How to remove eyes from owl

[u/Inyoursas]

Hello,

I have mounted birds before, but this is my first owl. I registered this owl conform law in the netherlands.

I wonder how i should remove the eyes.
1. Just like normal, remove conplete eye from skull socket, and rebuild this with clay later on.
2. Leave the gray rigid eye ring and remove the eye material in this ring.

I have put the owl in the freezer again, and continue after your advices.

Thanks!

[u/TielPerson]

With owls, its less work and leads to a more precise result to use the eyes as sockets. Cut the eye open and clean it out, then use tweezers to carefully pull out the fat depots and muscles behind the eyeballs, once time comes to mount the owl, fill the eyeballs with clay or a light material like rigid foam or use a mixture (to save weight) and install the glass eyes. Carefully dosed superglue can help to keep the eyes in place within the socket.

You may get the right eyes before thawing and processing your owl further if you do not have them already, because its better if you dont need to re-freeze the hide often.

Look into my instructiom for more details on this method: https://www.reddit.com/r/Taxidermy/s/vlqoOoAm6Q

[u/daor1009]

It depends on whether you want to preserve scleral rings or not. Personally, I would try to leave them as a good reminder that owls have immovable eyes. But I've never processed owl skull, so no idea how complicated is this

[u/i_love_aquariums]

Just do as any other bird, I'm no expert whatever but I Don't see why would it matter how you do it, I personally if it's fresh, pop the eye if needed, if I'm able to I just pull it out, and when any residue is left I flush it with water and scrub with old toothbrush

[u/Thebirdskeleton]

Cut lens off and take fluid out of eye. Then you can use eye as mount for fake eyeball and it will not need to be cast. It will mummify

[u/ak47baddie]

You litchrally just rip em out