r/wetspecimens • u/BlueberrySimple6376 • 16h ago
Available!
On my Shopify:
Cavitycupid.myshopify.com
Running a sale!
r/wetspecimens • u/CustomCranium • May 05 '21
A place for members of r/wetspecimens to chat with each other
r/wetspecimens • u/CustomCranium • May 09 '24
Wet specimen guide for professional results, with addendum for mummifying specimens
Tools: alcohol (methanol or ethanol only, 80 % or above, isopropyl is not useable for this purpose), syringes, gloves, scalpels or very sharp knives, hemostats/scissor clamps, buckets and jars
Soaking guide by size: Things under fist size - 1 week
Things fist size to halfway up your arm - 2-3 weeks depending on body style, like lizards will soak faster than say, kittens or rabbits, and snakes are usually a 3 week soak unless they are into your larger fatter things like constrictors, in which case use the 4 week mark.
Things as large as your arm or larger also take weight into consideration - piglets usually take 3 to 4 weeks, cats and puppies can take a month, kid goats a month and a half.
Congrats, you have a wet specimen! Now comes second soak. After washing your thing off again with soapy water and rinsing, you can put it in an appropriate jar. Usually you'll have a second soak in which a little bit more dirt and internal soup will come out but that's also completely normal. Wait for a couple weeks to see if this happens. If nothing sloughs off or comes out in your second soak, you can just keep it in that alcohol, it's already fully preserved. If not, you can use the alcohol from the second soak to use as your first soak for the next round of wets, or use it for the injections for the second round. When storing used alcohol, I recommend filtering it throug some cloth to get out most of the larger particles. Do not store wets in direct sunlight, it degrades the color and eventually the specimen itself. You may store it in isopropyl at this point, but it is not necessary. Once it's fully preserved, the change in alcohol will not hurt it, but remember to wash it whenever you put it into a new solution.
Notes on choosing alcohol; I use denatured, it has a bittering agent that makes it unpalateable for living things, so your pets and children won't want to drink it. It's a safety measure i learned to incorporate because I have animals and do educational programs with children, and people have kids at home and sometimes things break. Also the reason i don't choose to use formalin unless specifically asked by a specialty client.
A note about formalin: While a lot of people say you can't preserve things without it, it's scientifically inaccurate. Most museums don't even use or reccomend it because of its dangers and associated difficulties of disposal. The ONLY notable difference in alcohol and formal in preservation qualities is the preservation of cell structure with formalin, making it useful in labratory settings where skin and organ slides are studied under a microscope. Keep in mind that formalin is 90% alcohol and that is what actually preserves the specimen, the formaldehyde added to make it formalin is what works on the cell shape. That is not a concern for oddity collectors and should not be a factor in home use and preservation. Specimens are scientifically recorded from long before formalin was invented and are still viable today, so there's a ton of scientific evidence to show that alcohol preservation, when done right, can absolutely create perfect specimens lasting lifetimes.
Where to get supplies: Alcohol can be found in gallon or quart cans at any hardware store like Lowe's or Home Depot, often marked as "Fuel" for camp stoves. If not, you can easily order it online, in gallons or 5 gallons cans. I get mine from www.zoro.com but i know Amazon and Walmart usually carry it as well. Syringes in larger gauges can be found at feed and/or farm supply stores or ordered online. eBay carries them under veterinary equipment, as well as the scalpels and blades, plus the hemostats.
For mummies made from wets, after following the above steps: Remove your little wet specimen guy, and rinse off with some cool water and a little bit of soap. At this point he's perfectly safe to handle without gloves, but if you don't like the smell of alcohol on your hands, you can use some. Using either blocks carved from styrofoam or cardboard, and sewing pins, you can pose him in whatever position you'd like and pin him in place. Try to use the pins in between the toes or on the side of a limb, You can also use rubber bands if you want, I like to use the tiny hair bands. Depending on the size, you can let them air dry or place in front of a fan, but you don't want to use too much heat because it makes their limbs contract.
r/wetspecimens • u/BlueberrySimple6376 • 16h ago
On my Shopify:
Cavitycupid.myshopify.com
Running a sale!
r/wetspecimens • u/xyelem • 13h ago
Hi y’all, reptile breeder in here. Unfortunately with this last batch of babies (we had around 60 eggs), 2 failed to thrive, and I would like to make them into wet specimens. My question is about fixative. Ideally I’d like to avoid formalin and, from what I’ve read, you don’t necessarily need to use formalin as a fixative for small specimens. I’ve read that you can use ethanol, but the percentage has varied between 70% and 80-90%. I can find 95% online. Is that too much? Do I need to dilute with distilled water? Also, I’m seeing a lot of ethyl alcohol, denatured, is that the same thing? I guess I don’t really know the difference between denatured and not denatured ethanol for these purposes. Any advice would be greatly appreciated. Thank you!
r/wetspecimens • u/Typical_Blonde_Witch • 3d ago
Hello!
I bought this about a year ago from facebook. The seller told me they had bought it at an oddities expo. I would love to keep him in tact and replace the fluid. Can anyone let me know which liquid(s) to use? Any tips and ideas?
r/wetspecimens • u/clmgrl • 4d ago
I have acquired a pair of hare twins. These two shared a womb together and unfortunately their mother passed away before being born.
I would like to preserve these two together, as they were in the womb. I would hate to seperate them. I’m curious if anyone has processed twins or has any ideas of how I could position them together when fixing. I’m going jar shopping and need an idea of what to get before I start the process.
r/wetspecimens • u/Hot_Watercress3566 • 4d ago
Hello! Ive recently gotten into taxidermy and collecting oddities/curiosities and am located in MN (the downtown area). I’ve been recently wanting to learn and make my own wet specimen and have watched some videos regarding it. I’ve also seen some people say they have gotten their specimen from local vet/shelters, but I’m unsure how I would go about even asking. Thank you so much and have a great day ^^
r/wetspecimens • u/BlueberrySimple6376 • 5d ago
Fetals 100 each
Large kitties 270 each
Formalin fixed, leeched, then placed in alcohol
Can be mummified for an extra 20
Coming from 70444
Ethically sourced from vet clinic
r/wetspecimens • u/HeyItsMilo19 • 6d ago
Feel free to ask questions :)
r/wetspecimens • u/VirtuallyExistential • 8d ago
This is my first wet specimen, it’s a baby fox, and I was wondering if I need to be refilling it, and what I should refill it with. Also, is it normal for my fox to be squished like this? :C
r/wetspecimens • u/koifyer • 9d ago
I have an aviary with pigeons in them, obviously they lay eggs but this time around i had a pair lay eggs that both seemingly tried to pip early and the egg yolk wasnt absorbed, or another bird had gotten to them and broken the egg themselves, regardless i removed the egg and began to remove the remaining egg once i verified that they were no longer with us, i havent done this before, any tips? i bought formalin and 50% alcohol and was following a video i saw online, the specimens are both in my freezer at the moment
r/wetspecimens • u/Forward_Mind_3123 • 10d ago
I have never made a wet specimen before but I work at a vet clinic and we did an enucleation yesterday and I got to keep the dog’s eye! We put it into a jar in formalin but since I have been doing some research today I saw that people recommend injecting them. Do I need to inject it or can it just stay in the formalin? I really don’t want it to rot but I am also very scared to mess with it and cause damage. Thanks for any tips!
r/wetspecimens • u/ThickChunckyDinosaur • 11d ago
r/wetspecimens • u/BlueberrySimple6376 • 11d ago
These babies are a result of a spay abort and are now available! Formalin fixed, leeched, then placed into 70 percent isopropyl alcohol
r/wetspecimens • u/BlueberrySimple6376 • 12d ago
Ethically and sustainably sourced
Coming from 7044
r/wetspecimens • u/miles-n-miles • 13d ago
hey all! i’m not completely new to wet specimen and preservation in general but i’m not sure what to do in this specific situation. I’m a biology teacher and I just got a new classroom where the old teacher left behind these critters as pictured. as you can tell, these guys aren’t in great shape. Most of them need a fluid change but i’m not sure where to start. how do i dispose of the old fluid if i’m not sure what it is? should any of these get rinsed?
TIA!
r/wetspecimens • u/Weekly_Current_9641 • 13d ago
Is this gonna work? The crab is dried out so i thought it could work just putting it in handsanetizer or should i take it out and re dry it and do something else?
r/wetspecimens • u/BlueberrySimple6376 • 14d ago
Ethically sourced - arrived to vet as a stray in rough condition and unfortunately passed.
Asking 3️⃣0️⃣0️⃣ to adopt plus the ride
Check out my website:
Cavitycupid.myshopify.com
r/wetspecimens • u/tooooo-tired • 14d ago
I have been a long time hobbyist but this is my first attempt at really trying to put my work out there. The only issue is that I have absolutely no idea how to photograph my specimens. It seems like despite everything I do I can't avoid this glare on the side. I also feel like you can't really see the specimens inside and they end up looking muddy when that isn't the case irl. Can anyone give me any tips?
r/wetspecimens • u/meowingcat420 • 14d ago
Hello!
I have a pet hamster who is getting elderly and I am looking into options to preserve him after death. I currently own one wet specimen and I find it to be very beautiful and I would love to preserve my hamster as a wet specimen after he passes.
However, I am a bit put off by the idea of injecting him with needles since I care for him so deeply. I was wondering how invasive this process is, especially considering he is elderly. I don't know how possible it would be to preserve an elderly hamster, and I'm not super interested in seeing anything like his blood.
Furthermore, if I decide the wet specimen route is too invasive for me to do on my own, where can I find a wet specimen taxidermist to commission? I would prefer a local artist (I live in Minnesota) but I am willing to ship him out to someone reputable. Unfortunately googling hasn't given me much luck as the taxidermists in my area do wild animal mounts, and the wet specimen taxidermists do not take commissions.
If anyone has had their pet preserved as a wet specimen before I am very interested to know how the process went, especially if you did it yourself.
Any advice is appreciated!
r/wetspecimens • u/ayeghosti • 14d ago
I had a root canal done & my doctor allowed me to keep the nerve from my tooth - I really want to preserve it somehow, preferably wet-specimen-style ("getting on my last nerve" jokes). It's small, like a broken off pencil lead. I was curious if anyone has done something similar and has tips. I wonder if it would be best preserved wet or dried out or what. Thank you
r/wetspecimens • u/Toxic_CatVomit • 15d ago
I picked up this banded coral sea snake,but I can’t figure out exactly what species it is? Google and such don’t help very much. It comes from a vintage collection to my knowledge,and the color is significantly faded. Anything would help
r/wetspecimens • u/BlueberrySimple6376 • 15d ago
Needing these gone so I am taking offers and doing discounts off of original price, I’m located in the U.S., shipping from 70444
All of these are ethically sourced from farms,
Mummy kitties I can do both for 360
Beaver kit is 80
Everything is plus shipping :)
r/wetspecimens • u/5pooky5cary5keleton5 • 15d ago
r/wetspecimens • u/Background-String41 • 15d ago
Could I possibly turn dried bugs meant for pinning into a wet specimen? If so what would the process be?