Collecting & Cleaning Animal Bones: 5 Best Practices

November 11, 2024

Making natural curiosities requires a lot of work and time. Having a plan and knowing what you will need before you go looking for bones is the best way to insure success. Let us help you get ready with this simple list of the 5 best practices for collecting and cleaning animal bones.

Supplies:

Gloves, Glasses, & Mask
Plastic Bags/Garbage bags
Sharp Knife
Box or Tub
30% Hydrogen Peroxide (40v Hair Bleach)

1. Knowing Local and Federal Laws

ALWAYS CHECK LAWS BEFORE YOU START COLLECTING! It is important to know what you can and can not collect in your area to avoid getting into any legal trouble. Make sure you look up what animals are protected in your area and keep in mind the Migratory Bird Act. In a list of best practices this seems like the most important next to safety.

2. Safety Precautions When Collecting Bones

It is no secret that bones come from dead things, and dead things usually come with mold, fungi, bacteria, ect. It's best to avoid these things when possible while collecting and cleaning. Gloves and a mask go a long way in keeping collectors safe from anything that my want to hurt them. Storing collected bones and remains in closed plastic bags and putting them in a tub or box for transport keeps exposure down when traveling. Finally, ALWYAS WASH YOUR HANDS.

3. Finding Bones To Clean

When you go looking for bones to clean, it can seem like looking for a needle in a hay stack. Finding shed antlers, hunter dump sites, and leftover meals is't as easy as one might expect. Not to mention how easy it is to get turned around in the woods. Always makes sure you are on public property or you have permission to forage on privet lands. Being aware of your surroundings and making sure someone knows where you are at all time is a key factor in bone hunting safety.

You may find that foraging for road kill is more productive on the bone front. If you walk along a road side long enough you are going to find bones, but this comes with it's own set of dangers. Just like the animals you collect, you can be struck by a vehicle. Always make sure the road is clear before stepping out to collect remains. We don't recommend collecting on roads like interstates or merging ramps. Theses areas are high speed and can be very dangerous to pedestrians.

Once you have found remains you want to collect, dawn your mask and gloves. Grab your bags and start collecting. Dry remains will be easy and the least pungent to collect. Theses are bones that are completely "clean" when you find them. No flesh or active decomposition. Fresh road kill will not smell...yet, but it will probably be the most messy, along with actively decomposing remains. ( We would typically leave actively decomposing remains to do their thing. They feed the scavengers in the area and can be very messy. We can come back for what left in a week or so.)

Use your knife to remove anything you may not want if you are not interested in the whole animal. Place the remains in the box or tub and transport them to your wherever you will be cleaning them.

4. How should you clean animal bones?

So now you have collected your bones! Next, you want to get them cleaned up. There are a few options for this.

Step 1:

If the remains you have are still whole (fur, skin, muscle, and bone) you have a few options. First you can simply burry the remains for 6 months to a year, depending on the size. Decomposition the insects and soil will provide cleans everything away form the bones.

Whole remains can also be skinned and gutted. This will speed up the decomposition stage, no matter how you choose to clean the bones. Be that through burying or maceration.

**note: any remains you dispose of should be done so in accordance state and federal laws.

Step 2:

Remains that have little to know flesh left can be soaked to remove anything remaining.

Fill a bucket with enough water to cover the bones and the top. Add soap to the water. We use Dawn dish soap. It's easy on the environment and hard on the grease trapped in the bones, but any degreasing soap will do. Add a the soap at about a 50/50 ratio (gauge the amount based off of the amount of water used. Larger animals will require more water and more soap.) Greasy bones will be shiny and yellow, the more grease the more soap you can add. This step can a long time. Soak the bones for a week. Change the water add more soap and soak again if the bones are sill greasy. Continue for another week at a time until the bones are no longer yellowed and shiny. Once the bones have been degreased, set them out in a warm, dry, ventilated place. Make sure they you let them dry out completely.

Step 3:

After they have dried out, you are ready to start the whitening and sanitizing stage. This will require 30%-35% hydrogen peroxide. We use 40 volume hair bleach that is easily ordered in bulk online.

Place your bones in back into the bucket and, wearing gloves and glasses, cover wit a ratio of 50/50 water to peroxide. Let them soak for a day or two. If the bones are not as white as you would like, rinse and repeat for another day or two. Leaving bones in the peroxide mixture may cause the bones to become frail. Try not to soak them for ore than 3-4 days if you can avoid it. Adversely, some bones may only need one day of whitening. Make sure to check them once a day. Remove the bones and let them dry again once they have reached the desired whiteness.

Your bones are now ready to be displayed or used in your next work or art! From oddities collections to educational display!

5. What to Avoid

Most of collecting in common since. Don't pick up dead things and then eat your lunch so on and so forth. However, there are a few things that are commonly thought of as correct.

Boiling Bones

There are a few methods that involve boiling, but this leaves the bones brittle. The water soak may take time, but it provides sanitized and strong bones for your curio cabinet or artwork.

Bleaching Bones

Bleaching has the same effect as boiling. It breaks down the bone and leaves it fragile.

Not Drying Bones

Make sure bones are completely dry before you display. Putting moist bones in a cabinet can result in mold. As can laving bones to dry in a moist environment. Make sure the drying space is dry and ventilated.

The Time It Takes

Don't have time to go through the process? Or, maybe you are eager to start your collection now? We have not bone and insect displays for the dark decor home you always wanted, but bone and stone jewelry to adorn your body as well!

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