a ladie wants me to tan her dogs skin and bleach out her skull. how much would you charge for that. and whats the best thing to use to clean up skulls?
Interested in a poll?
Call me what you will but is there anyone else
that wouldnt touch a job like this?
why not touch a job like this, whats wrong with it?
I'm with you Big AL....Not only do I feel it unwise to do pets, but just having a pet's hide and skull around, in my mind is perverse.
...it's just a matter of different perspectives. Some people have coyotes or foxes or whatever as pets too. If you see nothing wrong with it, that's great. Just figure your tanning costs and add your profit. As for the skull cleaning, there's plenty of info in the archives. What I WOULDN'T do, since you're not mounting the pet and taking on the incredibly difficult task of recreating an animal that she's been living with and knows so well, is to charge her more than you would for a wild animal. After all, there's no more challenge to tan a dog's hide than a coyotes is there? Just treat it as a normal job.
Kevin, the reason many taxidermists don't like to do peoples pets is this. The pet owner is a different breed of person, pets are like children to many owners and they notice little things about there pets that a taxidermist might not. ie. Can you imaging doing a mount of that persons dog only to have them come back and say "My dog didn't look like that, he has a pudgy cute nose and his eyes weren't that colour! What can someone say to that.
Best way for a taxidermist to lose credibility is to mount Fufu and it not look exactly like Fufu did before it died. Usually Fufu's "mommy" or "daddy" is well heeled enough that money is no object, so if they don't sue you, they can bad mouth you where others in that station of life don't visit you either. Wava, I agree with your thoughts, but manufacturers MAKE forms for foxes and wolves and ferrets,and they are never, ever truly domesticated. Domesticated pets come in all sizes and shapes and no supplier sells a complete line. I just avoid the extra stress and refuse "pets" of any species. Those of you who do, I'd admire your stamina.
We don't do pets or spouses. lol
LOL at the spouse thing Dodie.....
that's another question that gets very old at a cocktail party!
Have to grit my teeth and chuckle...usually I'm snickering at
the person who thinks that they're the only one thats ever said that!
Back to the pet thing...
Mounted pets or skins and skulls are just as bizarre as these
wierdos pet owners who are not blessed with human "children".
Ever see the programs where people mummify their pets?
It's all the same.
Then again, I think funeral directors are also bizzaros
and the thought of propping up Grandpa in an over priced box
is deranged.
There's my 2-cents.
I have the bones of my dog.He was buried for a bunch of years and I just had to have some part of him, so I dug his skeleton up.
To each their own.
I do have people come to me with pets, I always explain to them first that it may not look like how they remembered.I haven't had acomplaint yet.I have also just skinned and tanned some cat hides and i also tanned a dogs tail and cleaned its claws.The latter was for an artist I actually met when I was in art school.Her dog had played with my dog and I felt a connection there.Its hard to explain,but don't just write us all off as nutcases.
I charge 100.00 to skin and have comercially tanned a domestic cat. A dog would vary depending on the size and type of fur and weither a tanner would accept a longer furred dog.I charge 400.00 to freeze dry a cat or very small dog, I do it in shop.
To show you my emotion level I near cryed for a fox I killed yesterday becuase I really respected it, it was a crafty one, kept digging my traps up and I had to trick it.It was an old female and I suspect was one of the ones killing the landowners poultry.