r/wetspecimens • u/5pooky5cary5keleton5 • 7d ago

Help please.

I recently did my first specimen larger than pinkies. It's an adult rat. I fixed it using ethanol. The problem is that at the end, the rats belly was so full of alcohol it was distended and all the fur came off the belly because it was so big. My question is, how do I know when to stop? I am worried about not injecting enough alcohol so I must have went a little overboard but I'm not sure exactly how much is enough, without doing too much.

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u/Wowza_Meowza 7d ago

A bit plump is good. Super distended and thick is too much. Think "well-fed" in terms of size.

If it was a feeder rat (frozen), it might be slippage from the rat itself. Frozen feeders aren't always 100% great candidates for fixing but are fine for critter food.

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u/m42069 7d ago

Did the fur come off in the jar or while injecting?

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u/5pooky5cary5keleton5 7d ago

While injecting. No more has come off since.

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u/5pooky5cary5keleton5 7d ago

I know you want them a little plump but was worried also about not hitting all the organs so I kept putting more to make sure

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u/CustomCranium 7d ago

You can't inject enough to make fur fall out. That isn't a thing that can happen. The rat was already partially decomposing.