Steer horns

[Anonymous]

Hi, we need help in curing a steer head! We were given a freshly skinned steer head with horns!(nice gift)...... It still has the eyes, brain etc...... how do we cure it so we can hang it in our living room? We can't place it in the sun, we live in a rain forest. Any suggestions would be helpful. Thanks in advance!

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[Anonymous]

You have a couple of options. The easiest but most expensive would be to freeze it and contact your local taxidermist. They have places that for a fee they can send them to and have the skull cleaned using meat eating insects. The second option would be to get a barrel large enough to hold the skull and boil it in water until the meat is ready to fall off the bones. (You didn't say, but if this is a longhorn skull you could be in trouble.) After the skull is "cooked" you need to pick off all of the meat scraps and recover the teeth from the sediment at the bottom of the cooking water. These teeth will have to be glued back onto the skull when you are finished. The last step is to make up a strong bleach solution that is thick and pasty. You brush this mixture on the bone and let is sit for 24 hours to make the skull bright white. When this is done you wash off the skull to remove any bleach residue and after the skull dries it is ready for display.

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[Anonymous]

Pam, If you are on a limited budget, and cannot afford a taxidermist, you might want to try this.....Place the whole head in an ant bed and let the ants eat the meat off. We live in Florida, so our technique is to place the head in the sun, or just hang it in the tree and let it cure. Good luck.

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