bird bodies???

[pjb3]

I just tried mounting a quail and the body is way to big or the skin is way to small. I remember I ran into this way back when. I think the skin shrinks when washing. What can be done? I just threw it away but for the next one

[Ballance1]

cut the body down to fit the skin

[pjb3]

Not that easy, its quit a bit bigger too
To late now but just wondering in case it happens again

[Ballance1]

did you get the right body?

[muleyhunter]

Have you consider wrapping bird bodies. It's not that hard. You're close to where I live and if you want I could help you out.

[boneaddict]

Remember when ordering there are a variety of different quail and even then they come in 4 sizes or so.  Wrapping is a good idea.  Its always good to compare bodies side by side if you can before you dive into it.

Wrapping with excelsior is a good way to do it.

[pjb3]

I thought a california quail is a ca. quail but...
I used to make my own bodies about 35 years ago so know how to do that but didn't have the material. Gonna start over , just need a new specimen

[pjb3]

Is there something else to dry your skins with besides saw dust? I'm thinking some dusts shrink it beyond repair/stretching

[WCTaxidermy]

pjb3, the skin on your Quail probablly didn't shrink when you washed it.  Washing a bird doesn't make the skin shrink.  In fact it aids in stretching the sking sort of speak.  It sounds like you were off on your measurments when you tried to fit your foam body to your bird.  The best advise I can give you is to measure your carcus at several different areas such as length, girth, neck, etc.  Regarding using sawdust to dry your bird skins, I'm not sure how sawdust can dry a skin or how you would go about doing that.  Some people choose to tumble skins in sawdust, corncob grit or a similar product to aid in the drying process to save time, but I have never liked doing that because your bird when your finsihed looks like it was tumbled.  Just use forced air with VERY low heat or no heat at all to dry your skins.  Hope that helps.  John 

 

[muleyhunter]

Very well said John. I take my shop vac with a blow dryer on the end that intakes air and hook the hair dryer to it. It works great.

[pjb3]

Thanks for the input
I do use sawdust to help dry in a bag with the skin, tumble in dryer with only air, then blow dry with vac.
Oh well, I'll try again
Thanks again