Beetles and snake skeleton?????

Certainly. But ... make sure it is done in separate sections. That way any loose pieces don't create a huge amount of confusion. Whoever does it for you, ask them to watch carefully and pull the sections before the ribs all come loose.

 

If done carefully, under a watch-full eye snakes can be beetle cleaned without them falling apart.

 

I've beetle cleaned snakes (I don't generally articulate them for lack of time), and yes if someone does it mindfully they can package the bones in such a way that it's not total chaos for your wife to put together. I've done full skeleton cleaning for multiple customers in such a way that the bones are bagged and labeled to make it easier for them to do the articulation themselves (and at least one of them has actually done it!). Happy to discuss further or clean the skeleton for you - feel free to message me.

 

I can vouch for Carla's work! She is great

 

Just completed beetle-cleaning of 2m python without misplacing any rib.

 

here ya go.The snake was separated in 2 pieces mid-cleaning as soon as beetles ate the tissues around vertebrae.
When first rib got loose and falen off, I carefully removed snake from tank (with some beetles hiding inside), put it to clean surface (tank lid in this case) and collected the ribs in labelled ziplock bags.
Each day different ribs were being chewed off. It took me 2 weeks to collect them all, checking twice each day. Most of them had to be detached manually.

 

Precleaned rainbow boa skeleton set to dry before beetling

 

Dried, see the tissues are transparent now


Cleaning, day 2


Cleaning, day 3

 

Day 4, some ribs fallen off due to beetle activity.

 

At day 6 the cleaning was completed, about 30 ribs fallen off. It's currently being whitened.

 

Rib layout. Some misplaced and 3 lost.

 

Posing the spine

 

I need a drink now ...

 

This one has come apart for some reason. The 2 previous snakes didn't, they were adults with relatively white bones and this is a juvenile with blood-filled bones.
I'll spray paint him rather than whitening each rib in a jar.

 

200/517 ribs left

 

60 ribs left. These 2 pics are posted according to real time progress

 

Finished & painted the body