Picked up a couple of three year old green mutants last week,there huge and gorgeous and were so full of fat I could"nt believe it, took me two hours to skin each one....I"ve never encounterd pheasants this greasy before and was considering washing them in Epo-Grip I don"t know if the PH is high enough in Dawn to clean them,Iv"e never washed pheasants in Epo before was qurious if anyone else has run in to this type of situation Don"t want to damage the plummage,appreciate any advice...Thanks,Mike
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Birds this fat should be run on a wire wheel bird flesher. Since they are upland game birds, you should be able to get by with a very light touch on the wheel - just to break the fat. After that, Dawn Detergent should clean them up. You may need to wash/rinse two or three times. Also, you may need to lightly scratch the inside of the skin with you fingernail while in the soap.
Just be very careful to NOT get any fat onto the actual feathers. The fat will soak into upland bird feathers much easier than ducks or geese because of the feather structure and the greater water repellancy placed by the uropygial gland in the Anseriformes. Once fat gets into the feathers of pheasants, it is not as easy to remove.
Thanks for the advice guys, did flesh the birds and will give the dawn a try...thanks again..Mike...