I have a question about red fox ear's or just red foxes in general I guess. I reacently acquired a red fox from a friend of mine. He got it on Sunday and I picked it up this morning on Wednesday. Now it's been cold here for three of those four day's high's of 20's with exception of monday when it got up to the mid 30's. When I arrived to pick the fox up he had it hanging in a tree behind his house. When we went to take it down I noticed that the sun was shinning on it direactly and the fur had a bit of warmth to it from the sun I thought myself "oh oh".. I brought it home skinned it turned lips, nose, eye's,and started in on the ear's. I almost had the first one tuned when the back side of the ear just literaly fell apart like it was rotten I tryed to save it but it just kept crumbeling like it was slipping but there were small chuncks of skin coming out with. I thought well that suck's lol. So I went ahead and turned the other ear to see if it had the same problem's but that one came apart fine. One other thing I did notice is that when I skinned this fox that the belly side of the hide had a greenish tint to it only were the intestine's would be. Do you think the ear was dryed out or had gone bad. And do you think that the direct sunlight was the cause of it? I cant believe with these cold temp's that it would have gone bad. Has anyone else had a simular experience?
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Whenever you get a fox ....have it froze ASAP.
fox have a lot of bacteria and they start to decay almost immediatly.
as for the slipping ....it sat outside too long and the sun did heat the ears up most likely even when it was 30 degrees or below....ears are thin and it doesnt take much to thaw them out...
when I thaw my fox to skin i put a plastic bag over the head to keep it from thawing too fast as the ears and face will thaw quite a bit quicker than the body and 1 more thing while you are skinning KEEP IT COOL AS POSSIBLE ... wear some latex gloves to keep your body heat from transfering to the fox while you skin ...
I will start skinning it while it is partially frozen yet...but be careful or you will cut a few holes in it..
Good Luck to ya, Jeff
Thanks Jeff for the response...I'm not a professinoal by no means yet but I've done a few Gery fox's and a handfull of yote's, and have never had this happen before.
Here in oz this anamal is a pest aniamal, and thay are shot all year round . I mount them regaly as the past posts said you need to get on to them strat away or thay torn to jelly ,if I think things are a bit sus I get the owner of the aniamal to stay when I am skining it so if it turns bad he can see that it is not my folt,if thay do not wont to stay I do not take it if I have any misgiveings. That being said be very careful of the ones that come in frozen even throw thay are pests here ,and easy to replace poeple still get upset if things go rong.