Put a few coyote skulls together

fratri

fratri

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SW Ontario
These skulls are from last season’s downed coyotes…..
Lots of ways to do them but this is how I do mine…
I remove the skull/head from the animal after it is skinned.
Place the skull/head in a bucket of water (I don’t even remove any flesh)
Place the bucket in a farmer’s field far away from any residence as the weather warms it is going to stink
Come late summer all the meat will have been eaten clean from bugs/bacteria
Remove the skull from the really smelly bucket of rotten water (where old garage clothes and long dish washing gloves as the stink will stick to clothes and skin)
Be careful to catch all the teeth as they will have fallen out

Place the skull/teeth and lower jaws (as they fell apart too) into a bucket of clean water with joy dish soap as this will help degrease and remove the terrible smell.
Leave them in the dish soap for a couple days (scrubbing them periodically with a tooth brush as this will remove any leftover debris and stink)

After a couple of days in the joy soap, dry off the skull, glue the lower jaw back together and start inserting the teeth back in. I usually just use white glue (that dries clear) to glue the jaw and teeth together.

Once all teeth are in and dry, I paint brush a light coat of Hydrogen Peroxide (20 volume I picked up at Shoppers)
I let put 3-4 coats of hydrogen peroxide allowing the previous coat to dry first (roughly 12 hrs intervals)
The more coats you put on the brighter/whiter they get. ( I think I got about 5 more to go…lol)




 
:pNice job... But now what do you do with the skulls? I suggest stacking a few on clear plastic shelves in a clear plastic cat scratching post. At the top a little flag that says "I win" for kitty. 8)
 
I would not be able to convince my wife to allow skulls in our house. She would think it's creepy, "a little too Dahmer", lol. I like it though. Looks awesome and good for you if you have a place to display them.

It's much more than the coyote deserves in my opinion. He should have his flesh picked clean by crows and his bones eaten by mice.
 
So much hate for Mr.Coyote here...lol I think they are amazing creatures, there's not alot of places in NA that a coyote cant move in on and thrive. They are a very resilient creature.

Cheers!!
 
...nice...very nice...nothing creepy about wildlife bones...make nice bookends for a hunting library shelf...

(ps - is that YOU putting that smelly bucket in my field!?)

...around here if i put out a skull like that it'd disappear for sure from all our scavengers...dinner bell for bears...
 
Nicely done skulls!

I don't know where you get them, but those beetles that are used to by museums to clean flesh off of bones would save a lot of time and stink. Maybe Google can find a source.
 
I leave them in the freezer until I'm ready to deal with them. I boil them and all the meat will eventually come off. If you don't boil them too long then the teeth won't fall out and I use 40 weight peroxide that you can get if you know a hair dresser. A quick coat of shellac and away you go.
Nice job.
 
Big Bad said:
I don't know where you get them, but those beetles that are used to by museums to clean flesh off of bones would save a lot of time and stink. Maybe Google can find a source.
Click to expand...

Dermestid beetles. I've looked into it just a little bit and they are a process all unto themselves. They suggest starting your own colony before throwing a skull into the mix. Feeding them raw hamburger and misting the colony for a few weeks before introducing a skull. A well developed colony can clean a buffalo skull in 48 hours. You have to watch the process because the beetles dont stop at flesh and will eat the bone after awhile.
 
BigRhino said:
Dermestid beetles. I've looked into it just a little bit and they are a process all unto themselves. They suggest starting your own colony before throwing a skull into the mix. Feeding them raw hamburger and misting the colony for a few weeks before introducing a skull. A well developed colony can clean a buffalo skull in 48 hours. You have to watch the process because the beetles dont stop at flesh and will eat the bone after awhile.
Click to expand...

I looked them up and I see them in the wild the odd time, chomping on dead things, they have the suitably creepy double skull thing on their wingcases.
 
Here's my thoughts on the matter--there's 3 ways to get the meat off the bones--beetles, boiling and maceration (soaking in water). I have done all 3--boiling is fastest--well simmering actually but it is prolly the easiest way to wreck a skull also. Maceration I think is the best way to do it but it requires time. Beetles do a really good job but they are problematic--they work really well if you are set-up for them and you intend to do a lot of skulls. Beetles are not a lot of work to look after but they can cause you some major headaches--they are commonly called carpet beetles and for good reason if you get them into your house--and it is really hard to keep them out of your house if you routinely go near them.

Once the meat is off you then have to de-grease--soak it in dish soap and water. Deer skull takes a few days--a bear skull could take months.

Then you whiten--Javex or Chlorine bleach will whiten really quickly and then turn the bone to dust in short order. Peroxide is better but, depending on the strength, will also weaken the bone.

Here's a little trick--brush the peroxide on the de-greased skull and let it dry in bright sunlight--that really whitens them up.
 
I prefer boiling mine, just lightly enough to get the meat off. Tried the ant hill method and ended up with a sorry discolored mess, hard to clean up. Two wolves and the coyote.

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Heres my European coyote mount. I boiled it and then used the bucket of water method.I soaked it in 39%H2o2 I grabbed at the local flower shop. I put this pic of the yote under the plexi glass to remind me of that day. The wife thinks its creepy as hell. Happy hunting!



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