I'm about to mount a large opossum but I'm not sure what to do about the feet...they are hairless, sort of like a mouses. Do i just skin, as usual? Also, i read that i can DP the 'possum...does this mean borax will be fine? I know they are NOT the same, but will borax work? If anyone has any opossum experience i would love to hear as much about it as you care to tell. Thanks for your time.
SeaBass
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I have injected the toes with Masters Blend for years, the same stuff we use for bird feet and legs.
While I have only mounted three oppossums in total, I have tried three methods. The first was to attempt injection as John C. suggests, but I did not use an injectable epoxy since good formulations did not exist back 20-25 years ago, so I used formalin. The toes plumped up fine, but over time shrunk up badly. Perhaps the new injection formulas would work. The second method was to flesh to as thin as possible and fill the feet and toes with sculpall. Despite a valiant effort this also led to much shriveled feet - mind you, it may have been good enough for commercial taxidermy, but it wasn't good enough for me. If I'm not satisfied with the method, it is abandoned in my technique repartoire. The lastest attempt has been to sort-of combine some of the first two methods, then rebuild the feet with epoxy because they shrink and distort anyhow. I flesh the pad reasonably, then fill the main foot with epoxy. Then when finished mounting I injected with formalin/elmers glue mixture to fill out the feet. A few weeks later I sculpted the bare parts of the toes that needed filling in, and the hairs on the tops of the fingers/toes were fine and in the correct position. I also used epoxy to fill out and re-form the ears which actually left a better looking ear than one I had earlier skinned out and filled in with a miniature bondo technique with smoothout.
Your biggest problem in doing an oppossum in my eyes will be the fleshing/fat removal. Since oppossums are a tropical animal recently (in geologic terms) inhabiting the temperate regions of North America, they don't have the same hair growth within the skin. In most furbearers the guard hairs start growth below the epidermis and either migrate out, or the skin itself thickens up. At any rate, while fleshing to remove the fat in most furbearers, there is little chance of damage by pulling out the guard hairs if the animal is prime. I have tried possums a number of times and have yet to find a good prime possum. Perhaps the guard hairs don't migrate. The last reasonable one I mounted was from mid February and it still was not completely prime - even though it was already with suckling young. Anyhow - good luck.