Keeping Pelts

[hornetboy]

Originally Posted by dungheap

You are a man after my own heart, Lunde Sr. On our local newspaper forum, I'm known as "The Spelling Nazi," for my efforts in that direction.

Got some squirrels running around the yard in the early stages of mange. It seems to keep the population in check without having to shoot 'em. We always have a dieoff, and I have yet to find evidence of a squirrel skeleton. Maybe they crawl into a hole in a tree and die?? I dunno.

That's "' I don't know"'.

[georgeld]

Mange is a disease, believe it's caused by bugs, or infection and can be fatal depending on the temperature when it happens. IF the animal goes bald in a cold winter they don't have a way to keep warm and will die. I've also heard that mange itself can cause death too but, that I don't know about myself.

Hair slip can happen from lots of things. Improper tanning of a hide can cause it to lose the hair too. Killing them in warm weather and not getting the skin taken care of damned quick and many times even if you do get it taken care of quick enough it'll go bad too.

IME it don't take much to ruin a pelt.

[hornetboy]

We always try to get the pelt salted and cold ASAP, but if we can't get it into a cooler etc. after salting, put it in a hession bag so it can drain and "breathe". Never put it in a plastic bag where it will "sweat".Use lots of salt and get into all the crevices, including where you've split the tail.