I don’t post often but it’s driving me crazy. I’m seeing cat pictures posted and the put up is awful.
My fur buyer of many years. (Who we sadly lost a couple of years ago). Told me that through the years my put up had earned me hundreds of dollars. You work hard to catch those cats, and you’re leaving money on the table. I don’t understand. Do you just not care, or is it, no one has shown you how.

My opinion it is NOT just cats... it is all fur whether it is fur in or out... I believe it is the individual has not been taught proper or has not taken the initiative to find a person to help him or her.... Myself as an example grew up in Michigan (water trapper). Retired from the navy and now reside in Nevada (land trapper) coyotes mainly. Started selling fur at the fallon sale in 2003. NOT completely happy with my fur presentation and a couple years of watching fur being brought to the sale I picked out a fella (Old Coy) that had coyotes that I wanted mine to look like. I asked him to critic my coyotes, after 5 seasons of you didn't do this or that I finally won my first best handled coyote award at the fallon sale. Now I am at the stage of the game where I get asked for help with fur put up. All because I ASKED for help....

Agreed well said.

Post some pictures on how it should be done then.I'm sure it would be much appreciated.

Heck ya! I know somethings are easy for some but hard for others BUT if you’re going to sing it, bring it!

I e got what you’re asking for. Not too proud to ask for help to make things good. How to post a picture never done it before?
Thanks if I can put more money in my brother’s pockets I’ll be happy too.

1.Click on house above with arrow pointing up in reply box below
2.Then click on Choose file
3.Then click on Add file from pc
4.What for it to download.Will show downloading to the right
5.Once downloaded make sure picture is right.Can rotate picture if not.
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The archives here are full of top notch threads on most all animals!

Not sure about what should and shouldn't be done, but it pays to spend a few extra minutes on them in my opinion. Four from the last day of the season this year, February 28th, and the put-ups. Two smaller cats done with feet, and the two larger toms my traditional style.

Nice looking bobcats

NevadaMick.....you dont need any help putting up bcats!

Thanks! Even this blind squirrel can find his nuts now and then.

See if this works?

Nice job

Right on.

I'm happy with a catch and want to make a decent presentation of fur.
I use correct board size and do a lot of combing.

I've learned from other over the years-

You folks taking the cartilage out of the coyote ears or leaving in?

Very nice work Hern!

I've done it both ways, either way is acceptable. I generally take out of cats and often coyotes.

I generally leave it in. On canines I still do a more old school put up, with ears up and no Nevada stretch on the back legs. I will put some borax on the ear butts but not usually needed. What few cats I deal with get done with the Nevada stretch treatment, their presentation is much better with it.

Those look great, nice work. I've never left the feet on. What made you decide to do that? Maybe it's something i'm missing and should start doing.

Hern does professional put up work on his fur.

Hern, very nice work! With multiple species to work with there’s different techniques to learn! Most figure out what works for them.

NM- as usual your cats had lots of attention at Fallon! Great put up!

What kind of comb or brush do most of you guys use for final grooming/combing of the put-up pelt?

NavadaMick & Old Coy great looking pelts. Top work.

Fur comb first, then a finish brush (pet stores & feed stores call it a Slicker Brush).

Finish brush has angled teeth, many teeth, that are close together. This brush separates individual hairs, presenting a fuller pelt. Works great on Canines, Bobcat bellies, Beaver and so on.


Here's a new Slicker Brush I bought during this season. Has a push button to clean fur from teeth. Love this. Bought at Tractor Supply




A finish brush removes old/loose underfur which help showcase the guard hairs and a good-looking finished pelt.




I never washed fur. Just comb before skun'n and after I flip fur out (and touch up before I sell).

ChiefT, I feel as you do about most fur while attending fur auctions. I'm a trapper not a fur buyer.
I have spoken to local trappers, at auctions, if they need help or want to tweak their fur put up, to stop at our house. Several guys have stopped in over the years.
Simple combing, brushing, proper board size is all that's needed for a good start to fur handling.
Over the years, I've learn from several folks and attended many fur handling demos at conventions. I'm still opened to learning more.

I use a human hair brush, I have never cared for the metal teethed brushes and combs so commonly used on fur, always felt they were rougher on it than necessary. I prefer a hair brush that has the bristles coming out in lines of little BB sized clumps, simply because it makes it easier to clean loose fur from it. I have a round one that I got at the dollar store I really like, with it being round with bristles all the way around it, I don't have to clean it as often and the bristles are just about the stiffness I like. I don't like too soft a bristle, but I've used some that the bristles seemed like they didn't have hardly any give or flex, and I didn't like those either.

I try to make my southeast Texas cats look as good as I can.

Nice job

They look great!

Thank you. I appreciate it.

And you did well!

Thank you. I'm still a work in progress when it comes to otter.

ETex - those cats look really nice, bright bellies!

RFrame - I use the same comb/brushes as Hern

Thank you Old Coy. I believe in using Borax.

Well done, EtexTrapper. Great pic.

Etex,your cats look fantastic!

It’s not just cats.

A lot of people drop the ball on all fur put up.

Theres no excuse to have burs in “finished” coyotes. But there they were. You can’t brush a coyote to much at the end.

Or really basic stuff like not scraping them properly/thoroughly.

Thank you old coy and hern! I’ll be getting some new brushes soon to help with finishing my put-up fur.

Is pulling the back legs all the way around to the belly on bobcats preferred by fur buyers over pull them straight down the stretcher legs? I notice most the guys with nice western cats do this. I have done them both ways and just curious which is best and most likely to bring a few extra dollars.
Here’s 3 that I’ve put-up recently. They have not been boraxed and brushed yet. I have 3 more that are green skinned and rolled up that I pulled out of the freezer yesterday and planning on putting them on stretchers today. Any helpful tips and constructive criticism is greatly appreciated!

My personal thoughts are that cats that may have off-colored bellies and/or be smaller in size (assuming I keep them) sometimes benefit from having the feet left on the pelts. A cat with feet on will have more interest to the wall-hanger market and usually allow buyers to get a few dollars more for them, while not removing any usefulness if they find their way into the garment pile. It only takes me an extra 5-10 minutes to skin out the feet and pin them out, so I figure it's worth it if only to keep options open. Big beautiful cats with nice bellies I don't bother with the feet, as I just figure a cat likely to bring $500+ in the garment market will never find it's way to being a wallhanger anywhere. I sell a fair number of these B belly cats to the taxidermy trade as well, so keeping the feet on while skinning, keeps that option open for me as well. Hope that helps.

Good idea with the feet.

TRAPPERKRIS asked me to post this pic for him. Hope it works!

RF, if you've got cats like that with white down the hind legs, pull them hind legs together so you can't see the seam between them. It makes the belly look longer. When I split the legs on cats like that I follow the color line when splitting so all the white is on the inside of the legs and all the brown on the outside. If you have cats like a fair number of our timber cats that have brown legs without much white it probably doesn't matter if you pin them together or not, but it isn't going to hurt you any.

If you look at the two cats on the left you can see how you have a small strip of brown on the inside of the legs, before you get to the white. That is very common if you split straight down the back of the leg, which is exactly how I skinned most of my life, but the last couple years I have been splitting down that color seam between the white and brown, then when you pin those legs together it is solid white all down the middle.

I personally have never had an issue with how I handle my cats for my personal markets. Even though I'm in the golden region of top quality cats, I never put all my eggs in one basket, and sell my cats through different markets. Following the color line is sound advice for the fur trade, and equally important, at least for me, is pinning them out nice on a skirting board. Alternative markets will sometimes benefit from different initial cutting techniques IMO

^^^^^^^^ This.