I've done the salt/borax thing and dried the skins of pine squirrels. Wash them thoroughly before salting them. When dry I use Rit bleach and Rit dye to smaller pieces to get a variety of colors. To get zonker strips you do need tanned hides but not for dubbing fur. I often mix fur and antron with small pieces of acrylic yarn to get variegated dubbing furs with a lot of sparkle. Run the mix in a blender to separate the yarn and mix the antron and fur. A small cheap coffee grind would also work.
