Mouse Taxidermy

Step 27 Remove pins and display

When your mice are dry, pull the pins out and put your creations on display. Remember making dioramas in elementary school? Well... they're waaaay better with mice.

They make great wedding cake-toppers as well, if you've got friends with the right sense of humor. Kids love them, at least if they're young enough to ignore parents' concepts of disgust. Pets generally ignore them.

Have fun!

Photo credit: thanks to Jess for the fantastic photos. Check out her first mouse, pictured in the comments.

Teacher credit: thanks to Jeannie who teaches an awesome mouse taxidermy class at Paxton Gate in SF.

Comments

[sandaili]

Wow. I can understand that everyone likes taxidermy. But the point of mice being used/killed solely to become toys or hobbies....wow. I'm not a hippie but I can't help but wonder what people think when they are pinning insects to boards after killing them with ether or stuffing dead mice. Sorry I'm just not into killing things LOL. And no I'm not a vegetarian. I suppose if we were going to eat the mouse I'd be much happier with stuffing it. 

[garypcom]

The mice are already dead. Some pet supply stores sell them as food for other animals.

[btaubensee]

thanks so much for the great tutorial!!! did my first one last night - a success minus loss of tail. :( but i have 24 more to practice on! :D i am going to use them for an art project. thank you!

[btaubensee]

here's what i did with mine! thanks again :)

[darthbindy]

nice taxidermy guide 2 years ago i made a chipmunk pelt from road-kill but this is a way better idea!

[rat_man]

I am sooooo upset I had a rat and two mice skinned, and according to my Taxidermy Hand book I was to soak my hides in saturated borax and detergent water overnight. All the hair fell out :'C

[Tarantulady]

Ok, Canida... I read the whole thing twice and I've got all my supplies... Wish me luck on my little ratty! And, of course, thanks for this BRILLIANT tutorial! Maybe you can tell us how to taxidermy a tarantula sometime? I tried to preserve a really wonderfully giant specimen of g. rosea a few years ago, and my hands got badly burned and the tarantula disintegrated. I still don't know if it was her venom, digestive juices, or urticating hairs that ruined the project! (of course, the fact that I didn't wear gloves probably helped )

[zombiefire]

theres an easie way to preserve insects, get a srynge and some formulahyde, put some in the srynge and insert t in the body, then pin it to a cork board or you could preserve it in pouring resin.

hope this helps

[sandaili]

It's pretty much the same as the mouse. If the tarantula has a large abdomen, remove the contents as much as possible and fill with cotton. Then put it in a dry environment to dry out in the position you want. 

[canida]

Excellent, best of luck! I'd love to see the result. I previously kept pet mice and hamsters, so it's nice to have some of the little guys around keeping an eye on me in stuffed form. I hope yours works out. Unfortunately I don't know much about preserving tarantulas - if I find a resource I'll definitely pass it along.

[That Weasel]

i'd like to see one with a squirrel. i think it would be cool cuz of thir big bushy tails

[Tarantulady]

Well, it took all of last night, but I finally got it done! It's my first one, so there are obvious mistakes in the eyelids (I accidentally nicked one and split it!) and the tail got a rip, but considering my lack of experience I'm pretty happy with the results. I also simmered his skull clean and have it sitting in salt n_n I'll post pics when I find my damned camera! Thanks again for the tutorial!!!

[Spotteh]

i think they're cute c: i want to try this some day (having a cat makes it easy to get hold of dead stuff lol), i just have to persuade my mum to let me xD

the idea still kinda freaks me out though, as most dead stuff does, but still, they look sweet c:

one thing- once they're all dry, would you groom the fur to present them? like, with a pet brush or something?

awesome tutorial by the way :3

[history323]

What is the ratio on the cornmeal/borax mixture or does it matter?
 By the way- great instructable I will try this!

[sinxkitten]

Hi!
i've recently gotten into the cool kind of taxidermy (like this and this ), not the creepy "this was my pet dog growing up, and now i keep it in my bedroom because i loved him" kind. Heh. I'd love t try this, this tutorial is awesome! I was pretty good at dissecting animals in my biology class, so i might be good at this.
Now to convince my mom to let me taxidermy a mouse....

[hoarp001]

thats really. really. freaky. Kids playing with toys made from **real** mice?!

[Tarantulady]

What's wrong? Kids wear shoes made out of beef hide, don't they? n_n Besides, there are a lot more sketchy toys on the market. There was a Dora The Explorer toy recall due to toxic chemicals :o I bet they're safer than most of the toys at Walmart, lol.

[Kitten with a whip]

Wow, there are some angry comments here! Anyways I wanted to say that this tutorial is pretty helpful. We'll see how it works for me though (I'm a bit worried about the wire parts.

[Molly Malevolent]

Hahahaha, that BeastSpawn sure is a Kill Joy. I think that Taxidermy is very cool I think you should Try a Cat! I mean a dead cat... I think you could get one at a pound... hahaha I don't mean go kill one or anything...

[Darkaef]

(removed by author or community request)

[xACIDITYx]

*Giggle.*
omg what kind of education do you have? You can't even spell giving, aweful or Oh my God correctly.

[Darkaef]

(removed by author or community request)

[xACIDITYx]

Yes, I do care more about spelling mistakes because there is nothing wrong with this instructable.

[Tibia]

Thank you for posting this. I've been thinking about whether or not I could actually be a taxidermist, and this would be a great way to try and find out. Thanks.

[flguy255]

How do you keep the hair from eventually falling off the finished product?

[canida]

The only time you're likely to lose hair is in handling the mouse during skinning and stuffing. The more roughly you treat it (and the more it's been freeze-thawed or allowed to sit at room temp) the more likely you are to lose bits of fur. After it's dry the skin is a rawhide texture and the hair is stuck in there pretty tightly, so you'd really have to work to pull any out.

[lebowski]

sweet.

[Caya]

I want to know how it is that the mice don't smell. Especially since in one of the beginning steps, it said that you don't have to get every tiny speck of flesh out.

[canida]

The mouse skin is quite thin, and will dry out in a day or so. The borax prevents anything from growing while the skin dries. Small bits of flesh will dry equally fast; you only risk smell from larger chunks which wouldn't get enough borax at the center, and thus may not dry fast enough to avoid spoilage

[shevraldy]

These things are awesome. Bottom line. Everybody is gonna want a stuffed mouse. You could trade them and they could have a cartoon about them. It should be called "Awesome Mice".

[canida]

*grin* Thanks, I'm glad you liked them!