Removing the skeleton from a three inch dead lizard cleanly without breaking any bones...
Asked by
delirium (
13718
)
December 11th, 2008
Any clues on how to go about doing this? Part of me thinks that boiling it for an obscenely long time could help, but the other part of me has its doubts and worries that the bones would get soft/lost. I want all the bits. I am intending to put it back together with tweezers and super glue so I can have a tiny lizard skeleton reference.
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27 Answers
Are you in any rush to have the skeleton?
If not, just bury it and let it naturally decompose.
Agree on the whole idea that boiling it for a long time
would probably make all of the small bones break down.
Uhhh. What?
Why not just buy the skeleton?
Just stick it in a shallow bowl and leave it on the porch for awhile. Then boil and clean up as necessary. That’s what I would do.
Ant hills work wonders, although something that small and delicate may get damaged. Maybe inside some sort of mesh cage so the bones don’t get dragged away?
(My sister cleans bird bones in ant hills all the time.)
A Tupperware full of bugs would do it over time, otherwise boiling & then bleach?
Asmonet: Because it means a lot to me to do it myself.
syz: That’s an excellent idea. Though we’re talking about an anole, so I can’t think of a mesh small enough to prevent the ants from dragging bones off but still letting them in.
Pupn: I’ll ring up my bug guy friend, and see if he has anything available that could do this. I worry that he won’t, though.
Thank you so much, syz. Sadly the first link didn’t work. But everything else was perfect.
Serious <3ing going on here. I recently had to kill this little guy out of mercy, and I want to keep him around, but in a different form.
(try it again, it should be fixed now)
The last link mentions using small fish. This seems like the most possible right now. I know someone who is raising african cichlids and has some hatchlings… I might be able to convince him to let me have them help.
Do you think that there’s any particular zoonotic diseases between fish and anoles? My father had a theory that a lung fungus killed the little guy.
Ooh, he also has hissing cockroaches. That could be interesting.
Most diseases are pretty species-specific. My guess would be that you’ll be safe from anything jumping from reptile to fish. But it’s just a guess.
(My partner would divorce me if I brought home hissing cockroaches. She’s definitely phobic.)
Well, I hope so. I’d feel really bad for killing his fish. Especially after he trusted me with his BP on Halloween.
Thank you again, i’ll prance off and ask him. Yay!
Hey that sounds cool! Good luck!!!
Cool is better than “WHAT THE HELL IS WRONG WITH YOU?! Your pet died and now you’re trying to flay it and mount it?!”
This question/thread is way cool.
Keep us updated on how it turns out!
I’d like to know the roots of your dad’s theory. How does one diagnose lung fungus in a three inch lizard. I’m picturing a tiny stethoscope.
Here are some suggestions for preserving your friend, after the cleaning process:
Quick and easy: Clear Silicone molding material, if you haven’t had any experience with resins.
If you have, TAP Plastics is a good site for material.
Sorry for your loss.
Breed: Lurve for tiny stethoscope.
Knot: Lurve for Tap Plastics.
lurve for lurve! it’s a vicious cycle
Sorry for your loss, make sure to let us know how it works out, I kinda like the idea :)
ANTS! I have done it many times. Let them do your work.
Mmmm. I <3 tap plastics. I was actually intending to use gloss medium on the bones to seal the periostium (sp) and leave it at that.
Dad’s theory came from the way it died. At the end it was gasping for air about once a minute, while lying on its back in a bowl of warm water and unable to open its eyes.
Very interesting.
Also, don’t worry about the loss. I wasn’t too attached. More interested and curious, at this point.
Ah, just curious. Good luck with your skelly. :)
Let us know how it turns out!
I ended up having to feed it to a starving snakey who wouldn’t take anything else. :(
“It’s the cirrrr-cle oo-of liiiiife…”
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