Vulture Culture - Dead Things Enthusiasts Unite!

[SteamRunner]

I just realized I posted here a while back but never got around to posting anything, so here

These are my antler I promised to post.
I currently have 10 antlers, one is post be be a little door ordainment thing but it is broken so I'll post that when I get around to posting it. I also have one big moose antler I got for my birthday last year.




I also got a full mink bone set, even though I wish the skull had a jaw intaked, I bought to make jewlery.



Here is the skull and the two jaw, as well as with a infused lower end vertebra piece


In the two big glass jars I put the spine pieces, the plastic bottle has the ribs, the left small bottle I put the extra teeth and claws in, the other small bottle has the two bones in it. The tall and thin bottle has some longer leg bones in it.


I also managed to fix the big canine teeth and one small tooth that he thankful put in so I can glue them back, I also fixed any other wiggle teeth. The only thing is that it may need some cleaning.


(Ehh sorry for the long post)

[lachance]

Hello! I'm fairly new to both CS and the Vulture Culture, so I was hoping that someone may be able to point me in the right direction here. So far I have TONS of antlers, various parts of a small-ish dog (still unsure of how they died; it appears to have drowned as I found it in a ditch on our property a year or so ago), a full opossum and raccoon in a garbage bag rotting outside (from late November), and what's left of a mink and its skull (from mid December). I'm not quite sure how to go about properly cleaning these animals once I dig them back up because I'm only in middle school and I may have trouble paying for supplies myself since my parents want nothing to do with this. I read through the sources on the front page but I'm still unsure of how to go about all of this on my own. I'm on a budget here too, and it's been fairly cold outside so maceration doesn't seem like an option. Any advice? I'll appreciate any help I can get. Thank you!

[Captain Chomp]

First of all this thread.is really cool and I also don't know exactly what vulture culture is, but it seems like an interesting thing. You guys have amazing collections and I think.i might look into starting a collection of my own, I have a few bird feathers from over the years, haven't collected any in over 4 years. But I do love around for antlers for sure. Any tips.on how to.get started

[Roiffalo]

[size=85][center]photo time :>

Hector is beautiful! What was he exactly? Looks draft horse size!

[mngwa]

Steamrunner - Very nice! I wish I had so many antlers! (Though then again I have no clue where I'd even put them...). You're actually probably never going to find a naturally intact jaw in minks (or many other predators, for that matter) - the jaws actually almost never fuse in them. You can usually glue them together quite easily, though! Looks like that skull could use some degreasing too, if you want to.

Lachance/Wesley - Hi, and welcome to vulture culture! I'll be glad to help you. It sounds like maceration or burial would be your best options - these don't cost anything to you, though they are going to be slow. If your parents have put up with the garbage bags, they may put up with a couple maceration buckets, but that'sup to you. It's really either that or dermestids, though that too will have to wait for summer when the bugs are most active. Maceration will be faster than burial, but it'll still be pretty slow. However, it'll speed up as it gets warmer in your area, especially if you can put the buckets in a sunny area. After you dig up or take the bones out of maceration, you can either degrease them with dawn dish soap and hot water (about $2 for a large bottle that will last a long time) and then put them in 3% hydrogen peroxide (usually about $20 for enough to fill a bucket; you really only need one bucket worth, and it'll also last you awhile) or go straight to the peroxide. Peroxide is a necessary step, however, to disinfecting the bones, and also knocks loose dirt, even inside the skull where you can't reach it. That's pretty much it! You're welcome to PM me with any other questions you have, and I'll do my best to answer them!

Captain Chomp - Vulture culture is pretty much just what I said in the title - a group of people with a love for dead things! The term is fairly recent, but the basic group has existed for quite awhile. I got started in vulture culture pretty much just by scavenging around the more secluded places in my area. I got started with a ton of deer bones and prairie dog bones, because they're very common here. If you live in a city however, it can be a lot harder to get your hands on bones. At that point, you can buy them online (Moscow Hide And Fur is very cheap and good quality, and I can give you more online stores if you like), buy them in local thrift and antique stores (this may be something that only really exists in my area; hunting is pretty big here), or take trips out of the city and go scavenging. Basically, keep doing what you're doing, and look around for areas that wild animals might be! That's where you'll find most bones.

[lemondropkitten]

Finally posting some pictures here! My male opossum skull, the first skull I cleaned:





And my male raccoon, bought from shadyufo:

[lachance]

First of all this thread.is really cool and I also don't know exactly what vulture culture is, but it seems like an interesting thing. You guys have amazing collections and I think.i might look into starting a collection of my own, I have a few bird feathers from over the years, haven't collected any in over 4 years. But I do love around for antlers for sure. Any tips.on how to.get started

Depending on where you live, there are a few more options. Look around corners inside any kind of open older structures, especially barns and sheds, check along railroads (though please do be careful as most are private property), take regular strolls through woods or forests, and which may be one of the easiest and most common ways, scavenge roadkill. You can also try talking to people in your area who own farms or trap animals if you don't have any luck, usually they can help you out and it's sort of a win-win.

[mngwa]

Lemondropkitten/Shadow - Wow, that possum is gorgeous! Well cleaned, too. Did his front teeth go missing while cleaning, or did you get him that way?
Man, I love shadyufo. Good stuff, and good prices. And she's a real sweetheart too.

As Lachance/Wesley said, all those methods are great! I mostly scavenge from the woods, but those are all great places as well. Be warned though, picking up roadkill without a special license can be illegal, depending where you live. Here's a good guide: here (I'm actually gonna go put this dead animal parts laws page on that second post, I think...)

[lemondropkitten]

Lemondropkitten/Shadow - Wow, that possum is gorgeous! Well cleaned, too. Did his front teeth go missing while cleaning, or did you get him that way?
Man, I love shadyufo. Good stuff, and good prices. And she's a real sweetheart too.

Thank you! And I'm not sure what happened with his missing teeth, he could have lost them before he died or they could have fallen out while he was buried and I just never found them in all the dirt.

[Roiffalo]

[list]Finally posting some pictures here! My male opossum skull, the first skull I cleaned:

Gorgeous! I keep trying to get possum skulls, but the bodies I find are all roadkill so the skull's a scramble of puzzle pieces. 8(