Wrapping a Fox Body - quick question on musculature

I'm in the middle of my first real taxidermy project (hopefully) - I'm trying to mount a gray fox. My plan is to wrap the body and either use the actual skull w/ added clay or carve/create a head out of something else. I've already started mading the legs using the fox's actual body as a model and I think they came out pretty good but I do have a question. The fox itself was a gift from an animal control officer who had picked it up from someone's yard; it was stumbling around acting confused etc etc and clearly ill so she was going to bring it someone to shoot it but it died in the carrier by the time she got there. So it definitely wasn't in the best condition, though it really is a beautiful fox, but I think it was a little on the skinny side.

When I'm remaking the body, should I add muscle mass to compensate for what I think the fox was lacking or will the skin not be able to accommodate that extra? I just don't want the finished mount to look like he's malnourished, but I don't want to overstretch the skin either.

Here are pictures of him sans the pelt - does he look extra thin to you guys?





That's comparing this little guy to another gray fox I skinned last year whose muscle mass was about what I expected it to be at (ex. comparing the thigh muscles of the two):



Just for kicks, here's the skinny fox before skinning (certainly doesn't look thin here) because I think he's really beautiful:



Also, what's the best thing to make a head out of if I choose not to use the actual skull? I was thinking of using foam to carve it but it sounds so much more rough whereas if I use clay I could get a lot of facial details in which I feel like it will need to create his expression.

Thanks for reading and please bear with my potential ignorance

 

Can you get the carving foam at somewhere like Home Depot or Costco rather than special ordering it from a somewhere like VanDykes? My only issue with the carving was where to get the foam for cheap and also I don't know how easy it is to carve. It looks like the same kind of foam I used to try to use to carve for model making and it was a pain in the arse to carve with a knife b/c it broke off in chunks rather than actually 'carving' and never came out smooth like I wanted it to. Maybe I was just doing it wrong though.

 

I do know the risks involved with dealing with this critter, but I was extremely careful while skinning it out, didn't cut myself, never let it come in contact with my skin or anything that would touch my bare skin, etc etc. The ACO said that he wasn't acting like the rabid animals she'd shot before but that it was likely he had something like distemper. He looked like a young fox to me but his teeth were pretty rotten so I suspect it was in fact distemper, which is not transmissible to people and my dogs both have rabies and distemper shots.

Fox body is disposed of by now and the pelt is pickling so what's done is done. I do appreciate the concern though

 

You know I was just looking at floral foam the other day in a store and it felt too dent-able to use... hmm maybe I should have picked it up anyways.

And yes normally I'd have kept the carcass around longer had I known it wasn't carrying some kind of disease..but to be honest I didn't want the darn thing lying around for that reason. And there were some comments dropped by the family encouraging it to disappear as well : I did take good pictures of it as well as measurements and I feel pretty confident that I'll be able to get it pretty close. But then again what do I know..I've never done this before.


Seeing as I already wrapped legs I may try to saturate them with some paper mache to see if they'll harden up a little bit and if they do I might still use that method, but in the meantime I'll likely cast around in a few stores for some foam. Thank you everyone, you guys are incredibly helpful.


Still dunno about the original question though - do you think I can add some muscle tone to the form to make him look less malnourished or do you think it will make the skin fit way too tight? Or is he ok skinny like that?

 

Thank you very much for your reply - I really haven't skinned many foxes so I don't know how lanky they normally are, and considering this one was known to be ill I assumed the thinness was because of that reason. I'll make sure to keep the form lanky as well then to ensure it fits.

I really did try as best I could to keep everything clean while I worked on it. I laid a plastic sheet down over the counter which I simply wrapped up over all disposables including the body and discarded in several trash bags and all tools were bleached and cleaned well. All of the larger animals I've worked on have been roadkill and I assume they are all high risk for disease so I naturally take every precaution to ensure I don't actually come in contact with anything. It's probably not such a great idea to take in such critters, but at the same time it's either that or spend the $50+ per animal from trappers/hunters and being a college kid with very little $$ I'm more inclined to the free option. But then again being a college kid maybe I'm not the brightest. In any case it's getting to the point where I think I'd consider it worth it to buy animals from folks rather than collecting them because I have more confidence in my ability to do them justice.