I am currently working on a skunk mount for myself. My problem is, I always have trouble with the ears of smaller mounts. You can't skin out the ears of smaller mammals...CAN YOU? Any suggestions on small ears? I was told to just "pin them" in place and let dry. But they often "curl" in time.
Thanks! "Bengi"
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Well, I guess you already fnished skinning it..it'll be hard to found the spot where you should start spliting but for the next small mammal you work on...do the following: When you are skinning out the head, you might just get up to the ear canal and cut close to skull. You really should continue skinning the base of the ear so that the ear is still attached to the skull and that'll allow you to get the base of the ear turned, then you could cut the attachment of the ear and skull and resume with skinning. With the base of the ear turned....now you can easily turn the ear like you would a deer or so.The tricky thing of small smalls is usually founding the base of the ear should you could split.
Hope this helps...
The tricky thing of a small mammal's ears is usually finding the the base of the ears where you should split.***
Good Advise on skinning
Bengi... yeah it s best to split them seperate the cartlige from the outer ears skin use a scalple very crefullyandtry to get it at least 3/4 of the way... when u mountit cut a ear liner out of soda cartons add a little bondo in the ear with the card board and form hold the shape
till the bondo sets up.... Good Luck Don
You can also use screen(like you would use to build a small cage)Shape the ears then fold the screen around the ears.This will hold them in place until they dry.I also use this on the tips of deer ears to hold them until dry.
Jerry, Here's what I do. On ears such as fox and bobcat, open them to the tip- take your time- set up with Apoxie-sculpt in them. This can be worked quite thin and gives you some working time. It's easier to make the ears match for me compared to bondo. Now for the real small ears like squirrels I open them some but I don't worry too much about getting them totally open. Work a little clay into the ear base, inject the ear with Preservsit after mounting and then fill in the whole ear interior with regular water based clay. The clay holds the ear's shape for 2 weeks of drying time. Then scrape out the clay and clean the ear well, airbrush a bit and it's done. Enjoy, Aaron H.
Thanks for all the great advice! Seems I was steered in the wrong direction when I was told I didn't need to open the ears! No wonder my small ears have been droopin'!
This is a great sight...glad all you knowledgable people are willing to share your secrets to help me become a better taxidermist. Thanks again!
Jerry