Practicing Taxidermy *CONTAINS GRAPHIC IMAGES IN LINKS*

Exit_W0unds · 23rd October 2007, 3:30am

*WARNING*

The images within links in this thread contain graphic images of animals being used for practise in taxidermy training. You have been warned. Please do not open the links if this will upset or offend you.

Righty.
It took ages to skin this rat because I was trying my best not to make a TOTAL arse of it. It didn't go as well as expected, but it's all part of the hands on learning process and I'll not beat myself up about the mishaps at this stage.

1) Defrosted adult albino rat.

2) Washing the critter. Pre washing with antibacterial liquid soap to get rid of any possible external germs.

3) Laid out for incision.

4) First cut. Nice clean cut. Pressed a little too deeply on the chest but luckily avoided cutting into the belly sack.

5) Extended incision. Realising that the first cut wasn't big enough, I extended it to just above the penis. Runing a gloved finger around the sides of the body, the skin came away easily without leaving too much fatty tissue (later removed with a scalple). Thigh visible on bottom left.

6) *This picture will possibly upset more than the others*
Skinned.
Once the torso and limbs were free of the skin, the legs were cut at the ankles. Feet remain within the skin. This is also where things went a bit wrong. Whilst pulling the tail from its skin, it tore three times. This is one of the most common mishaps whilst in the early stages of learning to skin small mammals. It should be fixable. Skinning the genital area and face were also tricky but turned out fine in the end.

7) Washing the skin. Not a requirement by any means. I choose to wash the skin again with antibacterial soap to, in theory, reduce any bacterial activity which may have occured during the whole process. Once died off I wrapped the skin in an old hand towel and returned it to the freezer. Usually if an animal is defrosted then returned to the freezer there would be a certain ammount of hair slippage (falling out) on the next defrosting. I wrapped the skin in the hand towel to try to prevent this as much as possible. Fingers crossed.

8) Skull cleaning. Not being one for waste, I defleshed the skull and put it in a container of hydrogen peroxide (3%) to remove the flesh that I couldn't, and to whiten the bone. Pictures to follow.

As soon as I recieve the eyes I ordered for the rat, the skin will be defrosted and I'll be mounting it the same day. Pictures to follow.

**djtoast** · 23rd October 2007, 4:34am

Cool (but creepy).

When you moving on to people?

Exit_W0unds · 23rd October 2007, 11:27pm

The ammount of times I've been asked this!

I'm more than happy to stick to animals, anyhoo, I think it's illegal to do that to a human.

I'm Your God Now · 23rd October 2007, 11:30pm

What did you do with the body, eat it?

High-Five!

Exit_W0unds · 23rd October 2007, 11:32pm

Eww no. Binned it.

I'm Your God Now · 23rd October 2007, 11:34pm

With Chips-Five!

**djtoast** · 24th October 2007, 3:35am

sorry for my predictable joke ^^^

okay then, "how much to stuff my old maths teacher?"

Semprini · 24th October 2007, 5:30am

Looks good!

lol93 · 24th October 2007, 9:00am

Good on you! I like weird hobbies. Always wondered how taxidermy was done, too. Now I know!

Exit_W0unds · 24th October 2007, 11:26am

Quote:

Originally Posted by djtoast

sorry for my predictable joke ^^^

okay then, "how much to stuff my old maths teacher?"

Maths teachers typically smell of tuna and onion sandwiches and have overly long nose hairs from which swing 'bats in the cave'. Well, all the math teachers I've ever had. So for that gross factor....I'll decline workin on teachers of the math variety

Quote:

Originally Posted by Semprini

Looks good!

Cheers

Quote:

Originally Posted by lol93

Good on you! I like weird hobbies. Always wondered how taxidermy was done, too. Now I know!

Thanks

The Eyes arrived, so I'll hopefully be working on the ratty later today.

Fenntastic · 24th October 2007, 11:38am

when i worked in the country park the head keeper decided to go one a wee taxidermy course, and came back with a very pretty stuffed and mounted squirrel. then one of the wallabys died and i will never forget the horror of walking into the feed house to find it in the process of being gutted. i had hand fed that very wallaby the day before! that put me right off ever wanting to see taxidermy pictures

also, apparently wallabys are very hard to skin....

McLeary · 24th October 2007, 12:17pm

You are fucking mental.

**Shannow** · 24th October 2007, 12:23pm

Do you do the reconstruction with the whole skeleton back inside, or only tricky to shape parts liek the skull and feet?

Exit_W0unds · 24th October 2007, 12:37pm

Quote:

Originally Posted by Shannow

Do you do the reconstruction with the whole skeleton back inside, or only tricky to shape parts liek the skull and feet?

In the skin (which is defrosting just now) all the feet bones and muscle ect from the ankles down are still inside the skin. In the 'skinned' picture, everything which was cut out of the skin is what get's thrown away, even the skull. If I was a master, I'd be making moulds of the feet to cast in resin or silicone.

Master taxidermists don't need a skull inside the skin to form the face shape, it's all done with foam and sculpting it into the shape of the skull. Some folk will use the original skulls in their mounts make it look even more realistic, and to show off the teeth of the animal which I think gives a nice touch.

I'll be using florists foam, cotton and wire to create the bodyshape for the animal.

I'm rambling, sorry.

Nieriel · 24th October 2007, 4:10pm

Neatly skinned.

Don't you feel cruel cutting up a cute wee animal though? I felt bad just looking at it.

I couldn't look if it were a squirrely, even the grey ones are pretty to me!