Tried something for the first time this year. Usually we just sell the heads from the gators we catch in the fish market. Normally we get $10 to $20 in the raw for them depending on the size.
This year we saved the head off of one of the larger ones and tried mounting it ourselves. A friend has been doing his for a few years and gave us some close supervision and directions so that we did not trash it.
Process was fairly straight forward. We boiled it in the bottom half of a 55 gallon drum with a solution of Sal Soda that came from a taxedermy supply house. Darn thing was so big that it would not go all the way down in the drum so it took longer than it should have.
We'd boil it a while then scrape and cut and spray it off then boil it some more. Had to get all the meat, connective tissue and skin off the head.This took about 3 hours from start to finish.
Next step was to soak it for a day in a tub of high concentration peroxide. Got the peroxide from a beauty supply shop.
Once it came out of the peroxide we rinsed it off and set in a safe place to dry for about 2 weeks.
The boiling made some of the teeth come lose and also caused a couple of the bones to delaninate. Suposedly this is normal. Took some of the gel super glue to reset the bones and teeth.
To get the upper and lower jaws back together we used a couple of screws and some epoxy in the joints.
Last thing was that my buddy who is a cabnet maker sprayed it with some fancy catalized laquer to protect it.
This year we saved the head off of one of the larger ones and tried mounting it ourselves. A friend has been doing his for a few years and gave us some close supervision and directions so that we did not trash it.
Process was fairly straight forward. We boiled it in the bottom half of a 55 gallon drum with a solution of Sal Soda that came from a taxedermy supply house. Darn thing was so big that it would not go all the way down in the drum so it took longer than it should have.
We'd boil it a while then scrape and cut and spray it off then boil it some more. Had to get all the meat, connective tissue and skin off the head.This took about 3 hours from start to finish.
Next step was to soak it for a day in a tub of high concentration peroxide. Got the peroxide from a beauty supply shop.
Once it came out of the peroxide we rinsed it off and set in a safe place to dry for about 2 weeks.
The boiling made some of the teeth come lose and also caused a couple of the bones to delaninate. Suposedly this is normal. Took some of the gel super glue to reset the bones and teeth.
To get the upper and lower jaws back together we used a couple of screws and some epoxy in the joints.
Last thing was that my buddy who is a cabnet maker sprayed it with some fancy catalized laquer to protect it.
.
I broke the dern lawn chair I was sitting in as I laughed my self silly peein' my pants (literally) with tears pourin' from my eyes!