Showing posts with label teddy bear hamster. Show all posts
Showing posts with label teddy bear hamster. Show all posts

Monday, October 14, 2013

Rest in Peace, Mr. Balls.

Mr. Balls was your typical over-the-counter pet store hamster. Scientifically speaking, he was Mesocricetus auratus - the Syrian hamster. Outwardly, however, he was a rather poor specimen. He was small - barely 90 grams, and he had an underbite which caused his ever-growing rodent teeth to curl against each other in odd, tusk-like formations. His teeth were monitored and clipped into a respectable shape every few weeks throughout his hamstery life. Mr. Balls died at the age of 2 3/4 years. We held onto his body down in our carcass freezer for a long time. The day finally came when I felt confident enough at small animal mounting to thaw it out, remove and treat the pelt, and attempt to stuff it....


Firstly, I constructed a wire & cotton frame, somewhat like I had done with FunnyBunny.  This was done as the pelt was soaking in the pickling agent.




After a few days the pelt was ready to be carefully applied over the frame.





It took about 2 hours of arrangement, but I was able to mount with skin, add the eyes and a bit of clay for support, and set the piece to dry. As a finishing touch, I positioned the digits on his left paws to be throwing the Horns: