Sep 6, 2025
I just picked up this beautiful tin bed tray and I love it so much!
seen from Chile
seen from Russia
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from Israel
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from United States
seen from Russia
seen from United States
seen from Chile
seen from Bangladesh
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from Malaysia
seen from United States
seen from Yemen
seen from China
seen from United States
seen from Yemen
I just picked up this beautiful tin bed tray and I love it so much!
Oxidized baby skunk skeleton! Natural death from a rescue.
Juvenile Striped Skunk Skull
A fun before and after set of the skunk skull's teeth - left side after burial and right side after further cleaning. I took pictures of the incisors after excavating to make it easier to put them back into place after cleaning and I'm so glad I did! If I didn't know how wonky the bottom teeth were I would've driven myself crazy trying to get them straight like the top teeth!
The skunk spent about 2 weeks degreasing and cleaned up very well! Juvenile skeletons usually aren't very greasy but the warm soapy water still helped clean away the dirt and fur. Now onto a peroxide bath!
And the skunk is officially done with cleaning! I love this progression - top photo after whitening, bottom left after degreasing, and bottom right after burial. Can't wait to lay him all out and see if I'm missing anything!
Sorting through the skunk skeleton, which unfortunately still smells a little skunky! It looks like I'm missing one toe bone, possibly a tail bone or two, likely some other tiny bones from carpals/tarsals/etc... I couldn't go through it all today but I'll definitely be going back through the decomp remnants to see if I can find any missing bits.
I found this nice little storage container at the dollar store and it's perfect to keep this guy a bit more organized until I'm ready to dive into articulating. With not many other bone projects to work on now I'm sure I'll be pulling him out again soon!
A little late on posting my weekly manure decomp update, I did check it on Thursday but couldn't get around to posting. The squirrel has made a little bit of progress but shockingly after just 4 days, the skunk was cleaned to the bone! Warning for pictures and a little video of the dead skunk!
Top photo is from last Monday and bottom is on Thursday. I can't believe it took just four days buried in the manure pile to get this guy so clean! I think the secret was the disgusting amount of maggots in his screen tomb - he was likely dead for a day or two before I found him, giving flies plenty of time to lay their eggs and they hatched and thrived in the manure pile. By contrast the squirrel has no bug activity since he went straight from my dog's mouth to the manure pile, and he's still quite meaty after 2 weeks.
There was just the tiniest amount of skin left in some places like the paws and luckily I managed to save all 20 claw sheaths! The video below shows what lies underneath the remaining fur, everything was seriously cleaned to the bone! I think I have to give credit to the maggots for this cleaning, but burying in the manure pile definitely helped mask the smell and sight of them at work. I put him back in the manure pile to clean up the last little bits so hopefully next week I'll start to work on the skeleton.