Anyone know how to clean a deer skull?

[tombombadil]

i found a deer skull ....it's mostly decomposed but it still ha bits of fur and tissue. I heard boiling can crack it.
any ideas how i can clean it?

the following image is fairly gross:

Spoiler:

[The_Carpenter]

well they boil flesh off bones in shows like Bones.

But I believe you could use maggots or some other bug to eat the flesh off the bone...

[shipper hannah]

Eeeewwwwwwwww

[The Prophet]

"Deer" Skull

It's all a façade!

This PDF has suggests boiling, with occasional bleaching.

Now I'm an accomplice to murder. xD

[Skydiver]

'boil' may be a misnomer, not a rolling boil per se, but immersion in near boiling water to 'cook' off the bits and pieces

you may want to do this outisde cause i can't imagine that it'll smell good. nor would you wnat to do this in a treasured cooking pot.

boiling is the best way that i know of

look in the phone book for a taxidermist - which is a dying art by the way - they may be able to give you some pointers

[Callista]

I have a skull that looks remarkably like that in my back yard. My cousin found it on the side of the road probably twenty years ago. He thought it was a cow skull, but maybe it's a deer?

Do you have a big back yard and lots of sun? Because if you do, I'd guess you could just leave it out as far away from your house as possible and let nature get to work on it. It may take a while, and I suppose a dog or a coyote or something similar might just carry it off, but that's probably the simplest route if you're not in a big hurry.

[tombombadil]

'boil' may be a misnomer, not a rolling boil per se, but immersion in near boiling water to 'cook' off the bits and pieces

you may want to do this outisde cause i can't imagine that it'll smell good. nor would you wnat to do this in a treasured cooking pot.

boiling is the best way that i know of

look in the phone book for a taxidermist - which is a dying art by the way - they may be able to give you some pointers

this sounds like the easiest way to go......thanks sky.

[tombombadil]

when i'm all done cleaning it, i'll post pics of a nice clean skull for you all.

[rlr149]

............taxidermist - which is a dying art by the way

any tips on how to finish it off?

[tombombadil]

any tips on how to finish it off?

why would you want to?

[rlr149]

why would you want to?

as far as natural history reasons, no prob at all, having dead things in your house................. ever hear of ed gein?

[Skydiver]

google how to preserve it

i don't know if you can shellac bone or if that will discolor it

LIke someone said, just letting it sit outside in the full sun will kinda work too. although you do have the skull full of brains and that'll take a while to decompose/disappear

also, if you just 'leave it out' you run the risk of a scavenger taking a liking to it and it getting damages.

Last summer there was a cat corpse on the way to work and over the course of the summer it decomposed until, after a month or four, it was just dry boneand some remnants of fur. dunno where the skull went though.

I'd stick with the 'cooking it off' because i've heard of that a lot, not only in historical documents - the details of which i'm not going into - but also it's been done on CSI. the coroner boiled the bones clean

[Skydiver]

google is your friend

http://www.wildlifenews.alaska.gov/i...27&issue_id=11

http://www.hidetanning.net/SkullCleaning.html

http://www.texasbowhuntingrecords.com/id380.htm

for tips on preserving it, i'd google 'preserving an animal skull' and see what comes up

[tombombadil]

google how to preserve it

i don't know if you can shellac bone or if that will discolor it

LIke someone said, just letting it sit outside in the full sun will kinda work too. although you do have the skull full of brains and that'll take a while to decompose/disappear

also, if you just 'leave it out' you run the risk of a scavenger taking a liking to it and it getting damages.

Last summer there was a cat corpse on the way to work and over the course of the summer it decomposed until, after a month or four, it was just dry boneand some remnants of fur. dunno where the skull went though.

I'd stick with the 'cooking it off' because i've heard of that a lot, not only in historical documents - the details of which i'm not going into - but also it's been done on CSI. the coroner boiled the bones clean

there are no brains in it, twas difficult to check, but there aren't

perhaps i shall boil then

[WingedPegasus]

i found a deer skull ....it's mostly decomposed but it still ha bits of fur and tissue. I heard boiling can crack it.
any ideas how i can clean it?

the following image is fairly gross:
http://i533.photobucket.com/albums/e...t/DSC07619.jpg

. . . cool.