A ) Some really good advice on the subject and a subject that, after collecting for many years, I know a little about.
Let's face it, there's a lot of junk urine out there for sale, far more than there is good !
Back in the hay-day of the fur boom, every dealer sold urine and some went as far using water, ammonia and coloring , stain or dye and actually 'make urine', well, what appeared to be, and some even selling human urine with a made up label.. . .every crooked trick in the book. Oh, it was a circus to the novice trapper, to be sure.
I remember a dealer selling 'mouse urine' : $10.00 for 2 ounces
Out in the east, most dealers are buying from 'Game farms'. Mark Gutman comes to mind, here in my state of Ohio.
A lot of it is NOT screened or preserved properly and it has a tendency to turn rancid with bacteria after some time.
Ammonia build up is also all too common. I see hair and feces particles floating in some that I've gotten.
The number one scent sold in America today , after all is : URINE !
Trappers , Deer hunters, they all use it.
But how necessary is it to take game ? Well, not as much as they would have you to believe !
ON BOBCAT, studies have shown that 'cats are more interested in coyote urine than they are of their own kind, unless it's breeding season and then that changes, for obvious reasons.
Many years ago an east coast dealer kept a garage full of domestic house cats and collected urine from them.
Meat fed, it was marketed as simply : Wild Cat Urine. It sold, it caught 'cats.
Ever smell house cat pi$$ ? You know why then. . .and I wouldn't be afraid to use that trick today !
O'Gorman's, have been known to keep 'big cats' , someone said and seems to me that's about right.
I once bought LYNX urine from Dana. Worked well for me, but I bought it mostly for 'gland formulation.
Cougar urine attracts all kinds of animals , including bobcats and coyotes, which hate them.
I've used cougar and even jaguar droppings ( from a local animal sanctuary) on coyotes, which also worked quite well... ( but, I digress )
As far as the (best suggestion) someone gave, if you can get away with it, do it. Controlling your own product is the best way to go about it.
While I do not advocate 'breaking the law', something can be said for keeping your mouth shut and a low profile.
The Safe Guard Dog Cage Trap, makes a nice size cage for collecting urine on a single coyote, a pair of 'cats or foxes.
A screen door beneath, fits real nice and some heavy gauge clear plastic sloped beneath, will put you on your way to collecting urine.
The screen , I personally like two, double stacked ) will catch ( at least most of the ) hair, bone, meat and droppings that may otherwise fall through the cage wire.
A skinned, gutted and semi frozen carcass or chunk of raw meat, will make your life a 'whole lot easier' and the clean up will be far will take a fraction of the time.
Remove urine daily and if hot weather is present, twice if needed.
Also I remove all droppings and dry them on a separate screen. I use them to my advantage on the trap line and they can be re-hydrated using common rain water, (not tap).
If cold weather, a couple days wouldn't be out of the question.
Yet, keep that urine as clean as humanly possible. I strain mine through two layers of 'cheese cloth' and I do this twice.
Every time, every day !
Every few days, I spray off the screens and plastic ( and at one time used glass to collect off of), once air dry, I put back in place.
I have well water, which I place in a can, outside the pen, with the opening just large enough for the muzzle to lap up a drink from. ( Cats curl forward, canines backward )
For my money, my urine goes in a clean plastic pail in the deep freeze.
It's hard to go wrong if you go that route. Not everybody will.
Good clean urine is in high demand.
$25 to $40 and even higher on exotics is not unheard of.
Currently, I'm collecting ferret urine to use on mink. I'm sure it will grab the attention of a passing canine as well
Regardless if you collect of buy, do your homework before purchasing and it will pay big dividends i the long run. . .
LT G