O.K., need some advice from the experts out there. I am fairly new to taxidermy. I have mounted several things but was wondering about something on the bobcats. I tan with Lutan F then put hide back in the freezer until I am ready to mount, at which time I thaw out and proceed. During the 2 week drying time, the hair on my cats seems very matted almost like hairspray. Noticed as any other animals dry, they seem to brush out and fluff alot easier then my cats. The end result, they will brush out but I was wondering if it would be beneficial to dry them before putting them on the form. I just started learning ducks and found out real quick that they look a hell of alot better if you dry them completly before mounting. Will the bobcats turn out better if you dry them first? I do not have a tumbler, can you blow dry them with a hair dryer on low heat like Ive been doing on my ducks? Or, can you put them in a clothes dryer or will that tear them up? And i guess while Im on the subject, I was thinking of buying a tumbler. Can you use regular saw dust or is it better to order the corn cob stuff out of the supply magazine? Just seems to me that the cats may look better if dry and fluffy before mounting, but what the hell do I know...I am a newbie! Any advice out there would be greatly appreciated. Thanks, JH
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What you should do is mount your cat as you normaly would. Brush and blow dry then.Don't wait the two weeks, then blow dry.Blow dry right after mounting but be careful of any clay work you have done for you don't want to smash the clay with your brush. On the tumbler, use borax. It's fairly cheap and will make your bird skins look great. Make sure after you tumble your birds you get all the borax blown out.If you don't, after you mount them the borax will never stop falling out of your birds.Borax is a great cleaner, softner, and will preserve the skins, also will keep any bugs from eating at your mount over time.
JH, I mount the cat using very little adhessive--just the face and some in the lower legs to show the details. Just after mounting taxi everything to get the hair patterns in place then back brush everything. Let the mount dry and it will look pretty bad with scruffy coat. Let dry about 2 weeks, next shampoo the whole cat, suds it up well and rinse, towl off and NOW blow dry. This has made my cats look 100% better than before. The cat will need a week or so to finish drying since washing has rehydrated some places but after that do the finish work I think you will love the cat. Enjoy, Aaron H.
I assume you are degreaseing them before you tan them? After I remove my cats from the tan I wash them again in dawn dishwashing soap. I then let them hang for 5 or 6 hours..invert the legs back to where they belong and tumble(in a dryer on air cycle) with fine hardwood sawdust. I tumble them for at least 30 to 40 minutes and remove most of the moisture from the fur..if for some reason I have to put them back in the freezer I`ll tumble them again because the freezer will suck out more moisture and the fur will be damp again..I think the most critical part has already been mentioned...as soon as you are finished mounting them blow dry them, then use high air pressure to get down deep in the fur..then blow dry them again..I do this with all my small mammals and it makes a big difference..the high air pressure is critical to remove any knots down deep at the folicles..
McKenzie`s has some nice sawdust that works great. Good luck
I shampoo all my critter when I get them back from the tannery and rehydrate them I shampoo them then put them in a dryer with some rags (t-shirts, towels, whatever)on the normal setting. That gets them pretty dry. Then I put them together. And liek the others said I blow dry them with my shop vac blower for prolly 20 min. or more. It fluffs them right up and they look great. This is really good for bears it makes them look quit a bit bigger than what they would if you wouldnt do this. Hoep this helped you, good luck, Kevin
Thanks guys for all the responses. All of it make very good sense. I will start doing this on my cats now, maybe they wont look like a drowned rat now! Thanks again, JH