Hey guys, Ive been very interested in taxidermy for a long time while doing all these skeleton articulation. I was given 3 dead snakes last week, a baby blood python, adult ball python, and a viper. I have read Kerby's thread about the Gaboon viper and have learned a lot from it. I practiced skinning the taxidermy way with the blood python as the skin has many holes from ants and had a hard time skinning the fore head, any tips on this? I also practice creating a mould with my sugar glider skull and was quite successful, and when I come to think of it, would this method work on snake skulls? because i've noticed plaster adhering to some parts of the skull and snake skulls are "disarticulated" in nature. and also are there any homemade tanning solution for snakes? I tried glycerin and alcohol in making reptile skin pendants but I dont think they work in taxidermy. I live in a 3rd world country where tanning solutions, expanding foam, and other chemicals are very very hard to find. Taxidermy here is just basically injecting with formalin.
The glycerin and alcohol will work for taxidermy as well. Kerby is who I learned that process from. It works really well. You could cast a head and use it as an artificial head to attach to the skin or as a form to pull the head skin over that will help hide any flaws in the real skin. You would just have to paint it to match the skin correctly. Good luck with your snakes.
The tan I use on alligators will work on snakes. Mix 1 lb of ammonium alum with 1 lb of salt in a gallon of warm water. Add a half teaspoon of Dawn or equivalent dishwashing detergent. Mix well. Flesh and salt snake. After 8 hours, shake off salt and place in the tan. 12 hours is enough for a snake. Watch for scale slippage and remove immediately if excessive slipping occurs. Rinse off in warm water, roll up in a dry towel to remove excess moisture, then oil if using for crafts, or mount without oiling.
I'm kinda confused on how to finish things up, Ive read about stapling the belly somewhere, should I staple, glue, or stitch?
I staple as well, using the urethane forms. I then cover the seam and seal it with apoxy sculpt. If you’re using some other type of form or another method to create a body form you probably will need to sew up the incision.
Do you own the DVD from Taxidermy Training Unlimited for snake mounting by Manny Chavez or any of the many from Kulis Kastaway ? If not, don't proceed until you do is my advice.
ive been searching for DVDs the past days, sadly I live in the Philippines and shipping would cost a fortune. I was hoping for something that I would pay with credit card and send me a downloadable video by link, like E-books
Here’s a couple of good articles of 2 processes for mounting snakes: http://www.hidetanning.net/RattlesnakeMounting.html http://www.lonesomevalleytaxidermy.com/mounting_a_rattlesnake tutorial.htm
