Had a customer bring me back a pheasant for a smell issue. First time for everything I thought. So I took it back and it wasn't a strong smell like leftover meat in a deers ear or a unskived bass throat, but it was almost like a sweat smell. I do admit the bird got out of my hands faster than I wanted(2wks after being mounted) He claimed it would stink up a whole bedroom in his house. Since its been at my shop I Frebreezed it and put it by a fan. The smell is almost gone already(I have to take a big wiff to smell anything). The only thing I could figure was perhaps not quite enough bird preservative was used as I get 99.5% of the meat out. Is there any cure all smell products for taxidermy out there? Also do you suppose just leave it by the fan or do I need to start up a dehumidifer. I got 2 weeks to give it a oder riferus smellanation. However I don't want it to come out smelling like a car air freshener.
Thanks in advance!
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There shouldn't be a problem with a pheasant if you did it right
and cleaned it right all the brains need to be taken out you know and borax rubbed all over
If you rub borax all over that should do the trick
I even work it into the feather side then dust it out afterwards
Gosh if you are having problems with a pheasant I can't wait
to see your duck mounts? ha ha lol
On my first mount, I know there was still a lot of fat left on the skin covering the breast. This is my only mount that has any smell and I would also describe it as a sweaty smell.
Did the smell go away?
Las someday someone will bring you back something and you'll loose that I'm better than everybody else ego of yours. Were you really laughing out loud at that statement of yours. You must be a real winner man. We all learn by our mistakes evidently you never make any. Thanks for the tip of taking the brains out. I'll have to remember that!LOL
....and tumble the pheasant. Sometimes if a bird is very clean, no blood or mud, a person might be tempted to not wash the skin. An unwashed mounted pheasant can have that sweaty dog smell.
Pheasants wings take longer to dry then other birds of the same size. I think that the outer layer of the skin dries so fast that anything inside is somewhat shielded from the ambient air and just takes a little longer. 2 weeks and gone was a bad idea, as you already know. You may or may not have fleshed it good enough and still have a problem. Most people don't have near a humid free of an area to hang their birds as a taxidermist has and if the birds are already prone to some rot because they are not dry they will not only smell but take even longer to completely dry. The real trick is time. No matter what you put on it or spray on it will wear off. If the area causint the smell doesn't dry out it will continue to smell long after the effects of an air freshener are gone. Time is the best. It needs to dry out. One other thing you can try in the future is putting a few cups of borax in your tumbler mixture. I have done this for quite some time just as a piece of mind. Does it do anything? I don't really know, but it makes me feel better, im sure I have borax everywhere. It also helps keep your tumberl mixture from mildew and it helps the bird dry a little faster. Not too much though because borax can dry the bird up too fast and it makes it tough to work on. Of course you still need to put your usual amount of borax in the bird. Good luck