake is potentially dangerous, so use great caution when removing its fangs and venom.
Don't pull the skin past the back of the eye orbit.
Don't cut the tiny lip scales when removing the muscle around the lip line.
