waterfowl taxidermy

[Roadkillwarrior]

What are all the supplies I would need to do a waterfowl mount. I was looking at a duck mounting kit on Van Dykes. I was wondering if borax is the best choice for a preservative and what do you use to get the blood out of the feathers. If you can tell me the process that you guys go through when you do a duck mount I would appriciate it! thanks

[nctaxi]

First start with a good specimen! Skin it completely, even down in the wings. Get all meat out of wings. Then clean the skin, all fat has to be removed. Then bathe in Dawn Dishwashing liquid x2, completely rinse, rinse and then rinse again. Paint artificial beak and preserve the feet while the skin is drip drying. Dry with a blow dryer. Then preserve with Borax and mount. Sounds easy right? Yea right. There are many steps that I am missing. Wiring wings and feet, painting feet, sewing, etc.



BTW I have near 7 hours in just the beak on this one!!!! But it is for a competition that I didn't make it to.

[Roadkillwarrior]

nctaxi

Thanks for the info on using dawn dish washing soap. I remember seeing somthing on TV where they used it to clean off birds that were contaminated from an oil spill because it didnt harm there feathers and skin. Im planning on using the original skull and beak instead of a replica. I done a woodduck one time that turned out pretty good. I just wasnt sure if borax was the best choice for preserving the skin. My local taxidermist just puts gloss over the feet without painting and looks good. Do you inject the feet with any presevative or do you not have to? Oh ya, do you use a tumbler to dry your duck and if you do what do you put in the tumbler to help dry the duck? Nice mount, I think it is a surf scoter. It has a very natural posture, alot of people seem to have a problem when it comes to making the bird look natural.