I shot my first Eastern Coyote this past winter. I skinned it out, sent the pelt out, and had it tanned. Looks pretty nice.

I saved the skull and would like to clean it and bleach it if possible so I can display it on the fireplace mantle in my hunting cabin.

What's the best way to clean the skull up real good? It's frozen right now with all the tissue and brains still in it.

I was figuring on boiling it outside on a camp stove until it comes up clean. One guy told me to add some salt to the boiling water and another said use a little bleach when its near done to whiten the skull.

Any suggestions?

Put it on an anthill for a while. Put something over it so the big critters can't carry it off.

Biologists often use certain beetle larvae to finish off the soft tissue on skulls for display. I'm sure you can order 'em from places like Carolina Biological Supply if you don't have any native ones handy.

I've known people to put these things up on the roof of their house for a few months, too.

I have a skull of a North American short tailed shrew. What I did was I found a rock that some ants lived under I dug a small hole in the ant nest dropped in the body and with in a couple of days it was decomposed. I then found the skull boiled it in water with a little bleach added. I did this a couple times and tried to make sure I didn�t lose any teeth (I ended up losing a few though because shrew teeth are almost microscopical. You shouldn�t have this problem with coyote teeth) anyway after boiling it a few times I then super glued the teeth in place and presto I had a beautiful skull.

www.customosteo.com

...about $30 bucks

DO NOT PUT BLEACH IN THE WATER... The bleach will make it look white and pretty for a while but it breaks down the calcium in the bones. It can never be nutrilized.

I have cleaned up hundreds of skulls... We use a type of dermisted beatle from Africa. We chuck a skull in the tank and its cleaned up in about two days. Sometimes less... The easiest way to take care of your skull is to:

Thaw it out and clean all the meat off if it. Take a screw driver and scramble the brains and rinse them out with a the hose. Get as much junk off of it as you can. Then I would do as some others have mentioned, put it in an ant hill. It will probably only take a few days for them to take care of it for you. Once most all the meat is gone.
You can skip the anthill part if you want and go right to the heating step.

Take a pot big enough to fit the skull in and heat it up. DO NOT BOIL THE WATER! but just below boiling. If boiled it will break down the membrane that holds the bones together on the nose, and it will fall apart. Add either a little Dawn dishwashing detergent or Borax to the water. Both can be bought at the grocery store.

Change the water at least once. Once you are satisfied with the results, take it out of the water and add Hydrogen peroxide to a pot of clean water. The stuff you can get at the grocery store or pharmacy isn't going to cut it. Go to the local beauty supply store and get some of the good stuff that they use. You will want a 10-15% solution.

Example: If the stuff from the beauty supply store is 40% solution you will want to dilute it down to 10-15% solution with water... One gallon of the solution contains 40% HO and 60% water or 0.4 gallons of HO and 0.6 gallons of water, add that to two gallons of water and you get 2.6 gallons of water and still the same amount of HO. So you divide the 0.4 by the 2.6 and you get about 15% solution.

It should just start to bubble when the skull is added. Let it soak in the water for about two days or untill you think its clean. Take out and scrape off any chunks that are still attached and you're done.

Also if you want to go the easy way go to Vandykes taxidermy and buy one of their skull cleaning kits. I think they are about 10-15$ or so. Buy doing it the other way you will have the supplies for next time... And It won't cost anything but time.

Good luck

[ 11-14-2003, 21:53: Message edited by: Ivan ]

I've used Ivans method for a fox skull and for my pig jaws . It works a treat.

Bakes

I've used the roof method. Works well, at least in Southern summers. Have to be patient, and try to put it where your wife doesn't often look.

Substitute tree for roof, and I tried that. The tree was some 75 yards away from the terrace, and the ladies that visited the cabin afte I hung the roe deer skull kept wondering where that awful smell came from. I guess the wind direction had changed. I was requested in a most friendly manner not to do that again.

Something else I always like to do is to soak it in water, and refresh the water, for a few days, to remove blood.

Here's a picture of the wolf skull I did this spring. Never figured out what the discolourations are..I did the boiling with detergent thing...maybe I should have used a degreaser, like proposed in the taxidermy forum



Frans

If you boil it, make sure to keep it COMPLETELY submerged in water the ENTIRE time.

I have a bear skull here that had one side come out of the water while it was boiling. Now, a portion of it looks "oily" or "waxy", and I can't get it to match the rest of the skull.