I've tried searching, but came up with not much info. I must not use the best keywords. As the title states, how long can you wait to skin an animal (mink is the main question, but the others for future knowledge). I have a refrigerator and a freezer available for storge. Some times life throws you a curveball and end up not having time the same day to skin the animal. I caught a mink last night and was supposed to skin it tonight but ended up having to work late. It is in the refrigerator and I plan to skin it tomorrow night. I am new to the furbearers. The deer we get always gets skinned the same day and then we freeze them to flesh later. With deer hunting we always have a cut off time for last shot so we have plenty of time to process the deer. Trapping is much different. Also dried furs can they sit out for a month or should I freeze them until ready to tan?

The mink should be fine to skin tomorrow, your dried skins will also be fine as long as you don't have a bunch of humidity. If I get a little lazy, I'll store my caught animals on the north side of a building, depending on the Temps they'll last a couple days at least...although, we're currently in a warm phase, they may not last as long. Luckily I pulled everything this evening, cuz we got rain a coming.

Mink you can skin the second or third day as long as they are in a cool place.
leaving animals for a day or two is preferred since they skin a lot cleaner.Blood coagulates and fat stiffens up so can be left more on the carcass than on the skin.Bugs (fleas etc)will also leave an animal after it has cooled

I dont recommend freezing whole animals.Especially large animals.Freezing the skins to dry later is much better.
If you freeze small animals whole dont leave them in the freezer more than a couple weeks since they will get frost burnt around the eyes and lips and feet.Real pain to skin when frost burnt and most likely you end up with damage especially around the head.
Dried furs can be kept in a cold room all winter,as long as mice or rats are not present.If you have dried pelts in spring put them in the freezer or the dermestid maggots will infest them and turn the skin to frass over the summer.

I'm also new, and wondering for future reference: can you leave an animal without skinning it for, say, a week, if it's in cold but not frozen conditions?

Is the only "deadline" if it starts to spoil, or do you want to get to it even before then for other reasons (just harder to skin if left too long, whatever)

Perhaps it varies by animal?

Some animals keep better than others.
A week would be too long.
Beaver last the longest 3 or 4 days in cool weather.
Small carnivores can taint fast,ideally no more than a day or two in cold weather 3 max.

As Boco says some animals species keep better than others. I have also found that can apply to different animals of the same kind. I have had some coyotes and wolves start to get green bellies just by the end of the day. While normally most can wait a day if it is cool enough.

I think this is because of what they have eaten. If they have full belly of some rotten meat it speeds up the process of spoiling, I assume.

Warren to answer your other questions, yes the main deadline is to be done before it spoils/the hair starts to slip. If you can skin an animal when it is fresh and still hot, it comes off very easy but is messy.
If I had to list animals that I have caught that I think spoil the fastest this is how I would list them starting with fastest to get green bellies or show signs of spoil
Wolves
Coyotes
Bobcats
Red Fox
Otter
Marten
Muskrat
Mink
Coons
Beavers

With practice, you can skin small animals like mink and rats in under two minutes pretty easily. (unless you are leaving on the feet and all that for some reason) Raccoons and fox may take 3-4 minutes for some folks. Coyotes, badger, otter, beaver (rough skinned), may take a little longer. But IMO it's best to skin them ASAP. They pull easier when warm (raccoons, coyotes) too.

Here are a couple videos to show you methods to help speed things up....

Mink skinning - <-- click here

Muskrat skinning - <-- click here

Raccoon skinning - <-- click here

Hopefully those help.

Thanks for the input. For what it's worth, I had a Fisher in my cool but not cold basement thawing for 48 hours this week, and no spoilage. It was frozen solid coming into the house though, which may change the estimated timelines I would imagine.