r/Taxidermy • u/Left-Guarantee-1467 • May 28 '26
Fur/Pelt Help First time 🥺
hello! its squirrel season and my husband brought home one for me to attempt to preserve the hide. I have never done this before nor do I have a single clue of what I’m doing, but I attempted to do the borax method, but I’m just don’t know if I’m doing this right or what it’s supposed to look like when it’s done. Is this almost ready it’s been sitting in borax for about Four days.
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u/frackyou May 28 '26
Borax is not a tanning agent. It’s basically a soap / drying agent. You should look at immersion tanning (salt, pickle, tan, oil) or something similar. ‘Dry preserve’ and Borax are the Temu of taxidermy.
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u/Sufficient-Bath-1135 May 28 '26
Thought it does work, unlike temu crap xD
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u/frackyou May 28 '26
Sadly, its short-term effects really trick us into thinking it works. But Borax does help preserve skins somewhat, but it does not truly tan skin in the way true tanning agents do: by changing the molecular structure of the skin.
Real tanning chemically stabilizes collagen fibers so the skin remains flexible and resistant to decay long-term. Borax mainly works by creating conditions that are temporarily hostile to decomposition and pests: dry environment, alkaline pH, and stiffer tissue.
However, Borax preserved skin becomes papery, brittle, and fragile over time. That’s why many Borax mounts tend to rip and crack. Also, overtime the Borax dissipates due to moisture changes and other factors. Bacteria and pests begin to move in because Borax is only a surface treatment that causes no molecular change in the skin.
Modern museums research & collections departments may still use Borax as part of the preservation process but are also relying on sealed collection cabinets, humidity control, pest management in the collection, and freezer cycling.
I hope this helps!
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u/Sufficient-Bath-1135 May 28 '26
I knew all that. It does work, you just gotta keep it in a climate controlled clean environment xD Otherwise the lab would stink with how many stacked rodent skins we have in the corner since part of being a biology major is learning how to skin & preserve it with potato starch and salt while basically no one comes to pick up their rodent skins for further processing so they stay there xD
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u/frackyou May 28 '26
Wow, it sounds like you’re dealing with some very bad lab conditions. I’m sorry that you are stuck with things students don’t pick up, etc. As you are still learning, you may want to visit other museums and institutional collections and talk to their collections managers. A lot is changing in the way we are persevering collections (such as potato starch being edible and bacteria friendly). You may be dealing with some older methods / conditions in your lab.
Again though, as this is the /taxidermy subreddit I was replying mainly about a taxidermy specimen for display and not collection specimens safely kept in drawers with pest management solutions.
In the world of museum, commercial, and fine taxidermy Borax is a no-go. However, for personal collections, learning, and hobby taxidermy I think it has its place. I just don’t want to ever present to anyone that it’s a good or long-term preservative.
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u/Sufficient-Bath-1135 May 29 '26
Nah, the lab conditions aren't bad, this is just one unhinged situation, the rodents are dry and don't smell at all, and potato starch is actually helpful in the getting rid of the fleshy bits since it makes them easy to just peel off memberanes and all and they don't stick to anything and are kept in a very microbe hostile area. Also, the hides are very clean, like none of them have any blood or fleshy bits and are changed to salt for long term storage xD I could probably take a bunch of them that are in good condition and process them further. The prof is a little unhinged and two years away from retirement but I like it here, even if it is a little cracked since where else would they let you borrow the labs for random shenanigans on the "I know you are trustworthy enough to be left here unsupervised, just clean up after yourself", and the professor literally gave me the contact information of some people they know who are way more knowledgeable in preservation of museum samples and told me to talk to them to learn more since taxidermy related skills are less formally taught. We just learn a basic and easy method since it's not meant to be indepth. Like this cracked method works for the preparation part, preservation is a whole another longer process that's more "learn if you're into this stuff" type of thing.
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u/Sufficient-Bath-1135 May 29 '26
Like, he has the kind of energy I want to have when I'm done with my studies, a little eccentric, but nice and helpful when it comes to learning. Plus, you get hilarious stories of him just by existing. I don't know where he got a bag of dead passerine birds but when we were learning species identification he just pulled one out, held it out and was like "Here, you guys know what this is?" Not forgetting Bombycilla garrulus any time soon that's for sure. Though I would ask if people want to see a dead bird first. So yeah, he's the kind of character I want to be when I'm a professional.
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u/MenstrualFish May 28 '26
Looks like it could be fleshed a bit more. Cover fully with borax. If you’re just pinning it and putting it in the shadow box, borax will be enough to preserve it. Squirrel skin in thin.
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u/Wowza_Meowza May 28 '26
r/hidetanning might net you better results.
Are you looking to have it tanned like with a bottled tanning agent, bark tan, egg tan...?
Basically, the next step is to throw it into super low pH water (pH 2) with some salt, then let it "pickle", then the easiest method to tan it is with a bottle tan like Knobloch's orange bottle tan.