Giraffe Skull.. need help!

[halfapersonxx]

I got a giraffe skull from a company here in the US, obviously it was cleaned before being shipped to them and I doubt they did any further cleaning because when I got it there were a few yellow (grease?) spots.  I also noticed some dead bugs in it, in the brain cavity and in the very back of the nasal passages but because the skull is so big, I couldn't just reach in and pick them out with tweezers.  So, I decided to give it a soak in dawn/water to degrease it a bit more, re-whiten with peroxide, and then seal it because it's a bit on the flaky side.    

Anyway, after a soak I picked it up to let the water drain from inside the skull and not only was the smell that came out of it absolutely horrible but the water inside was a thick gooey dark brown..   Think there was still meat/brains left in there or is it just the grease that smells? It's still sitting in the empty bathtub because I ran out of dawn (getting more today)  but it still smells.. The whole room smells, actually. lol.   Should I just keep doing the dawn/water soaks? Will borax help in case there was leftover meat?   With a skull this big, the bathtub is the only place I have to soak it and even that's not deep enough to cover the whole thing (only about 2 inches of the horns stick out of the water)...  Any help would be appreciated!

[Alpinist]

Congratulations on picking up a very cool skull. It sounds like you have a lot of work ahead of you getting it thoroughly degreased. Yes, grease and/or blood caused the water to turn brown and stink. You will need to continue to degrease, changing the water every few days or whenever it turns cloudy or brown for several months. It will go a lot faster if you can keep the water at a constant 115 degrees. Borax is not going to help, but adding some ammonia to the water+dawn mix will. Good luck.

[Sea Wolf]

Ditto on no Borax. It won't do anything. Consider making a custom box out of plywood or use a large rubbermaid trash can. Make a box big enough to fit the skull and higher than the tallest point of the skull. Line the box with a sheet of heavy mil plastic/vynyl or even better, roofing/fishpond rubber. Make sure it is clean, new rubber. Use that container to hold your heated Dawn and water. Keep at it. It will take you a while to clean this good.

Post pics 

[halfapersonxx]

Thank you both for the replies  

I think there was some blood leaking out of a tiny pinhole in the back of the skull, that seems to be the only place the brown liquid comes from.   The smell has gone down quite a bit, except for when I stand the skull up to rinse it out through the nose (still lots of dead beetles coming out).   When I looked inside it through the hole in the back, it looks like there's a wall of bone separating where the brain would be and where the horns grow. It's hard to explain, but I think that's where most of the bugs/stink is coming from.  It also looks like there were a few holes drilled into it to get this spot cleaned initially, but getting everything out is still going to be a pain.  I'll try to get pictures of what I'm talking about next time I drain the tub.

It looks like it's going good so far though.. Is it okay that I scrub around the teeth to get the junk that's stuck between them or am I just pushing grease back into the bone??   I tried pulling the teeth out, but they're stuck in there good and I don't want to risk cracking them any more than they are by using pliers.


I also have a big boar skull that needs some more degreasing, can I put it in with this one or is that a bad idea?


Here are some pictures of the giraffe before I started soaking it:

[native]

I am cleaning one as well, they have to have the meat removed before they leave africa and the osicones are usually drilled to make sure nobody is smuggling diamonds in them. It will take quite a while to fully degrease the skull, it is very thick bone.

[halfapersonxx]

The ossicones (i called them horns because i never remember that word lol)  themselves aren't drilled, just three small holes around them.  You can see one in the first picture to the right of the eye socket (same on the other side) and the third you can see in the second picture on the back of the skull.   I didn't know that's why they drilled it... interesting.  I wouldn't complain if a diamond or two fell out instead of a bunch of dead beetles though!    

I'm still trying to figure out what could be causing the smell inside of it...It's like getting a quick wiff of a maceration bucket every time I pick it up to drain the water out of the brain cavity/rinse it to get beetles out.   That's my main concern at the moment (getting the smell out).  I don't think I'll be able to fully degrease it until the summer when I'll be able to let it soak outside in the hot weather.  It's only been a few days and my parents are already complaining, even though no one has used that bathtub in literally 10 years, and I don't have the money to get a good bucket/aquarium heater to keep a tote with that much water hot enough outside in the winter.  -sigh-

[native]

soak it in 110 to 120 degree water with dawn untill it is fully degresed. My thought is that they didn't get all the brain out, lush the brain cavity before you degrease. You want to make sure a skull like that is done right, it could very well effect any reputation you may have in the future of skull cleaning.

[halfapersonxx]

I don't clean skulls for a living (or anyone, besides myself) obviously. lol.   I collect them, this one was a christmas gift.  But, as you know, all the boiling/bleaching they go through before getting here leaves them looking pretty awful and the flaking was BAD, and I didn't want this one to end up looking like a couple of the other skulls I have (that were boiled in bleach for god knows how long).   I've had to further degrease and rewhiten some other ones (not the bleached ones) and they turned out really nice, but I was only 'touching them up' sooo, can't take full credit there.


Anyway, I just wanted to ask to see if maybe there was something else you guys do.   I might put this one aside until it gets warmer out, I'm currently unemployed and spending what little money I do have on heaters for one skull probably isn't the best idea right now.  I did have a cheaper aquarium heater in a plastic tote outside last summer and it kept the water temp up (for a maceration tub)  but I have no idea where the heater disappeared to... so, unless I find a job before then, that looks like the best/only option.   I'll keep you guys updated though, thanks again for the help

[Sea Wolf]

To degrease that properly, you will have to get the water temperature up to 110 to 115 as Native said. Fish tank heaters are good for maceration but poor for degreasing something heavy like that. Summertime heat won't help much. Do what you can, whiten it and dry it well. After it is completely dry, it will probably not smell at all. I would not seal it though unless it is completely degreased. You have something valuable that you want to do right. Maybe farm it out to one of the pros on here to do it for you.

[WolfGirl]

This may sound very odd, but with some of my skulls that have a bad smell to them when they are done I spray them with Febreze. I don't think it harms the skulls and it really works. I had a deer skull that smelled awful and even scrubbing it with slight bleach wouldn't work. I sprayed it with Febreze and it actually took the smell right off it. Just a suggestion if it still smells bad after degreasing.