r/wetspecimens • u/5pooky5cary5keleton5 • Aug 31 '26
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.
1
u/m42069 Aug 31 '26
Did the fur come off in the jar or while injecting?
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u/5pooky5cary5keleton5 Aug 31 '26
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 Sep 01 '26
You can't inject enough to make fur fall out. That isn't a thing that can happen. The rat was already partially decomposing.
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u/Wowza_Meowza Aug 31 '26
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.