Newsweek 2018 Interview - Jana Miller AKA BoneLust

The skull of a cat named Lucky, a preserved pet heart, a heart pendant, and the skull of a dog named Frank. All are pet memorials created for clients of Bonelust.My previous Newsweek feature about my pet memorial work.

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I did this second interview below with Newsweek in April/May of 2018 and it never went to print for unknown reasons. Some of the things we talked about are no longer relevant. So I added those edits to this in italics. This would probably have been significantly edited as most interviews are. Especially since this is so very long because I kept being asked additional questions as this interview evolved. So, here is the whole thing in Q&A form for anyone that really wants to know more about me and how BoneLust came about to be.

Cats and bones are a common sight at BoneLust Studio. This is Luci with equine skulls.

1. What do you refer to yourself as in your line of work?

As a lifelong collector of found objects, especially those from nature, I like to think of myself as a natural history artist and collector. My business card says - Ethical Bone & Taxidermy Artist. I’ve been called a lot of things though, a favorite is “the ultimate recycler”.

2. How did you get into processing animal remains? Why do you like it? Is it your main source of income? 

I grew up in a very nature oriented family. I could go as far as to saying we are naturalists. My parents, John and Mary, are also here in Florida. My mother worked for years in recycling and these days has had much success in bringing back the troubled Eastern Bluebird population, with her Audubon work. My father is a retired hydrogeologist that had his start in the Peace Corps, turned writer of speculative fiction. Our family has always been heavily involved in native plants and wildlife here in Florida. So, I grew up admiring and respecting the natural world, always curious to learn more. I would find dead creatures around our home or bring them home from family beach outings like starfish, sand dollars, and horseshoe crabs. This is where my learning process began for the preservation of these kinds of creatures.

I love the whole process involved in starting off with a dead creature and seeing what I can do to salvage it… and how nature can help, like carrion insects. I learned to identify what different animal species skeletons look like  from processing them myself. I love the science involved in these processes as well. I do a lot of experimentation and am always learning new things. There is a lot of satisfaction for me in taking a found deceased animal and making something beautiful to honor their life. It does not always have to be art. Sometimes it is just the cleaned skull. But a favorite is my Token From The Heart series where I use a self taught process to dry preserve the heart. Then use it in jewelry or displays. A fairly literal representation of honoring life after death.

This is a full time job for me and my only income. Well to be technical, I find and process most of the animals used in my art and jewelry. I started using bones and other dead things in my art and jewelry back in the 1980s. In the early 1990s I first used real human teeth in jewelry. I also do Pet Memorial processing work these days. This was something I only did for years for friends before receiving overwhelming requests from the public. Once I felt fully comfortable with my skills I offered these service to mourning pet families here in the US. There is no higher honor for me than this.

Token From The Heart series dry preserved animal heart pendant necklaces by BoneLust.

3. Do you have any significant experience that you might like to share, like your first experience with processing remains, or the first dead animal you found? 

One day my older brother, Chris, and I were exploring the neighborhood when we came across a tiny mummified hatchling turtle being devoured in an ant pile. I recall arguing over who was going to get to keep it. With me being only 7, and he being 10, of course he won. That was the moment that got me fascinated with what’s inside an animal, inside us that makes us alive.. and what happens when it all stops. My brother and I had a collection in his room for years that was our own natural history museum. I coveted that turtle for a long time and he finally passed it onto me when I was 23. It wasn’t just a dead turtle to me, it meant much more.

Another time we found a massive dead shark on a beach and our parents were less than happy that we ran up to it and were trying to pull the teeth out!

Here’s your funny story! After one family trip, I brought home countless sadly dead starfish that I found on a beach. My plan was to somehow preserve them. If only I knew then what I know now! I BOILED them and made a massive nasty smelling pot of rotten starfish stew. Yuck! One of the worst smells. I was pretty young so who knows my logic behind this. Everything I know now I taught myself from mistakes like this. Years before you could ask the internet how. Before there were even books on the topic.

Another significant bit of info. My family had a pet cemetery garden in the back yard where we said goodbye together to our cats that passed. I had my own personal mini cemetery as well in a different part of the yard that I buried anything that I found dead - lizards, toads, frogs, mice, insects, etc. I don’t think anyone else knew about it. But I found comfort in this ritual. A way to deal with death as a child. My family has always been very open about death. In my early teens my rat, Louie, had to be put to sleep because of a tumor. Louie was the first pet memorial processing I did. I don’t think it was even planned this way. I just wanted to know what his skull looked like. I still have it lovingly at my work desk. Fast forward a lifetime of experience, I now do pet memorial processing as a large part of my income.

Self portrait of the bone artist, Jana Miller.

4. Is there any sort of timeline that can help explain how and why bone collecting and taxidermy gained popularity?

I assume you are asking about this modern resurrection. But what comes to mind is how the cabinets of curiosities in the 18th-19th centuries in particular created today’s Natural History Museums. That age of rampant natural history collecting spurred some of our much needed animal parts laws to come to be. Like the Migratory Bird Treaty Act, with the decimation of bird populations all over the world due to these trends in collecting and fashion.

The last time there was such a massive public boom of interest in natural history collecting, was then. However, I believe that it was the television show “Oddities” that brought back to the public eye natural history collecting and art. It began in November of 2010. At that time I coincidentally was already making regular posts to my bone processing and collecting blog, Bonelust, that I made public in April of 2009. So it seemed like a sign to me, that my desire to take my lifelong hobby one step forward to a full time business, was a good one to follow through on. 

I grew up being fairly secretive about my bone processing with friends, and family. Back then it was not as mainstream acceptable or trendy and instead very highly looked down upon. Sick and freak were very degrading things to be called then… complete opposite these days! Which I honestly still am trying to get past that stigma sometimes. While I am very well know and respected now in certain circles. I still don’t tell most strangers that I meet what I really do for a living.

5. Do you have any ethical concerns about the growing community? 

Absolutely. With the rise in animal remains in jewelry and art being a trend now, of course many people see this as an opportunity to make money and jump on the bandwagon without any regard to their supply sourcing. I have seen a disturbing amount of shops open up online overnight that were just buying supplies from others without questioning where they came from, how they were processed, not checking if they had been identified correctly, or if they were even legal to have or sell to begin with. 

6. Do you feel like the community is doing enough to keep things as legal as possible?

There were huge issues around 2010-2015 with a lot of people new to this community not knowing the animal parts laws that apply to them. There is a lot of research to do before just blindly buying or selling animal by-products. There were even some that were killing animals themselves from the wild just to put in their own collections, which absolutely disgusts me. I have personally been trying very hard to educate others since early on with my Bonelust blog and social networking about the legal ramifications of this trend for the collectors, artists and shop owners. Things everyone needs to know like animal parts related federal laws, state laws and import/export info. It was a massive issue early on. But now I do see many more people aware of these things and acting on them in a much more positive note.

Since this interview there has been a troubling amount of issues on Facebook in particular with the sale of anything using animal by-products (bones, fur, feathers, etc). FB banned the sale of live animals on April of 2017. Now they have redefined their prohibited content list expanding to dead animal by-products ("Any part, pelt or skin from an animal, including fur"). This is a huge problem as it was caused by those on FB illegally selling animals that are protected/endangered/etc. There is a poacher issue on FB for sure (just as there is on eBay and Etsy). Those of us that are doing things in a very legal manner are getting hit hard by this. It could cause the downfall of the current climb of interest in these things. It is rumored that this could also spread to Instagram, which is owned by FB. Many of us that run small businesses full time like myself rely on FB and IG for sales. So this is very much something of serious concern.

7. Do you think it will gain any more popularity in the future?

I personally think I saw the resurrection of this hobby hit a peak in probably 2015. I feel as if it had a little decline after that and it is now at a plateau. I see new artists, online shops and brick and mortar storefronts come and go on a regular basis. But the thing is, I do still see new original ideas happen now and then too. Which really is amazing to me at this point because this is such a very saturated business to get into now.

Since this interview I have noticed a spike in the success of more and more large scale US events based on the topic of natural history collecting, art and jewelry. But see previous question about Facebook issues that may cause a decline in this hobby/profession.
Naturally deceased natural history items collected for art supplies.

8. Can you tell me (or estimate) how many different dead animals you have in your home, and how many alive? 

Haha, oh wow.. I just can’t even estimate the dead ones. Hundreds of different species at least. Thousands of different animals. And that has got to sound incredibly creepy to some people out there reading this! Rewind back to 2009, when I lost government funding for my then Federal salary (I worked for the USGS/NOAA). After that I went through some really hard times. Completely unable to get a job anywhere for years as I struggled to even feed myself and my pets. So I did not even have a secondary income to buy supplies for Bonelust when I first made my art available to the public. So, I collected natural supplies I found everywhere I went. I think it made me hoard supplies even now, if I’m being honest, ha! 

Once Bonelust became a stable income for me I was able to sometimes buy new skull specimens from species I can’t get here on my own. Normally I prefer to find/process them myself. But not everything lives here in Florida, or can be shipped here raw. So, my skull collection really grew in the past nearly 10 years now since the birth of Bonelust!

The “alive” situation is also pretty unbelievable really. My partner, Tim Prince of Forgotten Boneyard, and I do a lot of rescue work. The part of Florida we live in has some of the worst disregard to wild and domestic animals we’ve witnessed in all of our lives. So we always have more dogs and cats in our care than any sane person should! You can see our rescue work posted now and then to our Instagram accounts (BoneLust & Forgotten Boneyard). We always seem to need good homes for dogs and cats. Our current dog count is only at two, thankfully. Both rescues we fell in love with and kept. A basset named Champ, and a beagle named Kismet. We literally just took in 3 new cats in under a month. An old male cat left to starve on a rural beach, whom we’d love to find a good home for. The other two are young females we just found last week that we will need homes for for sure after we have them fixed etc - one is a manx and the other is a hemingway polydactyl cat! Besides those three new kitties, we have 10 others I won’t list all the names of. Most were rescues. And my Leopard Gecko that might be a world record over 30 years old! I’m sure there are more cats, dogs and wild animal rescues in our future! Oh, we also help care for 20 plus not-very-feral-anymore cats that I’d also love to find real homes for that they deserve.

Since this interview we found a forever home for Monkey the polydactyl cat. We still really need to find a home for Bobby the Bengal mix Manx. Our neighbor has since fallen into mental and physical decline of health and his family took him and left his cats in our care. We now are going to have to try to find forever homes for over 20 cats of his that I have been working very hard to domesticate the past few year. If you are looking for a loving cat that really needs a real home PLEASE contact me at Facebook, Etsy or Instagram. I seriously fear that these cats will be killed if we can not find them homes which is utterly heartbreaking. They came to be because of animal hoarding and neglect. They deserve to have a good loving home now.

9. Is there anything else you'd like to add?

I’ve found that too often the people that have no interest in this field of work, type of preservation or collecting are the ones that make negative assumptions about the people that do. Many of us would never harm a living thing, especially not for our work. Some of us do rescue and rehabilitation work with wild and domestic animals. There are even vegetarians and vegans in this community. We are not the serial killers we are thought of. We are from all walks of life. We are often friendly and approachable. Happy to educate and share our interests with others. If you have the open mind for it.

Afterthoughts I hesitated publicly sharing:

Originally the topic of this interview started off - "What does Vulture Culture mean to you?"

That turned into - "You mentioned you don't like the term "vulture culture." Why's that, and is there another term you'd like to use?"

I turned that question into - "What do you refer to yourself as in your line of work?"

Why didn't I want the focus of an interview about me to be about the term Vulture Culture?

First off, it is something that came to be over 25 years after I was already doing "Vulture Culture" processing, collecting and art. Even after I already had my bone processing blog, BoneLust shop and a large following. While others apply it to me now, it is not how I define myself.

But mostly because of how I have seen people online passionately argue about what Vulture Culture means. Some say it must be ethical. Animal ethics is different for each person, a matter of opinion. So that complicates that definition already. Then others say it does not have to be ethical at all. I don't want these definitions automatically assigned to me by those personal opinions of others. I wanted the focus of this interview to not be distracted right off by this term.

Lastly, I did not want to offend anyone that does claim the term and take it very personally in who they are and their work. I hope none of this offended anyone in this community. I strongly support this community.

BONELUST Q&A: "How can I become your assistant or do an apprenticeship under you?"

I'm always so humbled to get this question. I love that I got so many of you interested in bone collecting, processing and art but everything done at BoneLust is a one woman show and will likely always stay that way. Not that I don't wish I had little packing gnomes helping me get orders out, but because I'm a very private person, I don't have an actual art studio or storefront.

Everything you see here, happens on my property and in my home. I don't honestly have the time to take on an apprentice right now either. I am already teaching my skills daily at my blog & countless social networking locations. If I ever have a workspace NOT at my home this may all change though!

Best I can do is to continue making educational posts here. In case you don't already know, this is where I share my lifetime of bone processing experience. Priceless info, free of charge. So take advantage of it.

As for learning how to do what I do as far as my art goes, I'm completely self taught. Literally a lifetime of experimenting with different art mediums. You're just going to have to dive right in and get your hands dirty. Experiment. Find what mediums YOU enjoy. Do countless hours of research online for supplies and processes. Create, research, experiment, repeat... again and again and again. This is how I do everything I do, daily. Good luck! Jana

BONELUST Q&A: "I've been macerating bones & they are now a strange color! Are they ruined?"

Maceration is the process of purification to remove the remaining flesh from bone. It is the easiest & least expensive way to do this while still leaving bones in good condition. Note that this process is typically best for animals larger than a rat. Smaller bones can turn to mush during maceration as they themselves start to break down.

To macerate you take your animal remains that have very minimal flesh on them (never a whole animal!), add them to a plastic container & fill with plain tap water then replace the tight fitted lid. The lid is important because you don't want insect larvae in your maceration water only the bacteria that will grow and eat away the flesh. You also don't want to leave it out in the rain without a lid or you'll get algae growing. Insect larvae & algae with both start to break down and possibly even stain the bone.

The more flesh on the remains the longer this process will take. Somewhere around 2 weeks the bones should be coated with a film that's pink, red, rust, brown or black. That's normal & means the bacteria is working to remove the flesh. The bacteria may however be dead now though so time to change the water if still fleshy and start the process again, or time to start peroxide bath if done. Pour out only half on the nasty water and add fresh water to fill the rest of the container if the maceration is not done yet.

These deer bones were covered with a bright red film because they were left for too long in the maceration process, on accident. They were completely flesh free though. Thankfully I just hosed the film right off then started the peroxide step to get rid of the awful smell.

The odd colored film you see on your bones is a residue of the bacteria or the bacteria itself coating the bone. It does this when the water runs out of oxygen for the bacteria to survive. Referred to as the bacteria going anaerobic. This anaerobic bacteria in maceration replaces the microbes that were doing the maceration work of defleshing the bones. And therefore the maceration process has come to a halt.

It can be caused by too many microbes using up all of the oxygen in the water or it can be from an oily film on top of the water that keeps oxygen from entering the water. Some ways to prevent this are - larger quantities of water, changing the water or a bubbler. It commonly happens to marine mammal remains during maceration because of the high oil content in their bones rising to the top of the water.

This is a potbelly pig skull that started off lightly mummified that soaked undisturbed for 2 weeks. The maceration water was still fairly clear and yet the skull was turning black. I've found that when there is little flesh to work with or very old flesh this can happen. Sometimes the black film easily hoses off or goes away once the bone dries. In this case though it took a peroxide bath to remove the black coloration. 

Raccoon bone that was pulled out of maceration. It was dropped into peroxide and pulled out an hour later to show how fast the peroxide can get rid of the staining. It can in most cases happen instantly.

"Before" of diamondback rattlesnake bones straight out of maceration.

"After" of same diamondback rattlesnake bones after a peroxide bath.

The maceration water needs to be kept at a certain temp to work. It will not work in the Winter in most locations because it is too cold for the bacteria to survive. It will also die off if it gets too hot in warmer months. For exact temperatures & more extensive info about this see this blogspot blog.

Good luck!

BONELUST Q&A: "How do I get the bones from this small animal?"

This is one of the smallest skulls in my collection at approx .5" long, from a Carolina Anole. The fact that I have some of these in good condition & complete is quite a task for me.




Give me an entire adult deer & I can process it for the bones no problem. But it is the tiny reptiles, amphibians, rodents, birds & etc that I have the hardest time processing. You can't macerate like you do with medium sized animals (raccoon, opossum, etc) & up (deer, boar, cattle). The bones can literally be eaten up by the bacteria that defleshes larger bones.

You also can't simply let dermestid beetles help with a skeleton this small and forget about it. I tried, and this is all they left me from 8 full lizards. Although I may try that again with a more controlled environment where I watch more closely with fewer beetles.

In the meantime, it comes down to painstakingly slowly & carefully removing the flesh by hand with tweezers & scalpel after rehydrating it with plain water. A very tedious process. Once I myself take the time to master this process I will make a blog about it.

"Stick it on an ant pile!"

I've heard that countless times in reply to "How do I clean these bones/dead animal?" This anole here is literally the 3rd dead animal in 12 years living at my current location that I've seen with any ants feasting on. And there have been a LOT of dead things for ants to eat on my property over the years. I don't have any piles on my property at all. Too swampy here. So I usually see them out on the well drained and dry dirt road like this.



This is a perfect example of how there are so many deciding factors involved in the steps to process a dead animal. A major one being your location. I simply do not have any of the ant species where I currently am that will help remove the flesh from dead animals. So that option is out for me.

Also, the first and last time I ever tried using ants to help me clean remains over 15 years ago, most of my pet snake was taken underground vertebra by vertebra and rib by rib. I even had it in a cage on top of a screen. So it ruined that whole option for me. I really like having much more control of my bone processing.

I understand though that this may work for other people. I've met people swear by it and that's great. But it isn't something that will work for everyone

Whitening Bone Using Hydrogen Peroxide NOT Chlorine Bleach

I recently edited my Bad Words: BOIL & BLEACH post here adding much more extensive info about using hydrogen peroxide (H2O2). Posting it as a new blog with even more info and photos so you guys don't miss this important info.


In the H2O2 bath.


Drying after the H2O2 bath.

NEVER use chlorine bleach on bones.

Chlorine based bleach permanently damages the bone itself. It will start to break down the structure of the bone and will continue to even after it is rinsed and dried. Resulting in chalky, fragile and extremely porous bone that will turn to bone meal with age. Not to mention it turns the bone yellow. Which pretty much defeats the purpose if you are trying to whiten the bone. It may appear white at first but will turn yellow. Once it yellows from bleach there is nothing you can do about it. Believe me, I've tried to salvage yellow bleached skulls before to no avail.



To sanitize and whiten bone use regular household hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) that you can easily and inexpensively get ahold of at the grocery store, dollar store or drugstore. Do a 50/50 bath with water just above the bones in a loose lidded plastic container to reduce evaporation. Oxygen activates the peroxide so you want to let air get to it. But it will evaporate so keep an eye on it and top it off as needed. Also, if you have a tight lid on it pressure may build up and the top literally blows off.


Lids are loose to let oxygen in and pressure out.

How long? Just keep the bones in this bath until they are the color you want them. This is a personal preference. Note that the bone will dry lighter than it looks wet. This process can take days or weeks. Although if you leave it too long it will eventually make the bone brittle. But this usually would take months for medium sized bones like say of a raccoon. This is a very safe process for most bones if you properly follow my steps. When done whitening, rinse the bones in water then lay out to dry in the sun on towels or dry inside with a fan on. I put towels or paper towels under the bones to help pull moisture out. Be sure the bones are dry before you put them in a sealed container for storage or they may mold.


Sun drying bones.

More About Mold

These were bright white cleaned bones. I thought I had left them out to dry long enough but apparently hadn't. I bagged them up in a ziploc and put them in my supply drawer. Only to find some time later that the had become splotched with black mold through the bone core and on the outside. I soaked them for weeks in full strength hydrogen peroxide but they only got this white again. In the closeup on top you can see the actual mold inside the bone. I think the molding also had to do with the bone needing to be degreased more. The mold spread to all bones in the batch though. Those not needing degreasing as well.



These bones had been cleaned and dried but got humid and grew a green fuzzy mold on them. Luckily I just hosed them off and gave them a H2O2 bath and they cleaned up beautifully. So this is a reminder to store bones in a dry place.



Important factors: If your H2O2 bath gets really cloudy you likely need to dump it out and start a new bath. Otherwise it will start to macerate instead. Do not use a metal container with H2O2. Use plastic or glass. Store in a cool dark place. Direct sunlight will eventually deactivate H2O2 that's why it comes in dark containers. Do not do this step outside with no lid. You will just end up with deactivated H2O2, algae and insect larvae all over you bones and you'll have to start over... or the bones may be ruined.


Bubbles is a good sign your H2O2 is still active.

DO NOT use hair developer type peroxide on bones, ever.

There are additional ingredients in it besides H2O2 and it is MUCH stronger than regular corner store purchased H2O2. Which I think is only 3%. I have experimented with this myself and the developer turned huge deer vertebrae to literally mush in my hands. Likewise, do not use the powdered hair bleach packets. The same results will happen. So you've been warned!


Improperly processed vertebrae that turned to mush in my hands.

Algae & Moss Covered Nature Cleaned Bones

Note that some staining will not come out especially if bones were decaying on the forest floor for some time. Remember, you want to be sure the bones have already been degreased and cleaned of all flesh/dirt/etc before putting into the peroxide.



Too late to clean and whiten these bones. After bones have been left in the elements for some time they begin to break down. These bones are now "living" again covered with algae/fungi that is eating it. This is one reason I choose not to do the bury method. If you wait too long bones have already begun to decay. I like processing methods where I can see what is happening to the remains at all times.



BONE PROCESSING BLOG POST WITH TIMELINE:



See the post that goes along with the above photo here -  BONELUST BONE PROCESSING PROGRESS: First Adult Goat Skull processing progression photos & timeline.

For even more extensive info about all the steps I use in processing bones check out the rest of my blog. Enjoy!

BONELUST BONE PROCESSING Q&A: I want to start collecting bones/animal remains but I'm concerned about disease.

What sort of safety precautions do you take while removing flesh from bone?

Good questions that I think not enough beginning bone collectors think about. Well obviously be super sanitary about each step of it. Here are some steps I take to stay sanitary:

Wear a respirator or at least a surgical/dust mask when you have concerns about airborne disease. I always wear high quality well fitted latex gloves when handling any remains until they are completely sanitary AFTER the hydrogen peroxide bath, which is the final step of processing. You can get every size imaginable in boxes of 100 on Amazon.com. You don't want cheap gloves tearing open while you're handling rotting carcasses. If you only have cheap gloves, double up.

Take care not to do processing where you eat or bathe. Every time I see a photo of a skull in a bathroom sink with their toothbrush and glass nearby I cringe. Keep your processing tools separate from your kitchen tools AND wash separate. Yes, these things would seem like common sense but I've seen bone collectors do things you wouldn't believe. Also, do not let your pets drink maceration water, peroxide bath or chew on dead things. I've seen far too many photos where people think this is funny. It can be VERY bad for your pets to do any of these things. Would you let your child drink/chew on these things???

Also, wash your hands/arms, hair and clothes/shoes after possible contamination. After I've gotten myself into some REALLY nasty stuff I put my clothes (shoes included, I wear Chucks so I can) into the wash and take a shower myself. When you're working on maceration tubs or handling dead animals you can expect a certain amount of contamination of your clothes/shoes. Splashback from maceration baths is very common. If you have long hair like me, take care to pull it back and keep it out of the nastiness. Likewise, wash down your processing work area and maceration tubs after use. The only time I use chlorine bleach in relation to bone processing is when I clean out maceration tubs when they get really bad. Although most of the time I let everything sun sanitize. Because I don't want bleach killing off my maceration bacteria colonies. So if you do use bleach rinse VERY well.

When picking up dead animals to process watch out for gases and liquids escaping the body. Which will almost always happen when you move the body. If you don't have latex gloves with you use a plastic bag to handle it and flip it right into that same bag. Don't lay dead animals in your car without a plastic bag or you'll be sorry. That smell will stay around and leave a very unsanitary stain where it laid. Keep hand sanitizer, gloves, and bags in your car so you're always prepared.

I could go on but that covers the basics and a little extra, just use common sense. Stay safe and sanitary friends.

BONELUST BONE PROCESSING PROGRESS: First Adult Goat Skull processing progression photos & timeline.

1) As it started in early March, horn sheaths removed. Added to maceration tub. Some minor flesh and grease present.



2) Removed from maceration and rinsed, mid April. Had been dumped and refilled once with water.



3) Started hydrogen peroxide bath mid April. No grease present or flesh. Only some bone staining.



4) Done and horn sheaths replaced late April. Turned out gorgeous.

RELATED BLOG POSTS:

Bad Words: BOIL & BLEACH

The Mathematics Of Maceration - A HowTo Guide For The Impatient

Whitening Bone Using Hydrogen Peroxide NOT Chlorine Bleach

BONELUST BONE PROCESSING Q&A: What should the remains look like to begin maceration?

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:

The Mathematics Of Maceration - A HowTo Guide For The Impatient

Bad Words: BOIL & BLEACH

A HowTo Guide For My Crock Pot Methods

IMPORTANT EDIT: Too many people are misunderstanding this post and I actually considered deleting it because of the messages I've been getting. This is an absolute LAST RESORT process for LARGE BONES with tough stuck on skin/ligaments only after maceration has already been done. This is NOT for a fast and easy way to clean your remains. You will destroy your bones quickly that way! Especially if they are small/thin. They will crumble in your hands and you will be very sad. I don't want anyone getting mad at me for misunderstanding this post. SO YOU'VE BEEN WARNED! Stick to maceration and be patient. For strong solid bones it take a lot of time, period. I have been processing bones for over 30 years, I know this stuff very well. If you are new at this do not do it.

I've mentioned here previously in my 'Bad Words: BOIL & BLEACH' post that my last resort for removing tough stuck on ligaments, skin and etc from bones is a crock pot. But I didn't really go into much detail. So this is my instructional guide for that.

This crock pot method is one of my own invention. I've never met anyone else that does it. It has worked well for me since the early 90s when I first started using it. I've further mastered it since and figured out other ways to use it for bone processing tasks... and I've used the same trusty crock pot all these years.

DEFLESHING:

When I have a really stuck on flesh mass, ligaments or something similar that maceration has not removed I use the crock pot as a last resort to remove it from the bone. Most of the time it works within hours but in tough cases I've had to leave it overnight or a full 24 hours.

I like to add a metal veggie steamer/strainer to the bottom of the crock pot to minimize the bones/teeth actually touching the hot ceramic pot since it is this extreme heat that can damage them. But if you can find a metal strainer that fits in your crock pot that won't rust, that will work well too.

This method is also a good way to carefully clean smaller more fragile bones that may start to break down during maceration. Put them in a metal screen style tea strainer if they are that small to keep from losing them, or another smaller metal strainer that will fit into the crock pot.

The reason I do this in a crock pot and not stove top is because I like to carefully regulate the temperature. Stove top simmering always seems to eventually boil. The lowest setting on my crock pot never boils. I've discussed why boiling bones is bad in my 'Bad Words: BOIL & BLEACH' post.

I fill the crock pot with water well above the bone and put it on low and replace the lid. Being sure to top off the water as it evaporates. Best part is that there is nothing to do. You just put your bones into the crock pot and go do something else. Just like when you use it to cook dinner.



Vultures had literally just pulled the outer skin off this opossum so I decided to do a slow simmer in the crock pot instead of maceration. This worked very quickly with the flesh still so fresh/soft.

There's really not much of a need to add anything to the water. The slow constant heat alone will get the toughest dried on mummified skin off of anything. Often overnight. Sometimes I pour out what has cooked off overnight, add new water and start again... if it is something really fleshy like a mummified head.



These turtle skulls started off whole mummified heads before I added them to the crock pot. The process is so gentle that even the keratin sheaths (or rhamphotheca) that covers the upper and lower turtles jaws were unharmed.

DEGREASING:

If the bones seem very greasy I just add a little dish soap to the water and it helps the natural fats out of the bone and rise to the top. That's the only additive I've ever put in the water with the bones. But grease will still come out of the bone without you even adding soap to the water! This is why I say to add water well above the top of  the bones you've added to the crock pot. The grease will float to the top where you can easily spoon it out of the water.



These partial coyote skulls were quite visibly greasy so I put them in the crock pot overnight with some dish soap.



The next morning a good amount of grease was at the top of the water.



To easily remove the grease from the crock pot so it doesn't get back onto the skulls when removing them I just scooped it out with a spoon. Doesn't get any easier than that. Remember as I discussed previously in my post 'Bad Words: BOIL & BLEACH' that boiling bone will draw the grease further inside the bone. So don't do that to remove the natural fats in animal remains.

SOFTENING BONE TO REMOVE TEETH:

Another thing I use the crock pot for it to soften bone so that it is easier for me to remove teeth. This worked well for these wild boar mandible fragments.

The bone became soft enough after a couple days for me to use pliers and wrenches to carefully smash and break the mandible apart and extract the teeth.



Much more about this at my 'Extracting Teeth From Bone' blog post.

My crock pot method works beautifully. Very low maintenance. Rarely any need to scrub anything from the bones afterwords. I've never even had any need to find another method. I do wish though that crock pots came MUCH LARGER...haha

I hope you enjoy my HowTo blog posts. For most of the time I've been collecting and processing bones the internet was not yet around and this info was not commonly found in books either. So I've had over 30 years of trial and error figuring out these things on my own. I decided to save everyone some time that comes across my blog and let them in on a few of my trade secrets. And hopefully keep some bones from being destroyed in the process.

The Mathematics Of Maceration - A HowTo Guide For The Patient

I am constantly being asked how long maceration takes and replying "There is no set equation". So I thought it was time for this blog post for some clarification.

It takes as long as it takes. There are a lot of factors that can change the amount of time from start to finish. Time of year, location, size of remains, amount of remains, type of remains, how much flesh/hide is on remains, etc.

Maceration is my preferred method of cleaning bones of flesh, ligaments, soil, etc. It is one of the most gentle methods to use if you want strong, solid bones as the end result. It is literally a form of rotting or putrefaction. Where bacteria removes proteins from the bone. Simply by putting the carcass remains into a sealed container of water.

But it also takes patience. Lots of it. Here are images to explain.



Be safe, be sanitary! I always wear latex gloves when handling the early unsanitary steps of bone processing. Likewise, I prefer to wear a respirator when switching out maceration baths and pulling off tough stuck on skin and hide. That way I can work with it more slowly and carefully rather than rushing it because of the smell.


(click for larger image)

First Image - Nature/insect cleaned deer and wild boar bones with minimal amount of flesh/ligaments/etc. Added to maceration tub. Was filled to the top with water. Then tight fitted lid was replaced. You don't want any big chunks of flesh or pieces of hide/fur/feathers in your maceration tub. Try to remove as much as you can before you begin this process.

Second Image (top) - 3 weeks later the water in the tub was a rusty brown color. This is a good thing. Means the bacteria are doing their work to remove the fleshy bits. Water was NOT switched out that entire time. Sometimes I prefer to switch out the water now and then as it gets cloudy... say once ever other week. Depends on what I have soaking and time of year. As the oils rise to the top of the water and flesh falls off to the bottom, the water will become incredibly nasty/smelly. As it does, pour it out and replace with new clean water. The rule is that once the water is clear, you're done.

When it is colder it slows down the process. It will work best if kept in a warm location. I've read that maceration works best between 35°C/95°F and 50°C/122°F. I'm located in Florida so I can just leave my big maceration tubs sealed outside year round. The process just really slows down through the Winter.

Third Image (bottom) - There are still some meaty bits on the bone and some of the vertebrae were still attached. So not done yet. Threw them back into the bucket and added water and lid again. Takes as long as it takes. Bone processing takes patience. If you are impatient get several projects going in rotation at once. I usually have all stages of the bone cleaning process going at all time. If you are always messing with the bones or worst, cooking them because you're impatient... you are likely damaging them. True story.

Here's another maceration batch example image:



I left this similar batch of bones soaking for at least a month without switching out the water once. It wasn't planned, I was just busy and forgot. The water had turned this amazing blood red color. The bones rinsed off quite nicely and didn't need to macerate any longer.

They did however smell pretty awful. So I put them into a fresh batch of water with some dish soap to help get rid of the smell and to further degrease the bones. Larger bones like these deer/wild boar pieces take a bit more time to degrease. Some animals also seem to have more grease saturated into their bones.

Next step is to sanitize and whiten. Remember, do NOT use chlorine bleach, only hydrogen peroxide. Check out my blog post Bad Words: BLEACH & BOIL for more bone processing HowTo info about this.

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PRECAUTIONS ABOUT MACERATION ADDITIVES

Some people do use cleaning agents/detergents in their maceration baths to accelerate softening of the flesh and/or encourage grease to come out of the bones. However, I do not. In my experience adding anything manmade to the mix is only chancing weakening the bones. So the below info is just for informational purposes. I do not endorse any of these products.

Sal soda (sodium carbonate) is a water softener that some people use to accelerate softening of the flesh.

Biz is an enzyme-based bleach. Which makes me hesitant to use it personally. But I've had others tell me it works for them.

Oxiclean is a detergent and bleaching agent. I was told it does NOT work very well. Not only did it not get the fatty residue off of the bones but it also DISSOLVED some entire bones!

Borax (sodium tetraborate) is a laundry booster and will turn your bones to mush. So do not use it!

Vinegar will literally turn your bones rubbery. You don't ever want to use it in any step of processing.

The way maceration works is that living bacteria is in the water removing the flesh from the bone. If you put any sort of additional chemical or soap in the water that would likely kill bacteria rather than promote their growth. That just seems counteractive to me.

If you read through the maceration HowTo guide of one of today's biggest bone companies that specializes in selling high quality bones, you'll see they just use water. Nothing more. That to me says all I need to know. See for yourself, here is The Bone Room.

I'll just close with that thought.

Bad Words: BOIL & BLEACH

'I continually hear the words 'bleach" and 'boil' come up in topics involving bone processing. Which is exactly where they should never be.

Keep in mind first of all, there is no one way to process animal remains to get the bones. My blog posts here are just my opinion from my own personal experience. I've been collecting bones for 33 years now and I still learn new things all the time. Best way for you to learn is from your own experience.



There are two standard rules of what NOT to do:

1) NEVER boil bones.

I think the word 'boil' pops up a lot because of one bone process called the European skull boil method. Which is very poorly named. You want your water to simmer, not boil.

Boiling causes fat to soak into the bone. Leaving you with a greasy and yellowish bone. Some grease can be removed with ammonia and certain industrial solvents but they cannot remove deep grease. I absolutely NEVER use any harsh additives, cleaners, solvents in my bone processing. In my experience the more unnatural processes you put the bones through the greater than chances you are lowering the quality of them.

So instead to degrease you want to put your bones in a bath of water and dish soap. Some people swear by Dawn, I've honestly never even used it. I find the generic works just fine. The grease will slowly come out of the bone and float to the top for you to scoop off. This is a slow process which can take weeks or even months.

Boiling can also weaken and break bone that has already started to decay. Turning smaller bones to mush, causing fragile bones like those in the nasal cavity to fall out and often cracking enamel off of teeth. So instead, slow simmer if you must. If you see bubbles, your water is too hot. Though, I personally only use this method as a last resort to remove tough ligaments and hard dried on flesh. I rarely do it on the stove top because I like to carefully regulate the temperature. Though sometime for things such as large skulls I have to.


Large wild boar skull doing a quick simmer to clean before peroxide bath.

I normally use a crock pot, which larger bones won't fit in. I fill it with water well above the bone and put it on low. Being sure to top off the water as it evaporates. This crock pot method is one of my own invention. I've never met anyone else that does it. It has worked well for me since the early 90s when I first started using it. When I have a really stuck on flesh mass, ligaments or something similar I use the crock pot as a last resort. Most of the time it works within hours but in tough cases I've had to leave it overnight. Also, another trick I like to use is to add a metal veggie steamer/strainer to the bottom of the crock pot to minimize the bones/teeth actually touching the hot ceramic pot.


Vultures had literally just pulled the outer skin off this opossum so I decided to do a slow simmer in the crock pot instead of maceration. This worked very quickly with the flesh still so fresh/soft.

2) NEVER use chlorine bleach on bones.

Chlorine based bleach permanently damages the bone itself. It will start to break down the structure of the bone and will continue to even after it is rinsed and dried. Resulting in chalky, fragile and extremely porous bone that will turn to bone meal with age. Not to mention it turns the bone yellow. Which pretty much defeats the purpose if you are trying to whiten the bone. Once it yellows from bleach there is nothing you can do about it. Believe me, I've tried to salvage yellow bleached skulls before to no avail.

To sanitize and whiten bone use regular household hydrogen peroxide (H2O2) that you can easily and inexpensively get ahold of at the grocery store, dollar store or drugstore. Do a 50/50 bath with water just above the bones in a loose lidded plastic container to reduce evaporation. Oxygen activates the peroxide so you want to let air get to it. But it will evaporate so keep an eye on it and top it off as needed. Also, if you have a tight lid on it pressure may build up and the top literally blows off.

How long? Just keep the bones in this bath until they are the color you want them. This is a personal preference. Note that the bone will dry lighter than it looks wet. This process can take days or weeks. Although if you leave it too long it will eventually make the bone brittle. But this usually would take months for medium sized bones like say of a raccoon. This is a very safe process for most bones if you properly follow my steps. When done whitening, rinse the bones in water then lay out to dry in the sun on towels or dry inside with a fan on. I put towels or paper towels under the bones to help pull moisture out. Be sure the bones are dry before you put them in a sealed container for storage or they may mold.


Important factors: If your H2O2 bath gets really cloudy you likely need to dump it out and start a new bath. Otherwise it will start to macerate instead. Do not use a metal container with H2O2. Use plastic or glass. Store in a cool dark place. Direct sunlight will eventually deactivate H2O2 that's why it comes in dark containers. Do not do this step outside with no lid. You will just end up with deactivated H2O2, algae and insect larvae all over you bones and you'll have to start over... or the bones may be ruined.

DO NOT use hair developer type peroxide on bones, ever. There are additional ingredients in it besides H2O2 and it is MUCH stronger than regular H2O2. Which I think is only 3%. I have experimented with this myself and the developer turned huge deer vertebrae to literally mush in my hands. Likewise, do not use the powdered hair bleach packets. The same results will happen. So you've been warned!

Note that some staining will not come out especially if bones were decaying on the forest floor for some time. Remember, you want to be sure the bones have already been degreased and cleaned of all flesh/dirt/etc before putting into the peroxide.


Too late to clean and whiten these bones. After bones have been left in the elements for some time they begin to break down. These bones are now "living" again covered with algae/fungi that is eating it. This is one reason I choose not to do the bury method. If you wait too long bones have already begun to decay. I like processing methods where I can see what is happening to the remains at all times.

To deflesh bones you have a number of options but I use two processes the most:

A) Nature Cleaning (some call it Range Cleaning like as in cows dying out in the pasture and left there to decay) - Put the animal remains in a cage and leave outside so that the insects, rain and sun can do their job.


One of many carrion insects - the American Carrion Beetle, Necrophila americana.

You want it in a cage so that scavengers won't run off with limbs. You want to be sure to do this. Believe me, even insects have taken off with my bones in the past. Sometimes I also add a thin screen under the bottom of the bone cage to catch any really small bones that fall off.


Wild boar head, jaw and tail in cage mounted to tree.


Nature cleaned deer remains, ready to macerate.

B) Maceration - Try to remove as much loose fur/flesh as you can by hand. Don't yank it it, that can break the bones! If it is really dry you may be able to cut off parts with scissors. Then put the animal remains in plastic lidded container fully immersing it in water. This is rotting process. Involving the living bacteria that break down the flesh on the bones. As the oils rise to the top of the water and flesh falls off the water will become nasty/smelly. As it does, pour it out and replace with new clean water. Repeat this process until all you are left with is bone. Note, maceration greatly slows in cold/er weather because the bacteria die off.


Freshly macerated and rinsed bones, ready to sanitize and whiten.

This will be very putrid smelling process as you can imagine rotting flesh is. I advise wearing laytex gloves when handling these remains until it is sanitized in the final step. I also wear a respirator if it is exceptionally bad.



IN REVIEW - ORDER OF BONE PROCESSING STEPS:

A) CLEAN - Either nature clean or macerate your remains. I often use a combination of the two. Letting nature do as much as it can for me then I macerate the rest. Also, if after I macerate and find I still have stubborn remains not coming off of the bones I use my crock pot method.


Maceration bucket refreshing with wild boar, deer and cattle bones soaking.

B) DEGREASE - This is really a personal preference. Some people like their bones grease free or only partly degreased. Some don't bother with this step at all. It varies for me from bone to bone and what they'll be used for. Bones found in the woods or out in a pasture rarely have much grease left in them. Some people like to leave their bones outside in a sunny spot where the rain and sun will naturally degrease them. I can tell by the sound and weight of a bone much of the time how much grease is still in it. You learn this over time.

C) SANITIZE & WHITEN - Do the 50/50 bath with water and hydrogen peroxide until desired color. Some people like their bones brown and stained. But remember if you are going to be handling them and especially if you are going to be selling them as jewelry, in art or for collections you don't want your anyone getting sick! At least let the bones soak for a day. If you see a lot of bubbling when you drop the bones into the bath they are still very unsanitary.

Speaking of sanitary, I shouldn't have to say this but I've heard of some people mixing their bone processing tools with their kitchen items. No, no, noooo! Do you want to get sick? I always keep my foodstuffs and bone processing tools, containers and such separate. I don't even wash them together. Be smart.

And come on people, don't let your pets chew on your bones or drink the maceration water. Seriously. Would you let your children?!?

Lastly, all of these processes take time. You must have patience if you want strong, properly cleaned and sanitized bones. I've found many people just don't have the patience for processing themselves and buy them instead. Or maybe they don't have a strong stomach...haha

I hope this was helpful!

Here is an additional HowTo blog post about maceration - The Mathematics Of Maceration - A HowTo Guide For The Impatient