How to Make Money with Skunks

I found an article in Farm Show vol. 34, No. 4, 2010 regarding Kyle Kaatz' DVD "Skunks: The Best Investment You'll Ever Make." 

Kaatz tells how to market skunk pelts, extract essence, and more.  Check with your state game departments rules and regulations as to where and how much you can harvest and licensing requirements.

Ahhh, another farmshow follower!
kent

I'll remember this next time I'm extremely desperate for money.

Gotta love it!

I had a baby opossum years ago. I was going on vacation out of state, the little bugger had lost it's mom and was just being weaned, so a friend agreed to take care of the critter. Enroute to the friends house I stopped to get gas. The pum was in a small dog crate in the backseat of my car. I opened the door to check on it. A woman immediately came over to see what I had and was super excited to see my "darling" chinchilla! She went on about a pet chinchilla she had owned. She called other people over to see the little baby. They all had great things to say about the cute little one. I never fessed up that it was not a chinchilla, but in fact was one of those nasty, dirty (stereotypes) pums that were raiding everyone's garbage!

I joked for years that I was going to make a million raising opossums and selling them as pets.

My great-grandmother apparently swore by skunk grease for bootblack.  (Mink oil is probably the modern equivalent.)

One time she was rendering one in the oven, and she'd just done a roast for the boys to eat when they came home late from a band gig... dinner was in the warming tray over the stove, and you can guess the rest.  The boys wondered why dinner didn't taste as good as usual, and Grandma wondered next morning why the boys never ate that nice roast...

Had an old friend tell about trapping skunks during the depression.  He said he once dug up a den that had 5 striped skunks and 2 spotted ones.  He got $2.50 for the striped ones and $7.50 for the spotted ones.  $27.50 was a heck of a payday  in the 30's.

Ack, I'll have to pass on this deal.  Dealing with two indoor boxers that got sprayed in the face left a lasting impression.  I do have a packrat that moved into my hen house that anyone can have if they can figure out a use for said critter.

I herd and old guy shiting some duds that he was going to get some nogs and sell nogahide .
  i started trapping skunks for 25. ea as a kid , id skin anything that i could sell road kill ?
a 10 year old kid running his trap line in town for home owners, skunks payed real well
my dad a CPA was making 4.99 an hour and boy he would get mad when id make 2 or 3 time his pay check just having fun in a week.
1 owner offer me a 75. bounty for a badger next day with it tied on my bike i got stoped by the taxedurmie man , he said how much do you get for a badger i said 75. and wrote me a check and took my badger . i was bragging not selling .try explain why i went home with 2 75. check and fokes not buying it at all.

    Skunks are generally nocturnal. If you see one walking around in broad daylight there's a good chance it has rabies!

dale hodgins wrote:
     Skunks are generally nocturnal. If you see one walking around in broad daylight there's a good chance it has rabies!

Hi Dale,

You are correct that skunks like raccoons are generally nocturnal; the key is generally. However more importantly they are opportunists and so it is not uncommon to find them out during the day when there is a lack of people or predators around, especially if there is an abundance of food to take advantage of. Interestingly many of these so called nocturnal creatures only became so after we humans showed up in their territory and started harassing them during the daylight.

What I am getting at is that simply seeing a generally nocturnal creature during the daylight hours does not necessarily mean they have rabies. In fact many animals are killed on this basis that turned out to not be infected at all. Close observation while respecting distance and safety with wild animals if given enough time should reveal better signs of rabies.

Jeff

My Great Grandfather said that he has watched skunks decimate yellowjacket nests. They will dig into the ground at the nest entrance until they reach the nest. Once there, they eat the young yellowjackets. Oddly enough, we have noticed a marked decrease in skunk smell in our area, as well as a marked increase in yellowjacket populations.

Could you use that bit of knowledge to earn money? Might be worth a try.

Heritage Farm wrote:I'll remember this next time I'm extremely desperate for money.

Actually if you do them right there is very little smell. I trapped a lot of skunks in my younger years not bad money for a kid.

Well the fur trade is a bit suppressed but the musk trade has never been better from what i hear. then again if you can get skunks trained (yes it can be done) sending a pack of the little guys into a place with rodent problems for a few days will cure the rodent problem. same with yellow jacket snake and other small pests. Skunks actually beat out cats as mousers and they will go for other critters as well.