# Splitting lips on coyote



## shaker77 (Mar 17, 2010)

Do you need to split the lips and if so how does everyone go about it?


----------



## catcapper (Feb 11, 2010)

I use a tennis ball and a scaple. After a while you'll get pretty fast at it


----------



## coyotehunter243 (Mar 4, 2010)

I use a small sharp knife and put your finger on each side like you are trying to pinch the lip then start cutting down towards the lip line you will know u did it right when its completley flat. You might also have to split the back side of the nose where the cartlage is to get it done right. I use a small horn under the lip when I'm done splitting so I can get all the meat off. This works good for me. Hope this helps


----------



## tjc1230 (Mar 3, 2010)

I have never split the lips on my yotes and never had any complaints.


----------



## FLTrapper (Feb 24, 2010)

Splitting the lips is only necessary if you are going to do a taxidermy mount with the animal. Taxidermists split the lips so they can be tucked into the mouth slot of the artificial form.

So, you don't need to split the lips if your just keeping or selling the hide as fur, rather than for taxidermy. I only split the lips on my animals if I am going to mount them, or sell them to another taxidermist. Otherwise I just leave them intact and sell the fur as-is.


----------



## Toxic (Feb 24, 2010)

I split mine to insure complete tanning of the hide, I don't like leaving any thick areas on the face. scaple works great for this also


----------



## GritGuy (Jan 31, 2010)

I split the lips and do the nose and ears as well on all my pelts, raccoons, cats and dogs, badgers, I do the paws as well on these, anything I think could be worth the effort if I sold to a taxidermist.

I have all my fur tanned so I can sell it to whom ever, takes a bit longer to sell this way, however I always get more for it.

If your selling the fur auctions it's not necessary to do all this extra, it's good to learn though and I advise everyone to at least learn how to do it in case you ever get a pelt you want to keep or sell for a higher dollar.

It's not hard just time consuming, once you learn how it goes by quite quickly


----------

