I am doing my first gliding squirrel. I skinned it out a while ago and stuck it back in the freezer. I was totally lost. It is so small. Do I skin the feet totally out and leave the claws like you would any other animal? Also do you split the tail down the middle or just try to pull the bone out? I cut this one down the back cause the hair was so thin on the belly. Do you tan it as you do deer and stuff with safte acid or use dry preservatives? Please help me on this one!
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Hi Carrie,
On a squirrel you can either skin it all of the way out, or skin it to the ankle, and inject it with preserve it. Whichever you prefer. On the tail all you have to do is pull the bone out.Dp is fine for a small animal, but you can tan it if you still want to. It's just a personal preferance.
Hope this helps,
-Brandon
..I skin to the ankle. I've had some bad experiences with skinning to the nail. I just couldn't seem to get them turned right side out, no matter what I did! So I leave the toes and the foot in. Then I do a two-step thing.. First I inject with "Balmex". This preserves the foot. Then I inject the foot with "Fin Backing creme", making sure to go down into the toes. This plumps the foot up and keeps it from shrinking. The creme is a bit thick to flow through a syringe, but it *will* work.. if it is really thick you can thin it with a little water.
It works very well...
AmyRitchie
www.amystaxidermy.com