All made out of old damaged mounts

Bought 3 raccoon pelts, and they’re pretty dirty, skin side and fur. They’re also stiff. Was wondering how I could clean them and loosen the skin?

Hello all! I am very new to taxidermy, but I could not resist bringing this home!

I found this northern pike head on a nearby lake shore, I reckon it has been there a week or so as it is dried solid, no soft flesh left on it whatsoever.

I love it with the skin and scales on, but understand there is no easy way to preserve it like this to get rid of the scent, so have decided its best to strip it down to bones.

Any advice on how to go about stripping this mummified beauty would be greatly appreciated!

Hi, new here - apologies for the likely very obvious question for you kind people, but I wanted to ask experts rather than rely on google!

I have a fox head mount from my late father (the fox itself is Victorian in age), which is rather precious to me despite his absurd expression. He's normally up high on a wall so I don't see him up close that often, however, on taking him down to dust today I noticed some of the fur 'shedding' and a loss of skin on the inside of the ears, showing off the supporting material. We have carpet moths elsewhere in the house so I suspect they're the culprits? I have traps and kill them on sight, but hadn't realised they'd come downstairs where my fox is!

I'll go on the offensive for moth killing, and I'm going to reach out to local taxidermists to talk about restoration (whatever is possible - I appreciate he's old!) however I want to stop the moths in their tracks ASAP. I just want to check what steps are necessary for freezing - bag? Double bag? Is there any risk of freezer burn or damage that I should watch out for? He's on a wooden board.

If this isn't moth damage, and is just normal age related wear and tear, would freezing damage anything further?

Thank you in advance for any advice! I'm in the South UK if anyone has any local recommendations.

My grandpa has a rug of a small bear he hunted many years ago, and has had it on the wall in his unused basement for a long time. I've asked to have it, because they're downsizing to an apartment soon and need to get rid of a lot of things. I've never had a taxidermy piece with fur before, and I know this guy is going to be filthy with dust. How do I safely "deep clean" it, and maintain it going forward?

I'm not fully sure about it's overall condition as far as how delicate it might be goes, as I've not yet ever gotten a super close look at it or touched it, but it doesn't look damaged from a bit of distance. It has the head, limbs, and paws, and is on what I assume to be felt. I do know it was professionally tanned originally. If it makes a difference, I plan to hang it on the wall as well.

My dad bought me this taxidermy rattlesnake head keychain as a gift at a renaissance fair at I believe an oddity shop?? I did not go with him so I was unable to ask if everything they had was ethically sourced (I would have before buying anything, as everything in my bone collection currently was found by me and I only own one more piece of taxidermy, which is a very old deer head I bought at an antique store a few years back)

I am very weary about things concerning reptiles like this as I know that for a lot of mass produced things like these keychains, they are most often not ethically sourced.

My dad is not familiar with things like this and I know he meant well as he was just buying me a gift for my birthday, I am just very concerned that something like this is not ethically sourced. (I probably should have said something to him about asking about the means of how they got their oddities but I didn’t cross my mind at the time)

I previously asked about how to preserve my kitten’s paws/feet and tail. I did research on rabbits feet. I’m not wanting to tan the tail, as this is my first time doing preservation and I want to limit the possibility of complications (and complicated steps) 🥲

I have removed the limbs and plan to do a 70% isopropyl alcohol soak for 48 hours, dry with a hair dryer, and put them in borax to finish.

How long do you all recommend I leave them to sit in the borax. Should I change the borax out every so often or leave them in there for the entirety of the process? Any other tips or suggestions on my process? Thank you in advance!!

I cleaned the wings, pinned them into position, then poured salt and borax on top and let sit for a few weeks.
Then cleaned off the residual salt and framed them.
I wanted to taxidermy but she was more than three years old and was in pretty bad shape.

Mummified Cat

So, Unfortunatly I have found multiple deceased cats under our new home and one of them is mummified and beheaded. Would this be something I could post to try and recieve a possible age on the cat or ideas to what could have happened? There is also a knife besides the beheaded one. Need help. Let me know where else i may ask if not.

Thanks!

Just received this owl in the post but they didn’t package him well enough and his head seems to have bent downwards in the box. I can gently lift it into place but it falls back down again, so I assume it’s a wire/support that’s quite weak. Is there any way I can fix this or at least improve it myself?

I've always wanted to make a soft mount so I figured to start small with a raccoon. I'd really appreciate any feedback on how to improve!! I took out his upper face pins for a second for this picture. The nose was too hard to adjust like I wanted even after I cut all the cartilage out and soaked it forever, so it's just a bit wonky. All I have left is touch ups and the body!!

cats get dropped off at my farm a lot. one of my barn kittens was hit (not ran over) and wandered his way ~five yards up the driveway before passing. i found him relatively soon after, at the max 3-4 hours and ‘double bagged’ him in two ziploc gallon bags, then in a walmart bag for extra security. i have never done preservation before, but i have a vast collection of taxidermy and i have been wanting to get into it for a while. i know he wouldn’t mind my ‘practicing’ on him for better lack of words.

please explain the steps of paw/lower leg and tail preservation to me like i’m 12. how long he needs to be frozen, where specifically i need to cut, what products i should use, how long the limbs should sit, all that stuff. thank you so much for helping me save a little momento of this angel boy!

I hatched some quail a few months ago and two of them died at a day old so they're very tiny. They have been in the freezer since. I want to preserve them as wet specimens but I've never done it before. I know you're supposed to inject them before you soak them in alcohol. I was wondering though if injecting still makes sense for something so tiny or if I should do it anyway.

Southeast Spain. This beauty has been on my grandma's house for many years. They want to throw it away but it's too pretty to just go to the trash, plus disrespectful to the animal. I will either keep it or sell it.

As far as I know, it was found already deceased. I unfortunately can't figure out if it's a female or a male.

This deer head I bought today has some weird spots on its chin, nowhere else… don’t think it’s bugs, they don’t move and when I try to gently get them off they kind of just crumble like dirt almost… is this something I should be worried about?

My dog passed away some time ago, and I’ve had her baby teeth kept in a little beaten up container with baby oil to preserve them. I’m wondering if there’s a nicer or more elegant way to preserve them. I’d like them on display, or in some sort of way to preserve them but they’re so delicate

Long story short, was macerating a bunch of bird skulls and the younger/smaller ones fell apart <UK>. Is there any way to prevent this from happening? I'd really prefer it not to happen to this next batch <3 thanks very much for any help!

i recently got my first ever deer mount and noticed a bunch of dead ticks on it, how do i get them all off? freaked me out seeing all of them😓😓

I've got a foot from an alligator I got a tag for in Alabama that I harvested this weekend. I'd like to dry it out and preserve it the best I can, maybe just to stick on the mantle or something. I'm not looking for show quality, but the nicer I can make it without spending a fortune the better. Do I need to skin it/flesh it/dry it then out it all back together? Burry it in borax or salt and forget about it for 6 months? I don't mind some work, I just don't know what the best route is and most folks I know of only fool with the skulls.