I attempted to mount a pigeon.I skin it all and remove all the meat. Then I soak the bird in dawn dish soap and add water. I then cleaned the skin off with water gentley. Lastley I shook the bird in a plastic bag with some borax. I tried to blow dry it after but the feathers are sticking to eachother and the borax gets hard and leaves residue on the feathers. I do so well skinning and when it comes to cleaning and drying the bird I don't know what to do. I want that clean sheen on the feathers and that fluff in the feathers that the bird has naturally. Any suggestions on what to do and how to do it?
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Also tumble with saw dust
and after DP the skin, inside! Not the feathers! If you find that skin is dry after drying feathers just place a damp face cloth inside bird for 5 mins. and then Borax.
I have found that as you skin put the borax on the skin it helps in 2 ways. One it will be easier to hold on to and it will start the DP. Next you need to take it and wash it with Dawn dish saop the rinse it in water and denatured alc (or some type of gas). after that put it into bag ( if you don't have a tumbller) with some sawdust or bird litter when you are done it should shine and not have any of the white residue. Let me know if you need any more help.
Ed O
I would encourage you to either purchase a text on bird mounting - many are available through the taxidermy suppliers or purchase a tape on mounting the bird of your choice. The procedures are reasonably straight forward and will produce the outcome you are looking for. When washing a bird skin the size of a pigeon I would suggest you fill a medium sized plastic container 3/4 full of cool water. Place 1/4 cup of Dawn or other type of dish soap in the water and stir it with your hand until mixed. Then place the skin in the water and wash it - it is OK to let it soak a while if there are challenging soil marks. Take the skin out of the soapy water, empty the container and fill with clean water, hold the skin under a faucet to initially remove much of the soap and rinse. Refill the container with clean water and rinse again. Empty the container and refill with soap and water as noted above and do the process over. I generally do this three times or more depending on skin. After the third rinse carefully squeze as much water out of the skin as you can. Then place the skin in a dry towel and squeze again. Follolwing this, I go outside and with another container, (I use a plastic bucket) put the skin in the bucket and cover the skin with gas or other petroleum product. Let soak for 20-30 minutes. Remove the skin and squeze again. Let the air circulate through the feathers. The fuel will evaporate. Then tumble the skin in some type of medium that will not turn hard. I would not use borax. If you choose not to use sawdust or ground corn cobs, yellow or white corn meal works fine and you can purchae it at any grocery store. Place a box or two of the stuff in a large plastic bag and gently tumble the skin. For a pigeon it make take 5-10 minutes. Take the skin out and shake it to remove most of the material then blow dry with a hair dryer on the low position. With a pigeon, the skin is a little thin so do not take a long time blow drying or the skin will start to stiffen. If that happens dampen the skin side with a small spray bottle of water. I think you will find this process will work well. But, there are any number of ways to deal with skins - if this does not strike your fancy others strategies are certainly available. As a last point, washing the skin does not replace proper degreasing and defatting. Good luck