r/Taxidermy

New moderators needed - comment on this post to volunteer to become a moderator of this community.
â–˛ 521 r/Taxidermy+72 crossposts

New moderators needed - comment on this post to volunteer to become a moderator of this community.

Hello everyone - this community is in need of a few new mods, and you can use the comments on this post to let us know why you’d like to be a mod here. 

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u/ModCodeofConduct — 5 days ago
â–˛ 80 r/Taxidermy

We listen and we don't judge

I have a question to all of you, what is a thing that you are most ashamed of because of being into taxidermy or bone collecting. I will start, the smell of decaying body? I couldn't mind it, honestly whenever I smell an animal carcass rot I kinda start to like the sweetness of the smell🫣🥹

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u/i_love_aquariums — 6 days ago
â–˛ 22 r/Taxidermy+1 crossposts

Real tail ?

Hello !

This has been sold to me as a silver fox tail, but looking at pictures of actual silver foxes... It looks nothing the same.

I don't mind it, but I'd like to know if it's a genuine tail or not, and if yes what species it is.

Hand for scale (16 cm from wrist to tip of my middle finger)

Edit for context/additional details: I purchased it yesterday at some kind of fare (?), they were also selling skulls, pelts, and other tails such as raccoon. I don't really know about taxidermy, so I'm not sure what's normal or not. There's what feels like a hard part in the top of the tail, and there's a thread coming out at the very tip of it. I saw an ig post showing different tails, and the person had a similar one to mine, and said it was fake, so I might be overthinking it-

u/Elio_lebn — 6 days ago
â–˛ 116 r/Taxidermy

Pet taxidermy or toy?

Bought this at an antique store for $30 last week, thinking it was just a decorative toy. After looking at it for about an hour, a housemate (who is also vegetarian lol) brought up that it kinda looks like he could be taxidermy. First pic is it with a hand sanitizer for size reference, second is the underside (the tail is on a hinge and can be positioned). Third is an up-close shot of some of the more suspicious looking regions on the underside. Fourth is a close up of the “skin” on the back. Fifth is the hair it is constantly shedding. Did I accidentally buy a taxidermy cat? For reference, his name is Jaques and he will be treasured regardless of the outcome.

u/ProtectionRelative12 — 6 days ago
â–˛ 44 r/Taxidermy

Failed wets -> Nice heads

I had an entire lot of wet specimen mice fail due to slippage from being not in great shape as a feeders.

I chose to snip the heads, feet, and tails. I added eyes after the fact and expected them to look poor given they're 1) formalin fixed (in place) and 2), the eyes were still there, but they ended up good!

The eyelids had just enough give to them to pull and tuck.

Left is a fluffed pelt, right is not. Not sure what I'll use em for (I have dozens lol!) but they're neat. Normally I either mummify or tan + mount so these were a weird middle ground.

u/Wowza_Meowza — 6 days ago
â–˛ 22 r/Taxidermy+1 crossposts

NSFW: Drying cartilage on a horse sternum ** Warning of graphic images! **

Hi everyone,

Does anyone have suggestions on how to dry out cartilage of a horse sternum?

We have been boiling it to get the meat off but see the cartilage is starting to peel off. This is the first time I am doing something like this so I have no clue. Also, I don't have much equipment to work with and baking in the oven is out of the question as that takes a lot of electricity.

I did read about leaving it in a box full of salt could work. Does anyone have experience with that?

Would appreciate any advice. Thanks!

u/GrumpleWumpkis — 7 days ago
â–˛ 66 r/Taxidermy

Possible price/species of this monkey?

I received this taxidermied monkey a few months back. It was labeled as a capuchin and was originally a museum piece in Chicago but was sold off during an estate sale (no paperwork from the museum sadly).

To be honest it doesn’t look like a capuchin and more like a vervet monkey but I’m not the absolute best when it comes to identifying animals like this. I was mainly wondering what a good price for this would be if I ever sold it. He has a really dry and crusty face and the base rock is slightly cracked but still intact because it’s all held onto a wooden board. Perchance I could do something to help his face? I wouldn’t want to damage him at all. Other than his face and the crack on the base he’s in perfect condition I believe.

u/Extension_Estimate25 — 8 days ago
â–˛ 1 r/Taxidermy

Can you preserve a pelt in borax for a soft mount

I have a squirrle that im going to soft mount and was wondering if I could use borax? Ik it gets hard but can you stretch it like a normal tan for it to be soft?

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u/Icy-Attorney8301 — 6 days ago
â–˛ 1 r/Taxidermy+1 crossposts

Rearticulation

Hey yall...about a month ago my boyfriend kicked one of my cats out for using the bathroom outside the litterbox one too many times. I searched for her and kept food out for her but only saw her the one time since and she ran away from me. Today I think I found her dead. The colors seem to match but there's a few cats of that color in the neighborhood. She's partially skeletized so I'm not 100% sure it's her but it's in the same area I last saw her. Anyways, I'm not sure if they will cremate her at this stage of decomp and was thinking of cleaning her bones and rearticulating her. I have experience cleaning bones since I'm a collector but I've never articulated anything. Any advice?

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u/furious_kookaburra — 8 days ago
â–˛ 20 r/Taxidermy

Wet specimen

I have an Amazon milk frog who passed away today he was extremely tiny so I’m wondering if he still needs to be injected if I preserve him. This was him last night and I found him this morning no longer alive.
I’ve never preserved anything before so I’m not sure on what to do.

u/Purplepercc — 7 days ago
â–˛ 7 r/Taxidermy

Advice on bone taxidermy

Found this little guy in my driveway. I have been wanting to use animal skeletons for gothic art pieces. Any advice on how to get down to the bones and what to do with them?

u/Far-Experience-742 — 7 days ago
â–˛ 15 r/Taxidermy+1 crossposts

My father was a avid hunter and well he said he wants to downsize and wants to try an get rid of the mounts he has. If interested and serious please reach out

u/Mahomesmagickc — 9 days ago
â–˛ 4 r/Taxidermy+1 crossposts

Urgent: mom's pleco passed, want to preserve bones

My mom's pleco fish that she's had for over 7 years passed this afternoon

I often work with bones I find laying around, but never any fish or full bodies

Does anyone know the best method to preserve the bones? I want to make it a gift for her since she's quite torn up about it

I genuinely don't want to mess up, so if anyone knows or has done this before, I would appreciate any help !! đź’•

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u/jellyfishie444 — 7 days ago
â–˛ 2 r/Taxidermy

Taxidermist help!

As a taxidermist myself I like to give a lot of grace when it comes to people taking longer to finish projects, I know this industry is super easy to get backed up with work!
BUT…
The taxidermist that currently has my dog has been working on him for A YEAR AND A HALF NOW!!!! It is one thing if I was asking for a mount of my dog but I am literally asking for a soft tanned pelt. Thats it.

She has started and finished multiple other projects, regularly posts asking for more work, and then tells me every few months that she’s “working on him” when I ask her about his progress.

At this point, I want to ask for what she has done and possibly send it out to get it finished by someone else but then it’s just costing me so much more.

How could possibly (nicely and professionally) ask her why it’s taking so long and to put a little more effort into finishing my pup instead of these other non pet mounts.

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u/meagancm — 6 days ago
â–˛ 3 r/Taxidermy

trying to make wet specimen with fetal pig heart and kidney

Today, I dissected a fetal pig and brought home the heart and kidney. The fetal pig had been professionally prepared by a lab that sold specimens for dissection and had some sort of solution keeping it fresh.

Im new to this but from what I've read on the internet, I need to confirm that the fetal pig was fixed with formalin and keep it in a 70% isopropyl solution in a glass airtight jar if so.

Right now, I'm just keeping the organs in the freezer. Is that okay?

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u/Far_Strawberry8176 — 6 days ago
â–˛ 339 r/Taxidermy

Spooky Randy Allen!

found this deer mount at an antique store. its from 1985 and the guy who killed this buck was named Randy Allen. thought he looks a little too young to be killed for a trophy mount :( figured i would take him home, dust him off and give him a new life. named him Spooky randy allen !!!!

fur was so dusty and it took two rounds of hair dye. this was my first time dying a mount so let me know what you think, any feedback & tips and tricks ^_^

u/d3adman-walking — 10 days ago
â–˛ 53 r/Taxidermy

Is this taxidermy fox from the Victorian era?

I bought this beautiful taxidermy fox today... super good price, only ÂŁ135! It was advertised as being Victorian, I really don't mind either way, but I'd like to know if it really is Victorian and what other people think/know. Thank you!

u/Mael290 — 9 days ago
â–˛ 1 r/Taxidermy

Black Paradise Flycatcher

Ohaiyo~~~~

I am currently located in Okinawa.

The bird in the title flew into a window at work. I put a box over it to see if it could recover from shock, but it did pass.

I wrapped the head and feet in wet paper towel and froze it on its back.

I need to get borax, but I was wondering what are the next steps? Sure, there’s the internet instructions, but wanted to see if a gal could get some help?

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u/pho_jyna — 7 days ago
â–˛ 0 r/Taxidermy

Pheasant mount

Into my 2nd ever taxidermy, another pheasant. I am really struggling ro get them to stand?? They just flop either forward or backwards and its so so annoying, it hinders my feathering as I literally can't touch it? Or when I do manage to balance it, it's stance is just whack. How do people do this? I'm currently using thick wire through the leg bone and pushed into a hard foam form, the leg wires are fed I to the base. Do I need even thicker wire? I worry I'll be getting to the point I can't bend it and honestly it's not the wire being to maluble but how it just flops forward.

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u/Suspicious-Sir9723 — 7 days ago