This photo of opossum remains is a perfect example of when to macerate. Only a little dried on flesh and almost no fur on the bones. I just filled up this container with water & tightly sealed the lid. Now I will leave the bacteria to do their work for the next 2 to 3 weeks. Do not add anything else, only water. Especially not any soaps or chemicals that would kill the bacteria that need to breed in that water to clean the bones of the flesh. If you put a whole animal in a maceration tub with fur, innards & skin it would take forever. Could potentially cause the bones to start to decay before they fell free. And would be unbelievably horrid smelling. I also stress using a sealed container for the process especially if you are leaving it outside. Otherwise you could grow algae on the bones or have the tub fill will maggots or other creatures that will possibly begin to decay the bone. Lastly, always wear latex gloves during this process while handling the remains/bones. They will be incredibly unsanitary.
For much more info about maceration check out my other posts here:
4 comments:
I have found some road kill with all the innards and fur still fresh and attached. What should I do to prepare it for the water soak? try defleshing as much as possible myself?
Hi Jacinda, you'd need to either deflesh it yourself or let nature do the job for you. I added links for two of my related blogs at the above blog to help you out. Good luck!
Hi there, in my state it is illegal to collect roadkill....are there any alternatives if one is interested in this hobby?
If you are wanting to collect and process bones yourself and road kill is not an option you need to figure out if it is ok for you to collect remains where hunters dump them. If it is ok locate these places by talking to local hunters. I happen upon them in woods I explore. In general exploring the outdoors a lot you'll eventually happen upon bones/remains. Another option is walking along railroad tracks if you have an around. I wrote a blog about that a while back - Starting Over, Learning Anew - http://bone-lust.blogspot.com/2011/04/starting-over-learning-anew.html
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