I skined a timber rattler. When I used a spoon to flesh him I noticed that it started sheading. I used Rittle's snakeskin tan. After the tanning I noticed some skin on the skin side loose. I pulled it off and it messed up the skin. What went wrong?
Thanks, Ted
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Snake was probably getting ready to shed prior to its death. This leaves a sticky wet feeling to the outer skin instead of tye dry scaled texture. You mayhave also handled the skin a little too roughly with the spoon therfor like with fish, you forced the scales out of their pockets. It was not the tanning solution that failed but rather the above mentioned things. If you are mounting the skin try a rather straight crawling pose rather than a coiled one as the descaled skin will not have any scales to stack on the inside curves. If it is for a wall hanging or hatband, you will be fine. Complete descaling of the skin and follow directions. The problem could also be that the snake was dead too long prior to freezing and the epidermal layer started to rot, if this is the case, toss it!