I'm getting ready to tan my first coyote pelt. Its finished salting and it just needs to be washed. It didn't have any blood on it that I could see, just a little bit of mud. I've had people tell me to wash it with everything from salt water, to head & shoulders shampoo to dawn dish soap. What works best? And he does have a little smell on him so if I were to use one of the soaps, would that help?
Thanks
Will
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Hello Will,
You're going to get several opinions on what the proper step will be on this one.
For me,if you have the dog completely dry salted,you're going to want to rehydrate it with either Ultra Soft(A Rittel Product) or a strong salt brine solution.From there,put it into a pickling solution and be sure to maintain your ph between 1.2-2.o. Check it daily! Leave it in there for at least 2 days and then do any fleshing that needs to be done.Then I would degreese it with a product such as Eliminator Degreeser or Bloodout Degreeser. Once this has been done,if there is any need to wash it,now is when I would do it. But most of the time,the degreesing will also wash it.The Bloodout will desolve the blood that may remain on the hair as well as the skin.
Sodium Solphate is a good washing agen with high salt contents to it as well as cleaning agents as well and is safe to use on the skin and hair.Thats a Ben Meers tip he once told me and it works well.
At that point,once its clean,put it back into the pickle for 24 hours,remove and neutrilize,rinse and Tan
I hope this helps ya.
Have a great day,
Dave
Will,
I've had some dog smell even after washing and degreasing and found that Malagon deodorizer works pretty well. You can get it from all the suppliers. Hope it works for you too!
Jeff
Will, Dave and Jeff both gave great answers, but I'd like to add that it's not a bad idea to add a good bacteriacide to your rehydration bath to prevent the growth of bacteria if you don't already do so.