Sponsored by the
Museum of Natural
Science, Louisiana State University
From: Bulletin Board for Bird
Collections and Curators [mailto:AVECOL-L LISTSERV.LSU.EDU] On Behalf Of OscaR BallesteroS
Sent:
Monday, July 21, 2008 10:56 AM
To: AVECOL-L LISTSERV.LSU.EDU
Subject: Re: [AVECOL-L]
Side-incision skinning
Do
you know if somebody published this method??? I'm interested, or where can I
see more details about this method
Oscar B. M.
===========================
On
Mon, Jul 21, 2008 at 9:56 AM, A. Townsend Peterson wrote:
I have been prepping birds with an under-the-wing incision for
about 20 years now, and would not go back to a chest or belly incision for
anything. It is pretty easy to deal with bodies … here is what I do:
1. Make a pretty long stick
with a lollipop on one end (i.e., a cotton ball the size of the brain cavity of
the bird)
2. Take
the stick end out the cloaca from inside out
3. Push the lollipop end up
into the skull
4. Arrange the bird so that
it is bilaterally symmetric around the stick
5. Prepare a cone-shaped
body, twisting the apex so that it is strong
6. Insert forceps in the
bill and down the throat to grab the apex of the cone
7. Pull
the body up into the bird
8. Insert the body fully
into the incision hole
9. Position the body bilaterally
symmetrically over the stick
10. Close up the incision
No need for tow or anything beside
cotton. All the best,
ATP
A. Townsend Peterson, Ph.D.
============================
My best description is as follows, but practice
on a house sparrow or other common bird before trying it out on a bird you care
about.
1.Lift up one wing and make a horizontal slit
slightly below the wing attachment. Start on the bulge of the pectoral muscle
and cut back to the end of the rib cage.
2. Loosen the skin around the incision and cut
off the humerus where it attaches to the body.
3. Moving forward, peel off the skin, then find
and cut off the neck where it attaches to the body.
4. Keep peeling off skin around the front of the
bird until you reach the other wing. Cut off the humerus where it attaches to
the body.
5. At this point you should be able to peel the
skin backwards without any difficulty. Peel and cut the legs as usual, as well
as the tail.
6. Remove the neck, skull, brain and eyes as
usual.
7. put in cotton eyes.
8. clean, cut and tie the wing bones together as
normal.
9. At this point you have three options:
a. Follow Town Peterson's method
1. Make a pretty long stick with a lollipop on
one end (i.e., a cotton ball the size of the brain cavity of the bird)
2. Take the stick end out the cloaca from inside
out
3. Push the lollipop end up into the skull
4. Arrange the bird so that it is bilaterally
symmetric around the stick
 5.
Prepare a cone-shaped body, twisting the apex so that it is strong
6. Insert forceps in the bill and down the
throat to grab the apex of the cone
7. Pull the body up into the bird
8. Insert the body fully into the incision hole
9. Position the body bilaterally symmetrically
over the stick
10. Close up the incision
b. Make a cotton body without a stick
1. Make a cotton body as usual on a stick
2. Insert stick into head of bird
3. Break off stick at bottom of body
4. Insert rest of body into skin.
5. Close up the incision.
c. Use tow to make a body with a stick.
1. Take a round stick (Chinese chopstick works
well) and wind a body around it using tow or other fibrous material
2. Insert the stick into the head of the skin
and arrange the head and neck.
3. Pull out the stick (it helps if it has a
smooth surface, I use a lacquered chopstick).
4. Take a normal stick and roughen up the
surface using a blade. Make sure to cut the blade towards the tip of the stick.
5. Slide the stick through the cloaca and guide
it through the space in the center of the tow body all the way up into the head
of the skin.
6. Twist the stick a little so that the rough
surface catches on the fibers.
7. close up the incision.
Walter Wehtje
Department of Fisheries and
Wildlife
University of Missouri-Columbia
302 Anheuser-Busch Natural
Resources Building
Columbia, MO 65211-7240
(573) 884-7553