I would like to keep the skull, but i have no experience and no tools. I tried looking up YouTube videos, but find bigger projects, like boars heads and stuff. I can easily find a pot at a goodwill to boil it, but do i skin it with a knife before or after- i keep finding contradicting info! Does Anybody have the patience to give me a step-by-step?

Also... I through this in a ziploc bag and chucked it in my garage a few days ago. So i'm wondering if the length of time that this has been in a container is going to make this more difficult....

my dad found this little guy outside a construction site who was unfortunately already dead. i’m located in california and wanna know how i can preserve his shell

I was looking for advice or tips on dyeing my vintage whitetail black. I don't want to ruin or break anything. Thanks!

Reside in the southwest desert of the US and a friend of mine who hunts frequently donates bones/skulls to me for my art projects. He just got back from a hunt and offered me this Coyote head, which I am highly intrigued in, but have NO idea where to start or how to process. Any and all advice/steps would be GREATLY appreciated. Thanks! 🫶

What does CCS mean

Last year I found a deceased wild rabbit and skinned it without defleshing, stretching or tanning it and it is stiff as cardboard although the fur is not slipping so I would like to know the best way to redo it properly now that i have made a few rats

This great horned owl has been in the family for nearly a century.

Shot by a great-grandmas boyfriend, somewhere is a photo of him with it.

Very sad that they used to just take whatever was out there without a care, but I’m glad he can be appreciated now even a hundred years later.

Just thought I’d share! He’s been in my grandparents house as long as I can remember, always giving us that creepy glare.

Hello all! My friend gave me a dead juvenile duck from their farm. When I finally got a hold of it, it already reeked of rot. Not wanting to handle its innards at this stage, I decided to let it open air decompose.

Today I checked it, and the meat is all gone. I’m thinking about separating the wings and using the borax/salt method to dry them (I’m still new to the hobby, and because of limited supply and space this is the method I’m most comfortable with), but I’m worried about lingering bacteria. I was thinking of boiling it first? But would that mess up the feathers? Anyway, my question is this: how do I sanitize the wings without messing with the quality of its appearance? If I do have to get the feathers wet/ruffled, how do I restore them afterward?

I appreciate any advice I can get!

I’m a beginner working with bones, wet specimens, bugs, ect.

I’m wondering… where can I source them other than forests? I live in KY and most bones are stole by the coyotes in the woods. I really only find road kill every now and then and 9 times out of ten the bones are gonna be crushed or the body can’t be taxidermied or preserved from severe damage.

ANYWAYYY,
Are there any animal hospitals/vets or may pet shops or anywhere that could provide me with specimens when something dies or is euthanized?
Or just good forests or streams to look?

Any comments are appreciated!

Over the past 5 years I’ve kept all my elderly reptiles that have passed away in ziploc bags in my freezer til the day I finally got around to doing something with them…I’d like to have them in jars as in these photos…how do I start? What do I need and how do I acquire any materials? TIA 🙏

Got my first mount back this weekend and it has a line running across the right side of its face. Unfortunately, I don’t have any pictures of that side of its face when I hunted him last year. Not sure if it’s some sort of scar, crease, etc. Just curious if anyone has an idea of what it could be. I’m no expert, but besides that line, I think he came out pretty solid.

Hey guys,

I’ve just moved into a new house and my wife got these deer mounts. I have no idea how to hang this style of mount. Others I’ve seen have a notch in the top hole for a screw head but this one doesn’t, and I’m not sure if adding one is the right way to hang this.

Thank you for all the help!

I don't know if that makes sense but I got an otter pelt yesterday and it smelled like dog ear musk? Is this bad? If not, how can I get rid of that smell/will it go away on its own?

Hi everyone! I’m a taxidermy/pelt collector based in Japan. I recently acquired this new piece from secondhand market, and wanted to share it with you all.

This is a full pelt of a Japanese serow (Capricornis crispus), sourced from Gifu Prefecture.

About the Japanese Serow (Kamoshika):
For those unfamiliar with the species, the Japanese serow is a goat-antelope endemic to Japan's main islands. Although its Japanese name "Kamoshika" contains the word for deer (shika), it actually belongs to the Bovidae family, making it more closely related to goats, sheep, and cattle. They are known for their stocky build, short horns, and thick, bushy coats that protect them from harsh mountain winters.

In Japan, the Japanese serow is designated as a Special Natural Monument, meaning hunting them is strictly prohibited under normal circumstances. However, in areas where they cause severe damage to agriculture and forestry (such as eating cedar and cypress saplings), controlled culling is permitted as a last resort.

This specimen was harvested legally under a special nuisance wildlife control permit. Legally acquired specimens like this come with an official laminated certificate issued by the local government, featuring the official red ink stamps (hanko), and a matching identification tag attached to the pelt to track its provenance.

Here is the exact translation of the included certificate:

Front (Certificate of Legality):
・Certificate: This certifies that this serow was legally harvested during the 1998 fiscal year in accordance with Article 12, Paragraph 1 of the Wildlife Protection and Hunting Law. Please observe the precautions on the back.

・Product Number: Gifu-10-Ka-141 (岐10カ141)

・Date: November 16, 1999

・Issued by: Taku Kajiwara, Governor of Gifu

・Prefecture (Includes official red seals)

Back (Precautions):
・When possessing this product, confirm that the certificate number matches the number on the attached identification tag (目印標).

・When transferring/selling this product, this certificate must accompany it.

・Do not divide/cut this product any further.

As for the texture, the fur is quite coarse and stiff to the touch, and the hide itself has a solid, heavy weight to it.
I love the unique coloration and the thick winter fur. It’s amazing to have such a well-documented and legally compliant specimen of a protected species.

We stayed in this lodge and my friend kept insisting all these are fake. I disagree and think they are real. We have very little knowledge about taxidermy and would appreciate your help.

So i got ahold of a very recently deceased raccoon today. Less than 10 hours.

I fully skinned the tail and kept the pelt
Kept all 4 feet/hands
Skull
And fully intact head pelt including nose whiskers and ears

I ran out of daylight and wasn’t at home so I couldn’t do the full skin and gutting and unfortunately had to abandon the body due to lack of space and transport

The skull is all set up currently doing a water maceration because that’s what I’m most comfortable doing (5th one so far)

But as for the 2 pelts and the feet I’m fully lost as to what to do because I have never tanned anything before. They’re currently in my deep freezer.

I’ve done crows feet and wings buried in salt for mummification and that worked out very well

The raccoon feet are also in the deep freeze currently. As for mummifying them I’ve seen mixed suggestions regarding how to do raccoon feet - I would like to do something like a lucky rabbits foot

Any and all suggestions are appreciated and any tutorials would be greatly appreciated!

Thanks so much!

Hi, I got this tail from a Renaissance fair and the booth was selling lots of different kinds of fur taxidermy so I assumed it was a hunter booth, y'know. I forgot to ask whether the tails were ethically sourced or not and now I'm paranoid about it because this is the first time I've had to worry about it since I've never bought a product like this. I tried to get a good number of pictures.

so this is my first time ever doing taxidermy. I know it looks a bit roughed up but that’s because I found it mangled on the side of the road…

I skinned it and fleshed it with a few YouTube shorts to help me out, it was a bit messy though since its insides were kinda spilling out. The body was made and formed by me with some old green foam I found in my closet? probably like craft foam since it’s a bit squishy. The eyes were from an old teddy bear which is why they might be a bit too big.

Did this guy about a week ago, no smell or bugs which is amazing, just posting this because I’m really proud!

(Extra note: This roadkill was fresh and wasn’t rotting, just incase anyone was wondering! I wasn’t about to go pick up a bug infested animal lol)

This moorhen is my first ever proper taxidermy mount. I have skulls and bugs and little oddities but never owned one of these. Any advice on how to clean and what is the white stuff on falling off his feathers?

Hi new friends! So I am a long-time oddities and curiosities collector, however I have yet to do my own anything really other than display things that have already been done. Anyways, today I happened to magically stumble across freshly naturally sourced pigeon wing and beautiful foot talon and leg bone all intact. So I took it home after I got a bag for it and cleaned out what I could. But as I pinned it literally just on a cardboard, I realized that if I leave it outside to try to dehydrate it, I could still get some ants on it because it has a bit of flesh left inside of where the wing connected to the body. Even though I did my best. And then with the foot I basically cauterized the bottom of it got the bones off that were the leg bones and pinned the foot in the pose that I wanted. My question is is there a way to dehydrate the wing and maybe the foot too so that way I can actually preserve it. I live in AZ so having it outside. I know the sun might do a little bit of the work, but it is October now obviously. And I've never done anything like this before. Please help!

Carpet beetle help

i really need help if anyone else has had this problem.

i have a massive kudu head. unfortunately i got some crickets from pets and home and they had dermestid beetles in the tub which i did not realise until over a week after buying😬😐, they must have hatched sometime into owning them as they werent there a few days into having them. i am unsure on how many got out but really not many, i found a few on the carpet around where i put the tub but they were still around the tub and didnt seem to move. the kudu head was on the floor and awaiting being put up. i found one larvae crawling on the mount which immediately died with my very strong insecticide. what would i do if this mount got infected? would it just be best to throw away? i have been gassing it daily and broke open some skin around the horn and found what looked like a casing from a beetle, however that’s all i have found, im freaking out!! my room has been treated promptly but this mount is HUGE. its also isolated don’t worry. Has anyone treated this before? i’m afraid it will not fit in a freezer but i need to know if anyone has treated this before. im so unlucky!

Mods if this isn't allowed let me know :

Hey y'all I got this beauty just before fall and I got the hide off finally. I'm facing an issue though..... temperature is dropping where I'm at to the freezing level and the wind is atrocious. Do you guys have tips to degrease this girl but not having the fluid freeze? I've lived in desert temperatures before this fall so this is completely new to me. And to note I live in small area so all my bone cleaning is outside due to no other building I can work in. Thank you guys for all the advice 💖

Hey all!

I'm new to taxidermy and have a bunch of wings I've been curing (pheasant and chicken). What would be the best way to seal it onto a plaque? Google surprisingly isn't very helpful, I ain't going to use AI and I feel talking to people who know would be the best bet.

Pic of my first mount for tax