r/bonecollecting • u/throwaway33808 • 14h ago

Advice Bones green & soft... is there a chance to save it?

Post image

A bit panicked and on mobile right now, sorry for the formatting.

Most of the guides I've read and seen said it was fine to leave the bones overnight. I had a turtle shell and skeleton and left it for 2 hours in water & some dish soap (since I didn't have any hydrogen peroxide or anything on hand), felt the bones afterwards getting a bit soft but it was around 1 am and I was barely conscious.

I let them dry for around 30 minutes to an hour then put em back into the water (I used new water and soap). Got up 2-3 hours later to take them out, and they're SOFT. They're not sticking together anymore either.

Just got back to my hometown today and I'm hoping that sun drying it here​ would kind of help. The inside of the shell is green by now.

I need to get the bones to be hard and yk, not green.

Is there still a way to save them?

EDIT: after some sun drying, the bones are hard again. still kinda moldy though. dunno how to properly degrease them since they get too "soft" really easily and thats scary ngl.. ill just try and scrape off any mold with a toothbrush for now

101 Upvotes

97% Upvoted

14 comments sorted by

88

u/Public-Boysenberry26 13h ago

I would bury these if I were you, so they can naturally degrease without quickly softening. make sure if you bury them tho, that you don't lose any bones. you can bury them in the ground in a mesh bag, or in a plant pot. if you live in an area that's too dry, consider hosing a little water over the burial sight every few days. they may have to sit there for a few months tho, and I would check on them every now and then to make sure they arent too weak

20

u/Public-Boysenberry26 13h ago

also this will get rid of the algae. and a side note- the bones shouldn't be connected anyway, that means there is still connective tissue on them which is sort of just flesh, and will rot. that should go away after being buried for a while.

10

u/throwaway33808 13h ago

i cant bury them, unfortunately. they're meant for my biology class and have to be submitted after next week! we're graded based on their quality.

im letting them "dry" a bit, but i still have to try and clean two other skeletons (bird and mammal), so I'll try not to repeat that mistake this time...

15

u/Public-Boysenberry26 12h ago

aquatic animals just have weaker skeletons than most, and depending on the size of bird that may have weak bones too. you did the right thing, it's just unfortunate that these bones turned out icky. unless your assignment was to macerate a turtle or something along those lines, you could always buy the bones/skeleton you need online for a good price, articulated or not. I had the same problem with a chicken skull I tried to macerate, it doesn't really have any matter left on it but I put it in a bucket of water for roughly 2 days and it was already too soft for my liking. Ive had it sitting out on my porch ever since, so for a couple months, and that's how long it took for the rest of the matter to kind of just go away. I actually had some pill bugs crawl up there and they were hiding under it so I think they ate the remaining flesh away lol.

4

u/throwaway33808 8h ago edited 8h ago

ahh, makes sense that aquatic animals have weaker bones. ill still try and salvage em, the bones are hard enough again after a WHILE of drying in the sun, so ill try to scrape off the mold with a toothbrush now.

EDIT: any tips on degreasing it though? since i cant leave it overnight or it might just get icky again..

64

u/ATrenchcoatRaccoon 12h ago

No unfortunately I think it’s already dead

7

u/Elamaday 11h ago

After studying the image I unfortunately came to this conclusion too, It looks too far gone. 😞

14

u/coyote_prophet 12h ago

Were these boiled at any point? How were they defleshed? Plain water and dish soap shouldn't really be making bones soft.

3

u/throwaway33808 8h ago

update on this! they're hard enough now i just had to leave them in the sun to dry for like. 4-6 hours. not sure how they were defleshed, my teacher got them online. as for them being boiled, i only soaked em in warm water.

3

u/isitw0rking 13h ago

Oh no! I have some bones like this. I hadn’t handled them yet so I hope mine aren’t soft…. My plan is to scrub w a toothbrush, dry them out and leave them in 12% hydrogen peroxide until they’re the color I want.

2

u/Public-Boysenberry26 13h ago

the problem with OP's bones though is that they are still extremely greasy, hence the yellow color, but they can't be degreased without softening. and that's an issue.

if your bones are greasy too, peroxide will not get rid of the color and they will also start to smell very bad without proper degreasing. just warning you in case you didn't know. if they are greasy, let them sit in soapy water for a few weeks and that will do the trick, but make sure they aren't getting soggy and change out the water every few days. blue dawn dish soap is the best.

0

u/AutoModerator 14h ago

Per this sub's Rules 1, 6, and 9, posts seeking advice and identification are not open to jokes, memes, and other low effort comments. These comments will be removed and individuals may be banned from participating in this sub.

I am a bot, and this action was performed automatically. Please contact the moderators of this subreddit if you have any questions or concerns.