There's no doubt about it, taxidermy is a fantastic way to celebrate the life of an animal that has passed away and to remember them for years to come.

The process of taxidermy is defiantly not an easy one and takes a lot of time and patience but if your willing to learn then it's so exciting to see the animal come back to life after the process has been completed.

But what is the process? What do you need to do?

First thing you need to do when you receive a passed away animal is to make sure that it is in good condition, it's weird to talk like this about an animal what has died but you want to make sure that all the fur / skin is fine and the decay process hasn't began. If you are thinking about taxidermy your own pet then it needs to be placed in a freezer quickly after death to preserve the animal until you have the right tools and time to start the process.

It's always best to place the animal in the freezer after is passed anyways as this will kill any bacteria the animal may have at the time of passing.

Items you will need

1. Gloves - You will need gloves as this protects you from any liquids what may come out of the animal.
2. A scalpel - You can get these from craft shops or online sites like Amazon. You can also search for 'taxidermy supply's'  
3. Wire cutters - These are for cutting bones and arteries so you can remove the skin easily.
4. Armature wire or animal forum - If the animal is small then you can use armature wire to make an armature to put the skin over, if it's a bigger animal then you are better off with a forum as this is a basically like a mannequin and is the shape of the animal where you glue the skin over.
5. Loft insulation / Wood Wool - These are both good to stuff the animal as these look the most natural when the taxidermy is finished.
6. Wax sewing thread - This type of thread is strong and you can buy different colours to make the animals colouring.
7. Sewing needles - But a pack of all different thicknesses and sizes of the sewing needles.
8. Eproxy Putty - This is used to keep the yes in and to mould the moth. Get a colour that's natural to the animal.
9. Replica eyes - Try and match the eyes exactly to the animals eyes, they come in all different shapes and sizes and colours too.
10. Pins - Buy taxidermy pins as these hold the skin in place for the Eproxy putty to set.
11. Formic Acid - This is used for the tanning process. 
12. Eye Protectors - To protect your eyes against cleaning and tanning chemicals.

The Process 

Defrosting:

First thing you need to do is take the animal out of the freezer the night before you are about to taxidermy and let it defrost over night. In my own experience I would keep the animal in a plastic bag and tie a knot in it as when it starts to defrost they do smell a bit.

Just keep the animal at room temperature and it will soon defrost. Bigger animals may need a couple of days out of the freezer before you start the work.

 

Preparation:

In my own experience, it's best to get all your tools ready at hand so your not running around trying to find tools and this allows you to just crack on with the work.

 Make sure that you have covered the surface with plastic bags or something like this as sometimes bodily fluids do come out of the animal when cutting.

 

Skinning:

The skinning process if one you need to take time with and try and be as carful as possible! If you cut the wrong part most of the time is can be stitched back up but it's just unnecessary work.

Lay the animal out flat on it's back on the table and you want to cut down the middle of the animals stomach, don't go too deep as this will cut into their insides as you only need to cut the skin.

You will start to see a bright white colouring on the inside of the animals flesh this is the part you want to continue to cut down, keep going until you think it's enough to peel the skin off, then we get onto the legs!

When it comes to the legs cut down both the back legs in the middle until you can see the bone, you will start to see it tendons, at this point cut them as this makes it easier for you.

Use your wire cutters to cur the bone around the knee cap and then it's time to peel like a banana.

Gently start to pull the skin (if you can get someone to help, that's the best way) You will start to see more white on the flesh and this is where you need to continue to cut while you still continue to pull the skin away from the muscle.

When you start to pull the skin over the animals head just be carful of the ears and nose as these are delicate areas.

Eventually you will have the animal in one had and it's skin in the other, you can then just dispose of the animal and then of course keep the skin.

 

Salt Bath:

Place the skin in a box full of iodized salt as this will dry out the left over muscle and flesh what has been left on the skin, if there are big parts left you might be better off using the scalpel to remove these but be careful not to cut thought the skin.

Leaving the skin in the salt bath for at least a day and then it's time for the next step.

 

Tanning: 

This is the process where you turn the flesh on the back of the fur into leather!

Fill a container with formic acid, then submerge the skin into the liquid and leave for as long as you want. The skin can stay in here for up to a year before needing to be removed.

When you remove the skin just leave it to drip before the stuffing process but it's best to do the stuffing while it is still wet as it's easier to move the skin.

 

Making the armature / using a form:

If you are making a wire armature then use bendable wire to make a outlie of the body of the animal basically like a simple skeleton where the fur will be placed over.

If you are using a form then you need to make sure that it is the right size and shape of the animal, if it's too big they can easily be cut down and changes by using a file and saw.

When you are happy with the shape and size you will need to cover it with taxidermy adhesive glue, the whole form needs to be covered in this to stop the skin from lifting.

When the form is covered in glue gently pull the skin over and leave it to dry and set into place.

 

Stuffing:

If you have used a form then you can skip to the next part.

The stuffing process is the most fun part of taxidermy. 

Your animal will no start to look like it's back to life now as your skin should already be placed over the wire armature but it will be hollow.

We recommend you use loft insulation for this part but you can also use wood wool.

Break some of the loft insulation off so it's lose and then use long tweezers to place the insulation inside the fur. Keep filling until the animal looks good and then you need to move into the legs.

For animals like meerkats we recommend leaving the bottom of the leg bone in the animal's fur after you have broken the bone in half at the knee cap as you can now attach the wire into the bone and out the foot so you can attach to a base for display purposes.

To fill the legs wrap the lose lost insulation around the wire and then pull it thigh with wax cotton by wrapping it around nice and tight.

Keep checking to make sure that it looks natural to what the animals legs are like.

 

Sewing:

Now if you have used the wire armature method it's time to sew the skin up. Use wax thread as this is strong and will last a long time. Find a needle what suits the type of skin, if you are taxidermizing a big animal use a thicker needle then a smaller animal.

Make sure that there are no holes in the animal as you don't want the stuffing falling out. 

Try and hide the stitching as good as possible and use the same colour thread as the fur.

 

Attaching Eyes and modelling mouth:

Now that your animal should have came back to life, it's time to add the eyes and model the mouth.

Use the epoxy putty to put in the eye socket followed by adding the eye to the taxidermy. Eyes normally come on a post so you can just push it into the putty and when it sets it will hold it into place.

When it comes to the mouth it depends on if you are having the animals mouth open or closed. If you are having it closed place some of the putty inside the moth and try and make it look as natural as possible.

Push the skin onto the putty and then place your pins in all around the mouth and eyes to keep it in place and these pins need to stay in the taxidermy for around a week.

Have a look at the picture of the meerkat attached for your reference.

 

It's finished!!

Now your taxidermy should look like the animal did when it was alive. Of course it will still have the pins in but you will get the idea.

If you are unhappy with anything then of course fiddle around and change things before glue or putty sets.

Thing to look out for:

With most animals what have passed away from natural courses, they where unwell when they passed so they may get a thing called 'skin slip'.

This is when the taxidermy has bald patches on it's body, if after the skin has been placed in the tanning solution it has skin slip on it's head this means that unfortunately the skin is not worth using as it's rotten!
If it has bald patches on other parts of it's body other than the head it should be ok to use and you can often cover these up by getting some more fur and placing it over the bald patches or if you are displaying the animal in a cabinet you could put something like leaves or plants to cover it.

Sometimes when you are cutting and moving the animal they can leak with faeces and urine so make sure that you clean up the fur and the surfaces as quickly as possible.

Make sure you are not going too deep with the scalpel as this can cut into the animals organs leading to blood leaking.