How to Taxidermy Mammals, Birds, and Reptiles

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Learn the basics of home taxidermy to preserve your favorite animal

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Preparing the Animal

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Preserving the Skin

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Arranging and Caring for Taxidermy

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Q&A

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Tips

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Taxidermy is the traditional method of preserving and mounting vertebrate animals for display. Whether you want to commemorate a beloved pet or celebrate a hunt, learning the basic skills of preparation, preservation, and upkeep will save you money in preserving your animals. In this article, we’ll teach you everything you need to know about how to do taxidermy, including preparing the animal, preserving the skin, and mounting the final project.

How to Taxidermy an Animal

Keep the animal frozen in a sealed plastic bag until you’re ready to prepare it.
Cut a seam up the body to remove the skin and scrape away flesh and fat.
Preserve the skin with salt, borax, or glycerin depending on the species.
Place the skin on the mount, adjust any structural problems, and sew it up.
Glue on fake eyes and real teeth and display your project.

Part 1

Part 1 of 3:

Preparing the Animal

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1
Freeze the animal until you’re ready to prepare it. When doing taxidermy, it’s important to remove the skin from the specimen as soon as possible, but until you’re ready to preserve it, freeze the animal to keep it from spoiling. Tuck the specimen in sealed plastic bag before putting it in the freezer, and in the meantime, gather the following basic taxidermy tools:^{[1]XResearch source}
- Sharp knife
- Sewing needle
- Thread
- Stuffing or plaster cast of animal
- Borax, alcohol, or your preferred preserving agent
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Prepare the form you’ll mount the animal on. Depending upon your animal, prepare a plaster cast of the body or purchase a premade form (as is usually done with deer busts). Or, create your own form out of recycled materials when preserving smaller animals. Use sticks to create a wooden frame the size of the skinned body, then wrap the frame in twine or old plastic bags.^{[2]XResearch source}
- To prepare a cast, purchase a commercial molding agent like “Smooth On” to create a shape mold of the animal to fill with plaster. Mix a small batch of plaster with water and quickly pour it into your mold. Remove the mold and smooth the cast form with sandpaper or a small pocket knife. Don’t worry too much about the details—you just want the basic form and shape to fit the skin.
- If you make your own form, it helps to have a workable example to compare it to. Take a picture of the animal before you remove the skin and use materials that can be manipulated easily once you’ve started putting the form together.
- Mammal legs are particularly difficult to get right. Consider purchasing a premade mold for your first go around to use as a model for subsequent projects.
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Remove the skin with a sharp knife. Carefully cut a seam up the belly of the specimen, being particularly careful not to puncture any of the organs or body cavity, as this can ruin the skin. Work your knife evenly along the inside to loosen the skin while peeling it back with your other hand. Remove as much of the flesh and fat as possible, being careful not to tear or rip the skin.^{[3]XResearch source}
- The particulars of the preservation process will vary depending on whether you have a mammal or a reptile, fish, or bird, so read on for more specific instructions regarding the preservation of the skin.
- For taxidermy, all you need is the skin of the animal, as it will be placed on the form you made or bought to recreate the body and head. Things like muscles and organs will rot, so they’ll be disposed of. Check with your local government to find out if there are any regulations about how to dispose of the remains or if you can just throw them in a dumpster.
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Don’t remove the skull if you’re preserving a fish, bird, or lizard. If you’re preparing a mammal, remove the skin from the head as you would with the rest of the body, then dispose of the organs, eyes, skull, etc.^{[4]XResearch source} For lizards, fish, and birds, however, you’ll need to remove the brain, eyes, tongue, and any other soft tissue but leave the skull intact for preservation. Snip the neck to remove the head from the rest of the body, then use tweezers to carefully remove everything from the skull.^{[5]XResearch source}
- The physiology of birds makes it so that you can’t (and wouldn’t want to) remove the beak, so only remove the parts of the bird that would spoil and smell bad.
- Smaller animals are much more difficult to taxidermy than larger mammals. Small dentistry tools or an X-Acto knife can help for this part of the process. Remove as much of the flesh as possible, though small debris can be removed during the preservation process.
- If you want to add real teeth to your project, use pliers to remove them from the skull and set them aside. You’ll glue them into your finished specimen later.

Part 2

Part 2 of 3:

Preserving the Skin

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1
Tan the skin of mammals with salt. To properly tan a hide, rub non-iodized salt onto the flesh side of the hide, roughly an inch thick, and let it sit for 24 hours. Remove the old salt and repeat the process with new salt. Let the hide dry in a cool, dark place, and watch carefully to make sure it doesn’t get too hard to mold.^{[6]XResearch source}
- Once toughened, hydrate the skin with a mix of cool water, a small capful of Lysol disinfectant, and table salt. Soak the skin in this mixture overnight and rinse several times until the mixture is removed. Hang the skin up to drain and towel dry it once it’s stopped dripping.
- Consider using a pickling agent at this point to treat the hide further, but be sure to remove any bits of flesh or fat still clinging to the hide before you move on to tanning it.
- Treat the hide with tanning oil. Heat up the oil in a microwave and rub it into the skin with your hands. Let the skin sit for several hours, then roll it up in a plastic bag and keep it in the refrigerator until you’re ready to mount it on the form.
To properly preserve reptile skin, soak it in a 50/50 mix of glycerin and rubbing alcohol for up to 2 weeks (and at least 2-3 days) in a cool, dark place. Make sure that the skin is fully submerged and stir it once a day. When you remove the skin, rinse it with water, spread a light coat of pure glycerin on the flesh side, and hang dry for 24 hours. Remove any remaining residue with a damp cloth.^{[7]XResearch source}
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Rub borax on the inside of the skin for bird and fish preservation. Place the skin flesh-side down on a generous coating of borax inside a shoebox. Sprinkle about ¹⁄₄ inch (0.6 cm) more borax on top of the bird’s feathers or the fish’s scales, then leave in a cool, dark, and dry location for about 4 days. Borax keeps the skin from rotting as it soaks up any remaining moisture. The flesh will be quite stiff after you remove the specimen from the borax.^{[8]XResearch source} Brush off the excess, and your bird or fish skin will be preserved nicely.
- Borax also works to preserve small mammals and serves as an insect deterrent to keep them away from your specimen as you work.
- The animal is fully preserved when you can tug on the fur or feathers without them coming out. If multiple feathers fall out, it’s a good indication you need to store the animal a bit longer.
- If necessary, use a vacuum hose to remove the excess borax. Or, rub some warmed cornmeal on the specimen to “dry clean” it and remove undesirable odors.

Part 3

Part 3 of 3:

Arranging and Caring for Taxidermy

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1
Place the skin on the form. If you’ve made an accurate form, stuffing your hide should be as easy as dressing a doll. Fix your preserved skin onto the form, carefully smoothing out any unnatural looking lumps or irregularities. Fix any structural problems now before you sew it up.^{[9]XResearch source}
- Keep some twine on hand to stuff into spots that need some adjustment. Cut small bits of string or newspaper to fill out a muscle striation or other body part.
Use an appropriate color of thread to stitch together the seam that you originally cut. Create as tight and invisible a stitch as possible, then adorn your taxidermy with false eyes and original teeth by gluing them in place.^{[10]XResearch source}
Use your imagination! If you’re displaying a pet, keep them immortalized in a peaceful position, possibly curled up in a nap. Or, if you’re celebrating a successful hunt, bare the animal’s fierce-looking teeth. More complicated mounts are available commercially, but make your own by arranging a tableau of branches or rocks on your wall to position your taxidermy among.^{[11]XResearch source}
Don’t let all the work of preserving your animal go to waste by ignoring it. Keep your mounts away from sunlight in an area that isn’t too damp or too dry. Dampness can result in mildew, while excessive dryness can cause hides to crack or split. If the form settles in an unnatural way, consider splitting it open and resewing. Dust them periodically to keep them clean and realistic-looking.^{[12]XResearch source}

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Question
Why is borax used for in taxidermy?
Community Answer
Taxidermists use chemicals such as alum and borax, which are desiccants, to draw out the moisture and dry flesh. It is mainly used to treat areas where it is difficult to remove all the flesh (such as the feet and hands). It also acts as an insect repellent.
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How do I wash the fur and eliminate any possible bacteria while keeping it looking natural?
Community Answer
Use a typical pet-shampoo with a flea and tick killing chemical. Bacteria would more likely be the result of what's on the inside than the exterior fur. As long as you treat the hide properly to dry the tissue before bacteria takes hold, you won't do any damage to the fur. If the bacteria starts to degrade the skin, you'll lose the hair no matter how you clean it. In fact, letting the bacteria go for a few days is one way to de-hair a hide. Hartz or a similar brand of pet shampoo will not only clean the fur, it will help to remove any remaining fleas, ticks, or more importantly, mites, which eat the fur and skin.
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How long will taxidermy preserve an animal?
Community Answer
Bones will last hundreds of years if cared for properly. Mounted hides/skins are more difficult to maintain, but they also can last for decades or even centuries.
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Tips

If you're a bit squeamish, don't worry. Many people are. Stay calm and make sure you're comfortable continuing the process.
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Use a hairdryer to dry the animal to save time.
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Putting an animal in a freezer is an effective way to preserve it for long periods of time. While this is not conducive to displaying the animal, it will allow you to delay the actual taxidermy procedure.
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