How do i skin animals for taxidermy. i trap and get a few animals a year that are of value to taxidermists due to some kid of odd fur color or something, and don't know how to prepare an animal for taxidermy. the only kind of skinning i know how to do is case skinning. someone mentioned dorsal skinning to me, but i have no idea how to do this.
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If you case your stuff now... your Golden. Dorsal cut goes from the base of the skull straight down the back to the base of the tail. Rug cut/Belly is down the critters stomach. Cased is best if your good at it already. If I have a cased animal that needs to be dorsal I do it. I also only cut what I have to to fit. Have a goooood season
You're absolutely right Dustin, you don't know how to skin for taxidermy. But you're doing the right thing in asking.
I personally hate case skinned animals and would never buy one. Dorsal is just as Mark described, but with some you do have to cut the legs to get the paws out. You do need to handle the head skinning in a diferent way. Most trappers do a butcher job on the face making the skins worthless for mounting. And you do need to get proper measurements off the carcases. Your best bet would to go to a local taxidermist and get his input on what you need to do. If you don't do the lip, eye and ear spliting properly a hide can be a real pain to work with. You probably will be better off selling the animals frozen with the head and feet left in for the buyer to do their own way. And I would say that a taxidermist will give you a better price for a good specimen than you could get for it as a fur, but that will depend on the fur market. A lot of things you can sell "in the round" and let the buyer do it their way.