How did you start off doing taxidermy? Any tips for someone who wants to get into it (I mean, like making their own stuff, I already have lots of taxidermy)? I really wanna get into taxidermy because sadly, people aren't careful driving on the road I live on which takes a lot of critters over time and I wanna start preserving them.
It’s difficult to give a starting point on how I got into taxidermy, I’ve been processing my own specimens since I was 13! It’s mainly just being around those spaces.
As for tips, it may seem obvious, but use gloves when handling anything (wild) raw! Once you’ve been doing it long enough it seems optional sometimes but don’t let yourself get lazy with it (I’m guilty of it myself once in a while), it’s a safety precaution.
Use your freezer! Don’t be afraid to freeze things at ANY point in the process if you’re overwhelmed or otherwise stuck, it can save your pelt and give you time to figure things out. If you don’t have a freezer (or you don’t want dead animals in your food freezer) investing in a cheap one from facebook marketplace or similar places is a good idea.
You’re gonna mess up. No way around it. You’ll lose a pelt or two, it’s all part of learning, don’t beat yourself up about it.
Go for the good stuff. Don’t use the orange bottle tan, egg tan, brain tan (I wouldn’t recommend you handle the brain of any animal If you can help it, let alone tan with it), anything like that. I can provide links to exact products but for tanning pelts lutan, rittels, and trubond are my favorites.
If you plan to do more tanning, invest in a wire wheel. It’ll improve your tans and save you lots of time. You can make one yourself at home if you don’t want to buy a commercial one. In the meantime, fleshing and thinning the hide with scissors and a scalpel will be sufficient on most small critters, it just takes a LOT of time and patience.
If you are tanning full pelts for taxidermy or just for wallhangers you should learn how to turn ears, split lips, and turn noses. It produces a much cleaner and better tan. On that same note, remove all the toe bones if you are keeping paws on! In things like squirrels or smaller you can get away with leaving the whole toe in but for anything larger you need to remove every toe bone except the last one connected to the claw, this can be a learning curve to figure out. Also, especially on canines and other species with cushioned paw pads you must remove the pad of fat inside the paw pad, it will degrade over time if you don’t and likely won’t dry correctly to begin with!
If you have any other questions, feel free to ask more specifically, good luck! :)
