i shot a grey squirell in late jan. and i skinned it right away and put it on a mink board to flesh.well when i started the hair started falling out. so my ? is can an animal be slipping while its still alive. i know they shed winter coat but it was still could out(ohio)
i have been woundering for i while know and when i read the archives on slipping it made me want to know even more
thanks
vince
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My Golden retriever had slippage and was very much alive ! He also smelled rotten. I took him to the Vet. and he had a bacterial infection that we treated. So, could be ! If it ever happens again, I'm trying Stop-Rot !
You can "slip" the squirrel skin by being too rough,and I don't mean rough i.e.-trying to fight that whitetail skin thats a little too snug over the form,I mean like positioning the arms and legs when your putting the skin over the form,your actually tearing the epidermis.I put clay in to join the arms to the hands and also in the legs to join to the feet and I had been a little too rough at times turning the hands and have tornlittle patchs of hair off .You also have to be real careful when fleshing these little beast,cause its real easy to loose hair if your not paying attention to the hair side when you have em on a board.
I had this happen to me years ago. I wanted to save the Squirrel skins, so after akinning, I put them on my small bench Beam and tried fleshing. Fur came out all over.
I found out you have to allow the skin to cool down and lose all it's body heat before fleshing. Simply hang it over a line to cool several hours or refrigerate - but either way - just like in salting - allow the roots of the fur to tighten up during cooling.