u/Wowza_Meowza

Working on a bunch of larger wets, including these two. Just-born failure to survive lamb and a hit by car kitten, skull crushed (no chip, advertised, no owner).

The lamb was freezer burned around the face, so I dipped her in water + ammonia and it helped plump a lot. The eyes were like paper, so I replaced with plain black marble-sized ones so her face wasn't sunken. I also eviscerated her to keep her a little lighter, and preserved her organs. She's sewn back up (90%, so fluid can still move in the cavity). She was really muddy and got quite a bath. She's speckled 💕

The kitten... bruh. She was reported to me as hit by a car nearby and was still warm when I found her. 🫩 She didn't suffer. The strike crushed her face/head/jaw (the pic) and you can see the lower jaw out of place, the upper canines out of line, and the molars a quarter inch too low. I replaced her eyes (they were... out) and have her head wrapped in polypropylene plastic to keep shape as she formalin-fixes. I opted to eviscerate her and fix her organs, sewed her back up, again to lighten her since the jar will be heavy. There was no impact damage to anywhere but her head.

I fuckin' hate cat roadkill. So unnecessary. Spay and neuter, and keep them inside :,c

My formalin is pretty discolored, so I'll have pics once they're finished and in isopropyl. Can't really see them right now. They're both in 2 gal jars.

Can't recall what these are from following maceration + degreasing. High likelihood of domestic cat, raccoon, or even a woodchuck (roadkill). Location: NY, USA

Sorry for no true scale. Can't find a ruler for the LIFE of me. Chapstick it is :,)

I know it's not articulated right - it's just put on the wire to keep track of the pieces for now (not drilled).

(Any cats that I find are chip scanned, advertised widely as found deceased, and vets/shelters alerted.)

I bought a bunch of beetled coyote skulls a while back and to my horror, they came with ALL OF THE TEETH LOOSE

A A A A A A A

😭 Now that they're degreased, I'm having the time of my life (/s) sorting them and adding them back in.

It's miserable.

If they weren't so cheap, I'd be furious, but they were a steal so I guess this is my comeuppance somehow.

Normally I degrease each skull individually in an organza bag, but the beetler had all the teeth in a sack 🫩 The discolored ones will get drilled and return to degrease.

My back hurts lol

I do a LOT of wet specimens, hides, and bone cleaning. If/when a critter comes in that needs skinning or evisceration, I keep the bits and formalin-fix 'em.

This has led to many many jars of... bits 😅

This one has a lot of rabbit bits, mostly.

What will I do with it? No idea. I sell parsed out versions sometimes, but for right now, it's just an unsettling jar of organs LOLLL

Individual bits or small jars of bits tend to freak out even my customers, which says a lot 🥹

I had a few formalin-fixed (wet specimen) black mice that had mind slippage exclusively on their stomach fur. I didn't notice the slippage until they were fixed, which stinks. They soaked out in isopropyl for approx 5 months+.

I had this happen on a batch of large feeder mice a while back with severe slippage, and used their heads, feet, tails, and major organs, and had the rest incinerated via hazardous waste collection.

Since these guys are a lot smaller, I'm gonna experiment with them to see how well they mummify.

So far, a while in, they're drying very nicely. They look just like these pics, just dry and harder. Their poses are mostly how they fixed in the formalin (now inflexible) so their positioning just leans into what already worked for them.

We'll see how it goes!

Note: Formalin off-gasses for weeks to months on dry specimens. It is not a recommended means of preserving for mummification! Formalin off-gassing can make you ill!!

These guys will off-gas in a well-ventilated area for multiple months before I do anything with them, other than check their progress.

The mice were a "gift" (I guess?) from a client after doing some work for them - they raise feeder rodents. The large white mice mentioned were feeder mice that were wayyy too big for my snake (likely shipped the wrong ones).

Finished this little fella up and found him darling. Formalin-fixed.

Little guy passed along with part of the litter from a horrendous heat snap a while ago. It was sweltering, especially for our area, and sudden.

The isopropyl level is a bit low because it's coming with me to an in-person vending event tomorrow.

NFS.

I recently did a set of Everclear-mummified rabbit heads for a client. They have a range of expressions from "smiling" to "pensive" to an alert look.

It was kinda hard to balance the look for a "smile" vs a snarl or grimace in a critter with so much space between its front and back teeth.

They were neat to do, but I've decided no more mummies in summertime. The humidity and weather in general has been super odd this year and the humidity frequently out of control (93%++). We're getting tornadoes, even, which is very rare here. (I crey)

Winter mummies it is going forward, lol! 😅

TL;DR-- 2018 Impreza wagon, base. Car came back from shop, wires a fuckt. What's going on?

I picked my car up from a local, reputable shop after getting new struts and my hood latch + the cable for it repaired. Drove it maybe 15 miles (yesterday) in total, drove fine.

Went to start it today and it had a violent, sputtering start. The battery and check ensuing light came on. It's flashing "A 8836" mi above the total mileage on the dash. The MPG average on my clock dash is now blank.

These wires weren't like this when I sent the car in. I don't necessarily think it was them, but the timing is weird. There's no new rodent activity that I can see in there - there's a bit of leaves from an old nest when I trapped a mouse 6 months ago.

3rd pic is an extremely clean looking snip.

4th pic is what I noticed first- it's got a garbled piece of plastic wrapping on it. Doesn't look chewed so much as almost.. fried?

Any insight? I'm mortified. I had to get new tires, new struts, and the hood fixed and this is sending me spiraling. Idk if this is even realistically fixable. ;_;

I took on a client who requested mummified rabbit heads to craft with. They came out nice!

De-brained, tongue and eyes made into wet specimens. Dehydrated in Everclear, then dried in silica.

These were meat rabbits. They had one bad day, lived a good life, and 99% of them was used, minus the guts! This breed is born black and becomes silver-grey as they grow out.

NFS

Skinned this subadult roadkill gal today. She was about 16-18" long (I have it written down somewhere lol) so rather small.

Does anyone have recs for mannikin poses for a little guy like this? I've seen a few out there that fit the bill size-wise, but I'm not sure what pose would look good on a summer coat, young, female (slight of frame). No impressive coat or huge floof tail on this mount lol 💕

Images have been desaturated because they're very bloody and I figure it's easier on the eyes.

I found this road kill lass and was super surprised how fresh she was-- still in rigor! And today was very cool. No flies yet, even.

I took her back to skin her. A bit annoying while stiff but it wore off.

I'm tanning the hide (possibly will be mountable? Unsure), removed the eyes/tongue/liver/kidneys/heart/lungs for wet specimens, and will process the bones.

Very cute little gal. She had an intense, but healing, 3" laceration under her chin. Her belly was full of berries and such. Hate to see them hit at this age - so much potential. Darn.

She died from a hit to the hip/groin region. Her colon was ruptured and had pretty intense internal bleeding. One of the kidneys was lacerated.

Little guy came in as a pet preservation. He passed on a warm rock from his heat lamps, so his groin area was very yucky looking.

I posed him as holding his tail to avoid it being visible, and it came out really cute! I secured the tails and limbs with thick polypropylene from bags, which fixed into place after injection and soaking.

He stays in place without the jar as well (last pic).

He's going home soon. 💕

I was commissioned to do little Jason here as a wet specimen. He was an older fella.

His carers found him deceased quickly, but he passed on a warm surface with heat lamps, which caused his cloaca and groin area to be disfigured and look really rough. (Censored cause tbh it's just gore)

In response, I fixed him in formalin "hugging" his little tail, which made the issue much less visible.

He's currently in a distilled water bath and will go into isopropyl, then he's back off to his family.

Be advised of a new rule in the sub:

No AI-generated or heavily-manipulated-by-AI content.

Those who post AI-based content are subject to:
- the content being removed
- a 3 day minimum mute
- potentially a ban, especially if a repeat offender

If you see AI-generated content posted, please use the report feature.

Note: Posts from before August 25, 2026 are not subject to this rule.

This rule comes from a vote in r/skulls that ended on August 24, 2026 in favor of banning AI-generated and heavily-manipulated content.

Hi all,

In an overwhelming vote, AI-generated and heavily AI-manipulated content will be banned from r/skulls, effective today, August 25, 2026.

Those found posting AI-generated or heavily-manipulated content will find:

- the post or comment removed
- muted for a minimum of 3 days
- potentially banned, especially if a repeat offender

If you see AI-generated or heavily-manipulated content posted, please use the report feature. The rule for this which allows reporting will be made shortly.

I request that if you're reporting for suspected AI that isn't extremely obvious, please consider giving your reasonings for such as a comment or in the report. I'm pretty good at spotting AI, but sometimes miss it.

Note: This rule does not apply to things like background removers, "auto edits" that automatically enhance a photo (found on iPhone, for example), and similar, as these typically do not heavily change the photo to an unrecognizable degree. Some are also not AI-based.

Users found abusing the report function for AI on non-AI posts will be muted or banned. Yes, I can figure out who you are if you do this.

Thank you to everyone who voted in the poll and took part in our community.

For those who make and sell tiaras/crowns-- how do you display yours in a way that's not just flat on the table?

I had a bunch of materials left over and have been making simple bone and crystal tiaras. Nothing fancy pants, but I'd like to display them more vertically.

I do taxidermy/oddities, and the critters didn't die for this purpose.

This is a reminder to vote in the sub poll on if we should allow or disallow AI-generated posts in this sub.

I am reposting like this as the post may be stickied, but a lot of people ignore it/don't see it at the top of the sub (me included, tbh).

Link to the poll: https://www.reddit.com/r/skulls/s/DzvgjGDLio

Common Questions:

Q: Why not just make it a rule, you're the mod.
A: True, but you're the community and I want your input. That's important to me.

Q: When does voting end?
A: 8/24/26

Q: What would disallowing it include?
A: AI-generated or heavily-modified content like photos and bot-text. For example, fake pictures, pictures deeply and obviously edited by AI in a way that's misleading.

It would not include background removers which sometimes use AI. It also wouldn't include (and we probably wouldn't really know) mild AI touch-ups (like many "magic edit" options) like lighting and similar, if they do not make an image so altered it is drastically changed or misleading.

Q: If disallowed, could we report it?
A: Yes, it would be actionable. Be aware, though, that AI can sometimes be hard to spot, and I am only human and have to review. Giving compelling evidence (scanning for a Synth ID, noticing AI gibberish in pics, etc) would help me for stuff that's less obvious.

I had a few imperfect skulls floating around and felt zesty, so I affixed some crystals to them. They were kinda fun to do!

The skulls had cracks and such (roadkill) which made for nice anchor points.

The amethyst chips I have aren't very "chippy" and have round edges, which aren't my fave. But I like the little pop of color they give.

A background remover was used in this pic.