Well many of you know that I keep dermestid beetles, I use them to clean heads mainly but the opportunity came about to obtain a full grown adult female ball python that had died. I got her a few months ago, to prepare her I skinned her out and removed all the internal organs then refroze her. The freezing process removes more moisture and we weren’t certain of the cause of death so better safe than sorry.

I thawed her out a couple of weeks ago and dried her for 2 days; she dried a lot faster than any of the skulls in the past.

I will not show every single picture that I took due to bandwidth but I will give you an every other day look at a single section.

As of right now the ribs have all separated from the spine and sections of the spine were coming apart. I took her out and fished an 8lb fishing line through the spine and have her soaking right now. I am going to finish separating each of the spinal sections and put her back in with the beetles in a few days to finish the cleaning. As for the ribs they are going to go back with the rest of the snake to the previous owner so they can reassemble the jigsaw.

I also chose not to bleach her out as of yet, the chemicals are very strong and I know they are going to be worked with by younger kids so for my own sanity I would rather not have to worry about some strange reaction from chemical residue and whatever glue they decide to use.

I tried it out this time to see how it would go and am more than willing to do work with people who have recently had a snake/lizard pass. The end display and full use of an animal after death appeals highly to a lot of people out there. PM or email me for more information.

On with the pictures, the fras in the bottom of the container can not be removed ever, full of small larva and the welded wire was used only for my attempt to keep as many pieces in place as long as possible.

This is what inspired my thinking, what I saw last year at the Tinley Park NARBC show.
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l37/ChandlerReptiles/Tinley%2008/GaboonViper.jpg
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l37/ChandlerReptiles/Tinley%2008/GaboonViper1.jpg

Day two of drying
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l37/ChandlerReptiles/Beetles/Snake/day2dried2.jpg

First full day with the beetles
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l37/ChandlerReptiles/Beetles/Snake/Beetlesday1-2.jpg

Day 3
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l37/ChandlerReptiles/Beetles/Snake/Beetlesday3-2.jpg

Day 5
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l37/ChandlerReptiles/Beetles/Snake/BeetlesDay5-2.jpg

Day 7
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l37/ChandlerReptiles/Beetles/Snake/BeetlesDay7-2.jpg

Day 9 (I started noticing ribs falling off at this point)
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l37/ChandlerReptiles/Beetles/Snake/Beetlesday9-2.jpg

Day 11
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l37/ChandlerReptiles/Beetles/Snake/BeetlesDay11-2.jpg

Day 13 (today)
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l37/ChandlerReptiles/Beetles/Snake/BeetlesDay13-9.jpg
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l37/ChandlerReptiles/Beetles/Snake/BeetlesDay13-5.jpg
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l37/ChandlerReptiles/Beetles/Snake/BeetlesDay13-11.jpg

Questions, comments welcome.

:lol: Looka that pile of rib bones. That's gonna make a heck of a jig saw puzzle for somebody. The whole process is really very interesting Jeff. Make sure you post the finished product.

:lol: Looka that pile of rib bones. That's gonna make a heck of a jig saw puzzle for somebody. The whole process is really very interesting Jeff. Make sure you post the finished product.

Will do, the only other picture that will come from me will be in a few days once I finish with the spine. I will pass along the other pics in a few months after they have a chance to reassemble.

thats cool and a lot of work i cant wait to see it done wow

Very cool!! I would love to have one of the displays like you saw at the NARBC...

Alan

WOW Jeff that looks amazing! Does beetles work fast.

nice chan !
gotta feelin' people are gonna be sendin' you some cadavers...
ck

More than willing to work something out with anyone now that I know what is involved with them, it was very fast and really cool to watch them work since it is a serious change from day to day.

If you want dead specimans to work with, please let me know. I have a couple in the freezer. I wouldn't have anyplace to display the finished project anyway, but if want it for you, or to sell when you're done with it, I have a couple.
I'm going to get xrays done of these two kinked babies I had to euthanize, and that might be really neat to see the spine in a xray so we can see exactly how the kinking distorts the spine in severe kinking.
Very very cool, them beetles must be hungry little bugs!

That is a cool pic series & those beetles are fast to devour like that

Oh man that is disgusting:) Thanks for the warning.

If you want dead specimans to work with, please let me know. I have a couple in the freezer. I wouldn't have anyplace to display the finished project anyway, but if want it for you, or to sell when you're done with it, I have a couple.
I'm going to get xrays done of these two kinked babies I had to euthanize, and that might be really neat to see the spine in a xray so we can see exactly how the kinking distorts the spine in severe kinking.
Very very cool, them beetles must be hungry little bugs!

PM sent, thanks!

Very cool, Jeff. I see some neat displays in your future.

That's cool to see....Those beetles really cleaned that off quick

That's really cool Jeff.

WOW ,That's crazy they're like little pirahna..I think it was at Daytona there was a vendor that had a set up with mice like a Glatiator type thing was pretty cool.
JL

Very cool process. Would pull my hair out trying to assemble though.

Another cool project there Jeff :) I'd love to try that someday, I've always been fascinated by that type of thing!

That went alot faster than I would've thought! Cool project, Jeff!

Crazy project. I wonder if there is anyway to keep the ribs in some kind of order.....I did that as a project with a chicken in 7th grade.

This is actually really cool.

Ive always wanted to do something like this, just havent got the balls to stomach the smell...LOL

Thanks everyone, Pat the smell is only bad if you do it wrong...like I did the first time, Jenea I have some tricks for the next time to try out now that I know the end result...we'll see sometime here in the future, JL Phil sent that picture of that display...crazy but I'm not writing it off yet.

Man those beetles are wicked little creatures. They don't leave much do they

cool pics its neat to see it all striped off like that

Cool pics Jeff!
Those beetles are bad as#!.....:rockon:

Thanks guys, they are done now...giving it a few days of drying and then it will hit the mail. Here is the skull. The teeth are just cool to me :rockon:
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l37/ChandlerReptiles/Beetles/Snake/Skull2.jpg
http://i92.photobucket.com/albums/l37/ChandlerReptiles/Beetles/Snake/Skull4.jpg

That is a cool skull

So gross and intriguing at the same time! Thats very fast. That skull is wicked looking!!:devil:

Those are some great shots of the skull. Love the teeth too.

that's wicked cool, i hope the recipient can do the right thing by it.
ck

way cool, I've always wanted to try this as well. How are they going to attach the ribs and other bones to the vertebra?

Crazy looking!! Who knew balls had such wicked looking teeth!

Crazy looking!! Who knew balls had such wicked looking teeth!

I was thinking the same thing....They are packing more then I gave them credit for :yessir:

Thanks everyone!

way cool, I've always wanted to try this as well. How are they going to attach the ribs and other bones to the vertebra?

I have read alot about it and it seems almost any glue would work for the ribs, even elmers glue if you have the time to hold it until it was dry.

Me personally I would find a nice quick drying hobby glue to attach them then touch up with some bone white spray paint from one of the taxidermy sites.

As far as the spine I was thinking that a nice wire that could slide into the spinal column and bend where you want it to would work great.

I just hope I have all the ribs to send back. I dug through the frass as much as I could and didn't find any more but some of them near the head and the tail were tiny!

Hopefully we will get an updated picture or pictures as they work on reassembly.

very cool project Jeff

Teeth shot looks cool... now lets see some people pics before and after....

I read through the post but could find the answer.

Where exactly are you sending this? To a Taxidermy place?

Thanks Michele and Scott no before pics except for the skinned pics.

I read through the post but could find the answer.

Where exactly are you sending this? To a Taxidermy place?

This is going to a member here, they chose not to be known for right now....maybe after they reassemble it they will let me post some pictures and people can guess who it was.

Oh ok cool. I was just wondering. Ive always been interested in Taxidermy.

Cool project fo sho. Caint wait to see the outcome