I was looking in the archives and came up with only a few posts on actual gland removal. I'm hoping to create a post with pictioral and videos as well as written paragraphs about gland removal for trappers who have limited experience finding and removing glands from fox/coyote/bobcat/rat/beaver...etc I would encourage all to throw in their 2 cents on this one. I'll start...
I start skinning a rat by drying it out and then opening it up from foot to foot like this as well as cutting off both front feet right away.


I then cut around each leg and around the back of the tail and pull down a bit.


On spring rats like this one there are engorged glands on the stomach that I remove, bottle and use in my lures.



I like to clean skin my rats as best as possible. As I pull the fur down I cut off as much fat and muscle as I can all except the saddle. Once down to the legs cut carefully and use mostly pulling to remove around the front legs.

I tend to go slower around the head and eyes because the skin is clingier to the neck and skull. Make sure you don't cut the eye holes too big.


Here's a skinned out rat. As I put it on the stretcher I cut off all excess fat and muscle with great care.




There! A finished rat ready to dry.

so they don't have that much for glands in the fall and also not so much on muskrats but on other critters i have a hard time cutting the eye holes out does it come with practice since i'm inexperienced or do i need to do something different thanks jd

I run my blade along the skull, not the pelt when cutting the eyes. Cutting a skull no problem, cutting too big of eyeholes one swift kick in the arse.

witrapper ... Thank You!
Have never done much in glands 'cept for castors/sacs. Have really wanted to do more this year, and have thought about a post like this. Hopefully it works out.

ya i hear ya there i kicked myself in the butt plenty of times this year mostly fleshin but ya live and ya learn i guess do you just slide your knife or do you swipe it

I slide it with the blade pretty much perpendicular to the skull.

hey witrapper, how do you preserve the gland after removal, lets say to market them. Approximately how many rats to get a pound of fresh gland?

i'll give that a try next year thanks witrapper can you do one on coyotes next that would be great

Skratmandoo-It depends on my market. If it's to a big-time lure maker then I freeze dry. If it's to fellow trappers then I dehydrate and freeze. I usually just freeze mine until I make some lures and dry them out for 3 days before grinding.

how do you freeze dry em

I have a mini freeze drying machine. Bought it from a chemistry materials supplier magazine.

I just sold my 2 full quart jars of Red Fox glands to a lure maker for $50. All I did was freeze them.

Can I get one of the mods to sticky this to the top?

http://www.dailymotion.com/video/x4mv91_national-outdoor-show--muskrat-skin_events

A couple of years ago I changed the way I skin I pull the pelt over the head first the pull it down the belly from the head I rarely ever tear the belly open these days kina like the young lady does in the vid HTH

and heres a guy that does it the way I used to do it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=_sS_A-jjg1w

I save Weasel glands for lure use. While they are tiny and it takes a bunch to have any volume they are quite aromatic !


You can see the two small yellow peas next to the vent. I grab the vent with a tweezers and raise it slightly. The glnds will also raise slightly and you can slide a sharp exacto knife under them. It does not hurt at all to take a short length (3/8") of intestine with them.
The whole package gets dropped in a jar keeping the glands wet with a little glycol and store them in the freezer. It would take 100 Weasels to fill an ounce jar. Weasel glands make an excellent K-9 curiosity lure and work very well to grab the attention of any passing Mink.

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looks good them coming.. any for beaver or yote?

another way shown clearer to get at those rat glands HTH

Don't post those photos -- some anti might see them!

Jim

why not post these photos? this is a big part of trapping.

To assess the seriousness of my comment, see white17's post. lol

Jim

sorry i thought you were bein serious there.

Well, I'm guilty of a lot of things, but not often of being serious. lol

Jim

i like your way of skinning aprophet. I might have to try it that way but it's hard to break a habit.

Hello Witrapper that is not me skinning that is just how I started skinng a coupla years ago. The last vid just shows it a lot clearer the first vid is how I used to skin a rat when I first started out HTH Pal

I was hopeing to see more on this topic. So I'm going to try to give it a boost. In PA we don't have a spring rat season, are the glands still useful from fall/winter rats. What about raccoon, fox, mink, beaver, skunk, OPOSSUM, lol. I would like to be able to take as much as I can from the animals I trap. I think I may have seen some stuff about fox and beaver in the archives, but figured since this post was already up, wouldn't hurt to try to find some new info.
Thanks guys

Glands from fall and winter rats are basically non existent. They usually don't become engorged until spring. I would like to see a movie or pictorial of removing bobcat glands. I don' catch many very often so if I do I would like to make the most out of them.

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Let's keep this post rolling!

Nice job on that Western Red Squirrel lurking in the background there witrapper.

Updated 7 September 2012 to allow users to get to the video. Tom