i am new to taxidermy and would like to do my first animal. which animal would be the easiest for me as a beginner? i have no previous experience and would be teaching myself. any advice?
Return to Beginners Taxidermy Category Menu
Hi Tim, Squirrels are not to big for the beginner to do. There are plenty of squirrels and they are easy to come get. I would recommend getting one of the squirrel mounting videos from WASCO and some reference pictures. You can either tan them or use DP with good results. You will learn the basics from mounting squirrels.
Squirrels are a good place to start. a lot of supply companies sell a mounting kit that has instructions for everything. All you need is the squirrel and to make a choice of what form to get.
I started out with doing bird mounts and found them to a good source to build up confidence at a low start up cost to make sure you are intersed before to much of a investment is made on yor part. I would also recomend a video from WASCO go with something in the beginners course to make sure it covers everthing (some of the advanced vidoes assume you know how to skin and preserve the birds already)The big thing is not to get discourged and stick with it until you feel good enough about your work to move on to the next step my first phesant mount is nothing to brag about but with each bird I've done it got better now I can turn out very high quality bird mounts and going to try and move on to deer heads next plan on doing the same thing here one thing I learnt about this hobby is there is so much to learn if you try to go to fast you won't be able to do it one last thing try upland game birds first they are a little easier to clean then most waterfowl good luck with you venture and if i can help you with any questions on mounting Birds send me a email and I will do my best to help you I know I've got pleanty of help from the folks at this site so don't be afrid to use it is a excellent source for learning even with the few guys that like to take a rough approch about letting you know you new at this but take it with a smile as long as they are helping Later
OZZIE