Dermestids cleaning female panther time lapse (sort of)

gpmo

gpmo

New Member
Hi all,

It has been awhile since we have posted, things have been crazy lately. Sadly we lost one of your female panthers recently, and we decided to immortalize her by articulating her skeleton. The first step is cleaning the bones. We considered many different options and decided that dermestid beetles would be the safest and the most interesting. We also thought documenting the procedure would be interesting.


placement into colony
photo(1).jpg

18 hours later
photo(2).jpg


The Mo's
 
I have actually wanted to do this myself with pets that have passed on, but I wouldn't be able to actually be the one to clean the bones I don't think.
 
It has been forever since you have been on! I have missed you both. I think what you are doing it really interesting. I am a wimp, I hated just doing a necropsy. I will be waiting to see it finished.

What chams are you keeping now?
 
Huh. I thought derms were that big. Wonder what i got... Mine look the same as yours, but are only 1/4" long full grown. They still do the same thing of hollowing out dead husks.
 
Hiya Laurie :) we missed you too! Things have been really busy, I graduated in May and started an ER internship so my hours have been crazy! We only have one female panther and a male veiled right now, we lost Angus last month (He was almost 6) and the little girl with MBD in November :( How are all your little ones?


Nightanole: the last instar lavae in our colony are pretty big but the adult beetles are just a bit over 1/4 inch :)
 
gpmo said:
Hiya Laurie :) we missed you too! Things have been really busy, I graduated in May and started an ER internship so my hours have been crazy! We only have one female panther and a male veiled right now, we lost Angus last month (He was almost 6) and the little girl with MBD in November :( How are all your little ones?


I am just ahead of you. I have 3 quads. I have brought my world down to quads. Who know what any of us like what cham? All I can say is I am a quad person. finally just gave up and admitted it to myself. But I bred a week ago so in just 7 short months:(:(:(:(:(, ok very, very, very long months, I may see babies.
Click to expand...
 
today at 3:30 pm

These are from today, things are starting to go quickly. I expect the skeleton will be clean in the next 2-3 days.

photo(5).jpg

photo(6).jpg
 
This grosses me out, but my morbid curiosity is getting the best of me. I'll keep checking back in... :eek:
 
chameleoman said:
what do you do after you got the skeleton?
Click to expand...

The plan is to articulate and mount the skeleton once it is clean. There is a really amazing thread with prepared skeletons on the forum somewhere but I don't remember the title off the top of my head.
 
That is really interesting. I was planning on doing this to one of mine, but I didn't think I would be able to put the pieces back together (reliably) by myself. The quote I got to have it mounted by someone who really knows reptiles was crazy. Even if I only sent the bones (cleaning it myself with beetles) it was a really high price.
 
most recent photo

Here is the most recent picture. I plan to remove the skeleton today and hand clean the rest of the tissue off.

photo(7).jpg


I plan to place another specimen in with the dermestids in a few days, I will also document that progress here.
 
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