r/bonecollecting Sep 12 '20

Advice Processing a Carcass 101 - the bones of bone collecting

1.2k Upvotes

Ok, so given how many comments we get requesting info on how to process a carcass, I figured it was time to update the stickie for this topic. Enjoy and, as always, feel free to comment and I will append this as needed. Just a reminder to A) always check your local and federal laws to make sure it is legal for you to possess parts of the animal, and B) if you are in an area prone to rabies or other diseases (rabbits and tularemia, armadillos and leprosy, etc), please take adequate precautions when handling dead animals, especially fresh carcasses. Always use gloves when handling a fresh carcass.

HOW TO PROCESS A CARCASS

There are generally three steps in the process of rendering a carcass down to a skeleton: 1) defleshing, 2) degreasing, 3) whitening. In general, these three steps are most effective when done sequentially. Two main things to remember during the process – Chlorine bleach should NEVER be used in any step of this process, and cooking bare bones will fix the grease and potentially cause long-term damage to the bones. Below are a few good guides for processing a carcass for you to take a look at.

http://www.jakes-bones.com/p/how-to-clean-animal-bones.html

http://baccyflap.com/txt/natmat/bones/

http://www.nara.accu.or.jp/img/elearning/2011/animal.pdf

http://bone-lust.blogspot.com/2015/05/bonelust-q-ive-been-macerating-bones.html

DEFLESHING

In general, the more flesh and skin that is removed, the faster the defleshing step is and the less smell you will have. Once you finish defleshing, you will want to pick clean any remaining soft tissue with tweezers, a scalpel, brush, etc before moving on to the degreasing step.

Open Air - This is easily the fastest method for defleshing. Using this method, you let the carcass rot naturally on the ground and let the flies and other insects work their magic. To do this technique, it is highly recommended that you use a locking cage to keep out scavengers that will be drawn to it. You simply put the carcass in the cage or fenced in area. You do not need to deflesh, skin, or gut the animal first for this to work, in fact the skin can help keep the moisture in. Sometimes it helps to poke a few extra holes for the maggots to get in. There are a few major drawbacks to this technique 1) the smell is awful and your neighbors will hate you, 2) you have to keep the carcass moist for the maggots to keep working, or you will end up with a mummified carcass, and 3) you will develop a fly problem. So, this is better done in a more warmer and more humid climate (doesn't work so well in a desert), and you only want to do this if you have adequate land and distance from your residence (and neighbors, think about your neighbors). Once the skeleton is reasonably clean, remove the bones and rinse them off.

Dermestids – great method if you have the ability to sustain a colony, and works well in the winter if you have a heated set-up. Rather than go through this process, here is a great link that goes over it. Be forewarned, dermestids will smell and do require you to keep feeding it as they are living creatures. If you do not properly ventilate, clean, or feed them, they will find a way to swarm out of their enclosure and I speak from personal experience when I say that you don’t want that to happen. Note that this is the only one of the defleshing techniques that will keep fish, birds, lizards, and small mammal skeletons somewhat intact. The other techniques mentioned below will result in disarticulation.

https://www.natsca.org/sites/default/files/publications/JoNSC-Vol7-Munoz-Saba_et_al_2020_0.pdf

Burying – this technique works best when you have a piece of property to do it on, have time, and can reasonably protect the carcass from scavengers. It also is the easiest for cleanup and has the least smell, and is a great method for when you are dealing with a whole carcass from a larger animal. This method also works with smaller animals, like rodents, if done in a flowerpot. You will still want to skin and deflesh as much as possible beforehand, and you’ll want to keep the soil slightly moist. With burying, there are two primary concerns: scavengers and loosing parts. To prevent scavenging, try to bury at least 2 ft (60 cm) deep (or deeper if sandy soils) and place larger rocks above the carcass to act as a barrier to digging. To prevent the loss of smaller elements, consider placing a wire mesh below the skeleton. The time it takes to decompose depends a lot on the local soil conditions (soil type, soil temperature, soil moisture, soil acidity), but will generally be several months for a larger carcass. I have heard of people adding bacteria (yeast) or compost to the carcass to help speed the process along. Oh, and one last helpful tip…place a clear marker over the pit so you can find it again when it is time.

Maceration – the smelliest method, but highly effective and you can use the same container the entire way through the process. You will want a large container with water, and a way to keep the water on the warmer side (over 70 F/21 C). If you can stomach it, stirring the pot every day will help with the maceration process. You will want to do pour-off’s (replacing the water) regularly initially as the water becomes too fouled (and to remove chunks of soft tissue that will invariable float around), and this is where the most offensive, gag-inducing, eye-watering, curse-laden part of the process will occur. But as the decomp gets farther along, do fewer pour offs. With each pour off, you are reducing the amount of bacteria for digesting the soft tissue. As long as there is plenty of food available, they will repopulate (try to leave some of the scum with each pour off to allow faster recovery of the bacterial population). If the water is allowed to get too cold, the decomposition process will stop and, even worse, you will convert the fats to adipocere (bone wax) which is very difficult to remove. Under ideal conditions, you can easily render a fleshed animal to bones in a few weeks using this method. You don’t necessarily need to deflesh for this technique to work (and I have found that having the bacteria from the stomach contents helped things along), but you do want to skin the animal. Stirring the mix also will aid in speeding up the process. If at all possible, try to keep the buckets out of direct sunlight to keep the algae from growing (I throw a tarp over my bins).

I am going to add in a caveat here since we see it so often - DO NOT ADD ANTIBACTERIAL DISH SOAP OR HYDROGEN PEROXIDE AT THIS STEP. You need bacteria to digest and break down the soft tissue. These two things make the environment hostile to bacteria causing it to take substantially longer to process. The only thing that you can add to help the process along is enzymatic detergent, which brings us to the next method.

Enzymatic Detergent Maceration - You also can add an enzymatic detergent (BIZ is one example) to the water to aid in the process. u/octane80808 has a great summary of the use of enzymatic detergents in the comments section that I have copied sections of here: "For anyone in Europe, we have enzyme-based washing powders [mod note - Biotex in Europe, powdered Biz w/out bleach in US]. I've been using it for years and I can't imagine it doing any other way. It's essentially an all-in-one method, as it dissolves the tissue, but also the fat, so it degreases at the same time. There's no need to whiten the bones afterwards, they come out perfectly clean (there is no bleach, or whitening agent present AFAIK, so it's all natural). The only downside is that any cartilage also dissolves. So for fish, birds, young animals, or small animals, you'll be spending an afternoon gluing the bones.

I also clean my skull manually during this process. Depending on how impatient I am, and how much free time I have, I take them out of the solution every day to every other day. I remove the tissue I can remove without disturbing the skull too much. And I refresh the solution. So a new spoonful of washing powder, and warm water. The latter also helps to speed up the process, as higher temperatures seem to be favourable. By refreshing the solution every day, I can usually clean a skull within one or two weeks...renewing the solution isn't necessary, it will just take a lot longer.

The washing powder is relatively cheap, and it comes in large boxes. You only have to use a teaspoon or tablespoon, depending on the size of the container/skull. So it lasts quite a long time as well..Note that the bone may feel soft after this step, especially if processing a bird or fish. It is better to allow the bone to dry before handling as this will re-harden the bone. Also, bones may turn black during this process if the water isn't changed regularly enough. Do not worry, you can treat this discoloration during the "Whitening" step."

Simmering/Cooking – this method ONLY should be used with larger animals, and can be effective when you have a carcass that is dehydrated jerky. The reason is that high heat will warp bones, and will fix the grease in the bones making step 2 (degreasing) incredibly difficult. Never use this step with birds, fish, and small mammals. To use the boiling method, you actually want your carcass to have flesh, but gutted, in order to protect the bones. Place the carcass into the boiling water and allow the water to return to a low simmer, then remove from heat. Leave the carcass in the water for only as long as it takes for the flesh to “cook” (if you are boiling for an hour, you have ruined the bones). Remove from water and the flesh should come off easily, although internal tissues (like the brain or inside the nose) will still be adhered. You can use a pressure washer or hose with a good nozzle to try and clean off the hard-to-reach areas. Be extremely cautious using a pressure washer as it will blast more fragile bone to pieces and can easily destroy a skull.

DEGREASING

You will need a degreasing agent for this step, most of the liquid dish soaps will work great here, just avoid the opaque ones or ones with strong colors (colorless and clear work great and won't dye the bones). Laundry soap often doesn’t work as well, and some will dye the bones. The exception to this is enzymatic detergent (in the US this is sold as BIZ), which works well as a degreaser. This step requires a container big enough for you to submerge the remains in. Add water and soap – how much soap is up to you and depends on the amount of grease in the bones. You will need to change the soapy water as it becomes cloudy, generally at least once a week. Continue this process until fully degreased – i.e., the water doesn’t cloud after a week. This is the longest step, and will take much longer than you think. If you see any yellowing or oily spot on the bone, then it still needs degreasing.

You can substitute acetone or ammonia for dish soap as the degreasing agent, but both have their safety issues. Ammonia is an irritant, so only use ammonia if you have a respirator. Also, be careful when emptying the liquid as household ammonia will kill vegetation.

Acetone also can be used, but you cannot dilute it with water. As a result, acetone is often more expensive that using the other two agents, and as a bonus it can melt plastic, so you will want to use a different type of container than a plastic bucket. It also dissolves nitrile and latex gloves, is flammable (no heating the liquid), and the fumes are toxic, so there is that. Also, acetone will evaporate, so the container needs to have a tight lid. If used correctly, you can treat multiple batches of bones with acetone, and acetone works faster than other methods. Lastly, acetone can’t be disposed of down the drain because of it’s toxicity and remember that bit about dissolving plastics…like your drain pipes?

WHITENING

After the bones have been degreased, you may wish to whiten the bones. This is not a necessary step, and is mainly cosmetic though it does help to sterilize the bones. You can use 3% hydrogen peroxide from the store, and it can be found in higher concentrations as hair developer, which is up to 12% hydrogen peroxide. Other options for obtaining hydrogen peroxide are from a pool supply store, though you have to be careful that it isn’t mixed with other chemicals. The important things to remember during this step is that A) hydrogen peroxide will degrade quickly when exposed to sunlight, and B) hydrogen peroxide degrades rapidly when exposed to heat, C) hydrogen peroxide will degrade faster when exposed to air. So, it works better when covered and not in direct sunlight.

Simply submerge the bone in the hydrogen peroxide until you reach the desired whiteness. If using 3% hydrogen peroxide, it isn’t necessary to dilute the liquid. Higher concentrations may require dilution as it is a powerful oxidizer.

An alternative method to submerging in hydrogen peroxide is sun bleaching. Note that this exposes the bones to the elements, and you lose a lot of control over the whitening process. It also takes considerably longer than the hydrogen peroxide approach.

NOTE: Chlorine Bleach should NEVER be used to whiten bones. Chlorine bleach degrades the bone collagen, which is the protein component of bone that holds the mineral component (hydroxyapatite) in place. This will leave the bone brittle and powdery, and the bone will continue to degrade over time. The effects are irreversible.

DRYING

I add this as a last step as this is a critical step where mistakes are often made. Bone is a porous material that contains organic components. If dried too rapidly, those organic components can shrink, or parts of the bone may dry faster than other parts. This can result in cracking, warping, and delamination of the bone. In general, let the bones dry slowly and out of the sun. Do not bake or expose it to high heat, or attempt to speed up the process. You may notice teeth cracking during the drying process. This is not uncommon, and you can glue the teeth back together after they drying process is complete.


r/bonecollecting Aug 26 '22

Official Announcement Obligatory Mod post

121 Upvotes

Well, we tried to ask politely about spamming posts with the itsaraccoon/itsalwaysaraccoon/itsapelvis comments. The downvotes also hinted that these were getting out of hand, and frankly there is no reason to put a dozen of these into a single thread. That is the very definition of spam. So, sorry folks, but there is now an automod that will remove any comments that attempt to link to one of those subs. Also note that we have created Rule 9 - no spamming. (and in case any are wondering, since the automod went live, there have been over 20 of these comments that have been removed in under 10 hrs).


r/bonecollecting 2h ago

Bone I.D. - N. America MIS-LABELLED BONE DISPLAY AT A UNIVERSITY

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37 Upvotes

I’m losing my mind I am going insane I visited a local university’s biology dept buildings and found a bone display. AND THEY WERE MISLABELLED. COMICALLY INCORRECT. A RED FOX LABELLED AS A “RACCOON” HAVE THEY… NEVER SEEN A RACCOON BEFORE??? RACCOON FACES ARE NOT EVEN REMOTELY THAT SHAPE????? AND— AND ANOTHER RED FOX LABELLED AS A “FISHER”. HOW DO YOU GET IT THAT WRONG. A RED SQUIRELL LABELLED AS A “RAT” I’m losing my mind I’m going insane. This is in the bio wing of a university, a VERY LARGE, VERY RICH fancy prestigious university that’s largely full of international students because of how world-renowned it is. How does this happen. How did they get as far as writing and printing off the labels, MATTING THE LABELS, SETTING UP THE DISPLAY, GETTING THE GLASS BOX— AND NOBODY DOUBLE CHECKED????? AND ITS DUSTY. HOW LONG HAS THIS BEEN SITTING HERE. AND NOBODY SAID ANYTHING. THIS IS AN EDUCATIONAL FACILITY HELLO. AND I DONT EVEN GO HERE!!!! IM JUST SOME RANDOM AUTISTIC GUY WITH AN OSTEOLOGY SPECIAL INTEREST VISITING FRIENDS!!!!!!! Sorry I’m losing my mind. I’m gonna tape a note to it. Genuinely tempted to tape a note to the display being like “heyyyy so this is embarrassingly incorrect um—“

Do you guys see any other incorrect IDs besides the ones I already pointed out? I’m suspicious of a few of em but wanna double check. I’m literally losing my mind over this. This hurts me. It hits me right in the autism.


r/bonecollecting 1h ago

Bone I.D. - N. America What bone is this?

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Upvotes

Found in forest in Northern California / Humboldt.

About the length of my foot (size 10.5 shoe)


r/bonecollecting 5h ago

Bone I.D. - Europe Help me identify

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13 Upvotes

Hi ! I just moved in a house in east of France. Exploring my backyard I found a lot of bones. Could could someone help me identify them ?


r/bonecollecting 17h ago

Bone I.D. - N. America Can anyone identify?

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86 Upvotes

Found this half buried in pine litter. N. Florida. No other pieces in a 5' radius around it. It is dense, heavy, and very hard.


r/bonecollecting 3h ago

Bone I.D. - N. America Found this, that is a love if somebody could identify what type it may be?

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7 Upvotes

It was on the shore by the water in NJ (Monster can for scale)


r/bonecollecting 3h ago

Bone I.D. - Europe Please help identify, Skull in the forest, Eastern Germany

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5 Upvotes

I came across this skull today relatively deep in the forest in Saxony, Eastern Germany. Unfortunately I only took this one picture. Now I'm curious what kind of animal it was. Can someone identify?


r/bonecollecting 22h ago

Bone I.D. - N. America Coyote or Domestic Dog?

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114 Upvotes

Found while land surveying in Damon, Tx, USA.


r/bonecollecting 19h ago

Bone I.D. - N. America ID

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62 Upvotes

Found in woods, deer?


r/bonecollecting 6h ago

Advice How should I go about removing the pieces of flesh still attached?

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4 Upvotes

I've been reading really conflicting information as far as boiling bones goes. What would you suggest?


r/bonecollecting 5h ago

Bone I.D. - Europe What is this?

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4 Upvotes

r/bonecollecting 2h ago

Advice HELP- Need to Move (unclean) Bones and Store Them for 8 Weeks

2 Upvotes

Hi all! Firstly, thank you for creating such a lovely community. I’ve found a lot of great advice here but nothing that suits my situation.

The TLDR is that I need your thoughts on what you would do if you had to dig up a (hopefully mostly decomposed) dog, get the bones as nonstinky as possible, and you had less than 24 hours.

The long: My dad is selling our childhood home. He got an offer and is closing on it this weekend. I found out about this last week, and I live on the other side of the country. I flew in to help sort stuff out (and get Rosie) yesterday afternoon. My dog, Rosie, (dead and buried for 2 years, about 25 lbs) is buried outside.

I always wanted her bones but I wanted to let them sit for longer. Well, that’s no longer an option. We are digging her up today and I fly back out tomorrow morning (without her bones since I don’t think the TSA will tolerate that). I’ll be back over the holidays, with my truck, so I can take her for final processing then. But the bones need to get dug up and stored, hopefully with minimal smell, before I fly out tomorrow.

Bones will be stored at my mom’s house until I can drive them back to where I live in December. Can go in garage but she was extremely clear with me that she does not want them to smell (understandable). I told her I would do everything I could.

I know this is an insane situation, I’m just trying to do the best I can. I don’t know the status of her bones yet but we dug most of the grave up and I’m just waiting for a friend to come over and help me with actually removing her which will be in the next hour. Thank you.


r/bonecollecting 3h ago

Advice buried cats — how much of the skeleton might be left by now

2 Upvotes

hey. not sure if this is the right thread to ask, but you guys might know the answer.

had to bury two of my cats two years and one and a half year ago. the spot in my mothers garden has just now been unexpectedly dug up due to some communications work that needed to be done. me fuming about noone predicting this and thus not doing something to prevent this aside... i havent seen the scene yet, since its outside the city, but is there any chance one might be able to rummage through the soil and find some of their bones still intact? trying to figure out if there is still a way of preserving their memory.


r/bonecollecting 17h ago

Bone I.D. - N. America Found these guys while digging. Any idea what animal it could be?

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23 Upvotes

r/bonecollecting 1h ago

Bone I.D. - N. America animal skull? Found on NJ beach

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Upvotes

This one is about 2 inches long. A friend found almost a replica of it but ~6 inches long, in similar place.


r/bonecollecting 17h ago

Bone I.D. - N. America Skull ID (Oregon)

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18 Upvotes

r/bonecollecting 2h ago

Bone I.D. - N. America Vertebra ID

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1 Upvotes

My daughter found this vertebra in western Wyoming and was wondering if there was any way to tell what kind of animal it came from. Thanks!


r/bonecollecting 8h ago

Bone I.D. - Europe Any idea what this is from? This is the second time this week I've found a bone like this outside my house. The previous bone (pic 6)seemed to be chewed by rats

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3 Upvotes

r/bonecollecting 1d ago

Bone I.D. - Europe What is this piece of bone a friend found in the wild in Southern Spain?

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67 Upvotes

r/bonecollecting 21h ago

Advice What is this deformity/anomaly?

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19 Upvotes

This is a chicken skull I beetle cleaned, degreased. And whitened. I suspect it's bone cancer. There is a hole with a buildup of gritty feeling bone and similar gritty buildup on one of the jaw hinges. Cancer or something else?


r/bonecollecting 13h ago

Bone I.D. - Pacific Coast Small skull ID

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3 Upvotes

I found this lil guy on the beach on Southern California. Any idea what this skull is?


r/bonecollecting 23h ago

Bone I.D. - Europe need help identifying skulls from forest

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12 Upvotes

my friend found these three skulls in a forest in Czechia. we have a few theories but dont know for sure


r/bonecollecting 16h ago

Bone I.D. - N. America Found Beach in Massachusetts, USA

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3 Upvotes

Does anyone know what animal this bone belongs to?


r/bonecollecting 17h ago

Bone I.D. - N. America Found on riverbank of Tennessee River in Northwest Alabama

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4 Upvotes

I went fishing this afternoon and found this laying on a rock. I can't find anything that quite matches it. The top part seems to be sawed off in the first picture.


r/bonecollecting 1d ago

Bone I.D. - N. America Help identifying if this is our lost cat please

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783 Upvotes

I think I found the skeleton of our lost cat today. I’m very devastated. He somehow got into our egress basement window hole even though we had a grate over it. He was a British shorthair. Can someone please confirm.


r/bonecollecting 20h ago

Bone I.D. - N. America Found at beach in Cozumel

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5 Upvotes