u/Wowza_Meowza

I had an entire lot of wet specimen mice fail due to slippage from being not in great shape as a feeders.

I chose to snip the heads, feet, and tails. I added eyes after the fact and expected them to look poor given they're 1) formalin fixed (in place) and 2), the eyes were still there, but they ended up good!

The eyelids had just enough give to them to pull and tuck.

Not sure what I'll use em for (I have lots lol!) but they're neat. Normally I either mummify or tan + mount so these were a weird middle ground.

All but the duck feet need to off-gas given they were formalin-fixed. The duck feet were soaked a couple months in 190 proof ethanol then dried while pinned.

I had an entire lot of wet specimen mice fail due to slippage from being not in great shape as a feeders.

I chose to snip the heads, feet, and tails. I added eyes after the fact and expected them to look poor given they're 1) formalin fixed (in place) and 2), the eyes were still there, but they ended up good!

The eyelids had just enough give to them to pull and tuck.

Left is a fluffed pelt, right is not. Not sure what I'll use em for (I have dozens lol!) but they're neat. Normally I either mummify or tan + mount so these were a weird middle ground.

Fetal*, stupid autocorrect!

Despite having bridges out of each maceration bucket, this field mouse died in one. Not sure when but it's been very cool (30-50'F) and she was in moderately good shape. They're not covered because they've popped/exploded with lids in the past. These are our "early/initial" maceration buckets with the most flesh on. Buckets farther along not prone to bursting do have lids.

(Graphic)-- I figured I'd macerate her and given she was soaked, pulled her slipping fur off. I must have pulled rather hard and she opened due to gas buildup. Surprisingly, these fetal mice were intact!

Not graphic* -- I removed the placentas and have them in alcohol to see if they're salvageable. I'm unsure given the mother was starting to macerate, but why not. If they hold up, I'm thinking of making them into wet specimen pendants.

Note: isopropyl doesn't preserve stuff unless it's teeny tiny or small bugs! This wouldn't work on large stuff!

My husband was given a cookie from Shelly's Cookies earlier this week at work and yall. They're TASTY.

He went to a popup that had them today and yooooooo still great! Nice and soft, really good royal icing, all that.

They sell them in a few places I think, including Trumansburg, and are based out of Interlaken. They do baked goods like pies and stuff too apparently.

I've got no connection to them but felt compelled to share this tasty little shop!!

I was putting teeth back into degreased skulls and found these two- a coyote and a raccoon- with some neat dental issues.

The coyote's missing tooth had healed over pretty well. It was missing a few of its P1 teeth which are the little first teeth behind the canines. They were healed over too.

The raccoon's teeth were a messssss. The canines were worn and broken and a bunch of the molars were deeply worn. The circled spot still had a tooth but it was so loose it wouldn't stay out unless superglued back. That molar was snapped but the roots intact!

Background: I had an entire lot of wet specimen mice fail due to fur slippage. They were feeder mice I accidentally got too large for my snake, so I figured I'd fix them. Unfortunately, they were not in good enough shape from frozen and despite being properly formalin-fixed and soaked, lost all their fur. Because of this, I decided to harvest the feet, heads, and tails since the pelts were awful.

Then these little guys! I wanted to see if the organs of the sub-par feeders were in bad shape. Spoiler- they were (bloated, distended, but fixed!), at least for wet specimen standards. My snake would've been fine if they'd been fed from frozen and thawed, sure, but as far as sellable quality for wets? Nah.

To my surprise, one of the mice was pregnant. There were three little dudes still with their placentas. They're really cute.

I'm not sure what I'll do with them just yet. Something interesting, maybe a wearable! These are fixed as well, like the mother's organs were.