Does anyone do skeleton articulation?

[Chickerdoodle13]

I've recently been interested in trying to do this. Does anyone here do it? Where do you get your skeletons from? I am not a hunter, so I imagine it might be difficult to find full skeletons. I also think dermestids are pretty awesome and those would be perfect for the more "intact" specimens. I'm not sure where I would get some of those though! I'm guessing you could order them online.

Also, what do you use to put the bones together? i've been reading that many people use wire to put the vertebre together. Is there any particular wire that works better?

I'd love to see pictures too!

 

[Kansaseq]

It's not a hobby of mine, but does bring back memories of tech school and trying to learn all of the bones of the horse, dog, and cat. I've forgotten so much!

 

[Randy]

I don't do the skeletons but here are a few skulls I've cleaned.

 

[CluckyJay]

I always wanted to try this. I don't do it but I have a couple pretty neat things.



I have an old human spine and a nice 8 point skull. I don't have the room to store or show off much so I'd have to use small critter mounts. I'll kick around when hubby brings back a carcass and see what I can do. It will be either a coon or a possum, LOL.

This is a neat thread!

 

[CluckyJay]

Use maggots to strip a carcass. Black soldier flies work well and I am sure you can get your hands on some carrion beetles. Try to use a native kind. Maggots are really good at removing everything but the bones.

 

[laughingdog]

i have seen used fishing line, but a thin bendable wire works best to set. just buy keep a cheap to keep colony of meal worms, or super worms (meal worms infinitely easier to keep, as both dermastids, but to get super worms to pupate, they need to be separated into photo film roll containers or small tackle box compartments etc.). otherwise when not cleaning flesh etc from bones, they can be kept cool to make dormant, or in container of oat meal and fed carrots to proliferate.

enough of them or enough time, and theyll strip clean anything in an appropriate sized container, they are good as they dont smell if not fed potatoes like most do (also seems to not promote grain mites that they get sometimes), make no noise, dont fly or climb or jump. though ive had blaberous roach species clean large carcasses in minutes. i have many other odd hobbies besides birds.. hehehe

 

[AngelzFyre]

I've heard of different gauges of beading wire used. One of the vets that precepted where I worked put his specimens in an ant bed to let them eat down to the bone, then boiled the bones to clean them, put them in the sun to dry.
I'd try to find somewhere that processed meats locally, like deer and small game and ask if they'd have some remains for you to practice with. You can also put an ad in local paper or Craig's List for same, though I'd not personally want to see what folks came up with from there

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[Chickerdoodle13]

Thanks for all the advice guys! You all are awesome.

Laughingdog,

I did not know you could use meal worms. I've kept those before and they were very easy. How many do you need to strip a carcass?

I'm hoping I might be able to find something dead with a romp in the nearby woods. Every once in a while we get roadkill on the front road near the drive way. I'm sure I could probably sneak out there and take it without anyone noticing!

Randy, those are some awesome skulls! What animals are they, if you don't mind me asking? I think I can guess some of them, but a few I am not so sure. How did you clean those skulls?

 

[laughingdog]

well im not sure, as usually strip most flesh off first, then toss to roaches, then to mealworms (and the dermastid beetle parents). though have meal worms in every thing now as they eat anything and actually had them breed better in dirt and as dry composters/cleanup crew, and just for a hoot noticed they loved the flesh of even the dead roaches, cleaning out insides and leaving exoskeleton perfectly preserved. then tried on other smaller animals as well that found dead, then on raccoon, dog and goat skulls ( the goat was mine, but starting to wonder if one of my neighbors is serial killer with amount of bones and dead animals skeletons/carcases still finding around my complex, or if was really disease and cold winter killing off packs of cats dogs, and raccoons etc and now hot summer breeding diseases, that neighbir kids find and tell me about and bring me, as apparently around these parts im the resident zoologist etc).

 

[Chickerdoodle13]

Does anyone have any idea how to clean a skull after it has been stripped of flesh? I have two goat skulls I'd like to set up with lighting but they are dirty from sitting around in the barn. I've read that the typical ways like bleach and boiling are not so good for the bone and since I want to use these for display, I don't want to ruin them. I'd like to get them as clean as possible and tea stain them. Any ideas?