i got a cat, a small one, and when we put it on the board the hair on the back of the back legs started to slip, and i look at the carcass and it had all kinds of red dots right where it slipped. i thought maby gas, but the guy who help me said he dips his skunks in gas and nothin happens. and i also had 2 cats in my truck that same day that didnt slip. i though maby to long to skin but it was about 2 hours from kill to finish skinin. and the guy who helps me has put up more yotes and cats then i will ever see and he has never seen this befor. what do u guys think happened to this cat? and how do i prevent this in the future?
thanks for ne advise and help
JP

I had it happen to a cat a few weeks back. I found I got in a hurry and fleshed it to much. I got into the leather.

gas???????? yall dipping your fur in gas?

Post deleted by wcollinge2000

well im not much of a fur putter upper, but he has done 1000's of animals and dips his skunks in gas to remove the smell. i wouldnt have a clue myself tho...
JP

I wouldn't scrape a cat at all,there is very little fat anywhere besides the belly and you can pull it up and trim it off pretty easy at least that is how it is for cats around here.

Fur has an almost neutral PH level. A drastic ph change (making it acid or alkaline) can make the fur slip almost as fast as I can type this reply. I read this on a taxidermy website,,, makes sense to me.
Maybe we have a taxidermist on this site that can add something to this?

Okie, your cats must be starving! Mine have great gobs of fat hanging on the bellies, up the flanks and under the saddle. I use a light touch do to thin leather, but the ENTIRE skin gets fleshed. Never had a slippage problem though.

how would the PH change on a cat? i didnt have ne fertilizers in the back of my truck
JP

I have seen many animals that have had wounds or some injuries to them that make the hair slip.Hair slips due to bacteria in the hair folicles,the red dots you seen on the carcas could be your problem.the dots are a sign of some kind of condition I think this was your problem and it had nothing to do with your fur handling.

I am with newhouse. I have never had an animal that didn't need fleshed. Every cat I ever skinned had big gobs of fat on it. I can fill a 24 oz soup can on a large coyote and sometimes twice. Cats though arn't as bad, I can still fill a can often. The last mink I did had to remove the saddle because there was a layer of fat under it.

I used to guide Jack Jonas of Jonas Bros Taxidermy from Denver, when I was up in Alaska, and he told me one time when we had a bear hide slipping, that he could stop it and proceded over to his cabin and produced I think it was "Alum of Aluminum" and rubed it into the area that was trying to slip and it actually seamed to lock the hair onto the hide again . I asked him how it could do that; and he said that any hair folicules, that had not released, were effected by the alum, by swelling up at the base approx twice its normal size???? He claimed it was an old trick the tannery knew about for years............. he left me a box and I used to use it on Wolves Ears, if I felt any slippage, when a guide hadnt turned them correctly, or I felt there was any chance they might slip..
Hope this helps some of you out in the future!

thanks guys, we use borax on them and it prevents it from slippin. but thanks for the responses. and yes all my critters here have plenty of fat, not to nock on u okie but our animals need fleshed. thanks again
JP

I threw the PH thing out there. It's a possibility for causing hair slippage. I thought maybe something might have been spilled on the hide causing the red dots like a chemical burn. But reading this now, I believe it was the borax you put on it. I use borax on my cats also while fleshing to grip the fat and remove fat residue from the skin. BUT, borax is alkaline and if it is used on very wet fur or skin, it will cause slippage. On fur with a normal moisture content all is OK.

wildWV brought up a good point also.

I hip snared a cat and it remained alive. Very wet skin in the mid section, hips and rear legs. The cat fleshed out fine. I turned it checked it, gave it a flip and tuned it back flesh side out to borax it. Left it flesh side out with borax on it while I fleshed another cat. Turned it back fur side out to put on the board and fur was falling out ! Seriously.
I spent hours researching this problem on taxidermy forums, just like this trapper forum. It can and will happen when all conditions are just right. I'm a believer from the school of hard knocks.

I trap in oklahoma also some of ours need fleshing but some dont youll find one out of five that are carrying a lot of fat the others I guess if you say so are packin a light lunch or just watching Dr Oz.......

I flesh all my pelts....sometimes the lean red fox just need the chuncks removed.My problem with hair slipping is on my head.

""""""hair slipping is on my head.""""""

that's funny