In the past I have used dry preservative for all my small mammals,well this year Ive decided to tan them using the Lutan-F method.Unfortunatly the tanning process isnt going so well with the small tails,I used cotton string as a wick in the tail but most tails are still slipping on the ends.My question is that if I was to detach the tails off fresh animals and then mount the tails seperatly using dry preservative and tan the rest of the skin,what problems might I run into reattaching the tail during mounting and how do fix them?Thank you for the responses.
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Small mammal tails can be successfully tanned. Make a small incision at the tip of the tail, no need to split the tail the whole length. Serves two things, one allows you to see when you have forced salt through the entire length of the tail when salting and second, will allow fluids to drain out of the tail. More than likely the result if your tail slipping is not the tan, but bacterial problems.
We use Lutan-f exclusively and rarely have this problem on properly prepared tail.
Chris
Turkey Creek Tanning & Taxidermy