Frequently Asked Questions

I only offer freeze dry service for velvet antlers. I will not ever offer any taxidermy for freeze dry animals. Freeze dry should never ever have a place with taxidermy. Animals should be conventionally mounted or reproductions. 

What they do during the freeze dry process is they take the guts and Brain out of the animal and then stuff with cotton and occasionally inject some formalin in it. Freeze dry taxidermy looks terrible and I've never in my career seen a good mount. There's way too many variables and way too many things that isn't possible with freeze dry such as eye setting and shrinkages etc that cant be fixed or changed. The people that do freeze dry for the most part are scam artists and trying to make a quick dollar because it isn't hard if you have the machine. It's just a terrible method to use. Let's say you have a mount in your house,and the humidity goes up one day,you could rehydrate your mount and in a few hours,days ,weeks,months, have your mount rot . Because all the meat and tissue is still inside the mount. They don't take the meat out of it . So if someone's dog is freeze dried the leg meat and neck and all that is still inside. You'll get bugs and a smell and much more problems you don't want. Any animal you can think of can be mounted by a extremely competent taxidermist . Such as my self. So avoid anyone that says freeze dry. 

When it comes to velvet deer racks the only reason I use freeze dry is that it takes the fluid out of the rack and replaced with preservatives. 

I have many field care videos on my YouTube channel taxidermybycam they thoroughly go over and explain what to do . 

In general, freeze everything,keep it dry and cool asap. Never ever salt anything and then freeze it.

Take as many photos as you can of the environment and the animal itself for reference 

Live snakes keep live and bring to me live that way we can go over if it's a good candidate or not and let it go if needed. If going on a out of state trip ,consult me before hand that way everything is done correctly 

Please take as many measurements as possible with a flexible measuring tape. Such as nose to eye. Circumference of the neck ,girth ,tip of the nose to the base of the tail, etc. 

I accept many forms of payment and I work with people. As long as I'm kept in the loop and you don't avoid me and we have a plan everything will be good to go . But if you avoid me or straight up lie to me ,then that's a problem.  Then I won't be willing to work with you and you'll have to take your work somewhere else or it will be sold. 

For example if you tell me "hey I can only afford this much at this time or this much a month,and I expect to pay it off at this time" great that's no problem. But for the people that tell me I'll pick it up or pay it off on this day or that day and never show up or call or text or email and then avoid me for weeks and months . Then your not doing what you should and you get black listed.  

I work with people ,but I'm not going to hold onto your mounts and animals forever. If you don't keep me in the loop and informed. Then after 90 days your mounts and animals will become mine and be disposed of or sold to recoup my loss. 

If your a decent customer ,you have nothing to worry about. You'd be amazed at how many people just drop stuff off and then never pay or give a deposit or show up again. This is for those people . 

When It comes to the question of reproductions such as fish and reptiles. 

The best skin mount in the entire world won't come close to the quality of a reproduction. Skin mounts have so much shrinkages , scale issues, and a level of detail that can't be matched against a reproduction. Anybody that tries to say different is a snake oil salesman. If I myself caught a world record fish or reptile I would be doing a reproduction on it,not a skin mount. Reproductions get a bad rap because a lot of taxidermists can't paint so save their life or understand what's going on with colors and application. There's not a single advantage of a skin mount over a reproduction. 

When It comes to turkey heads I only use reproduction heads and glue the head feathers back in . You get a higher quality head with snoods,waddles and cap of the highest quality and zero shot damage . 

In short imagine if you were to drive a horse and buggy to work or drive a car ,that's a great comparison of reproductions versus skin mounts.