I was at an event when a customer asked me if I had snake skin for her alter. Another lucky coincidence! I had just received two frozen gopher snakes from a friend which I left out for fly larvae to macerate. I immediately decided to teach myself how to skin snakes and preserve the skin.
Laying out the snake to process.
I did a little investigation after skinning and located the wound that killed the snake when it got stuck in someone's metal garden mesh. It had pieces of metal embedded in it.
After soaking the skins in Glycerin and Alcohol for 3 days, I laid them out on wood.
I bought metal mesh screen material to cover and screwed in place to keep the edges from curling. I left them to dry in my very hot greenhouse.
After a week or so, I removed the mesh screen and turned the skin over. I brushed more glycerin on it and left it to dry longer.
The skins turned out beautiful, and I decided to keep them.
The Bones
After skinning the snakes, I boiled the flesh. I fed my chickens the snake meat which they absolutely devoured. I processed the bones (ribs and vertebrae) to degrease on a low heat using a pail heater. I cut off the head and end of the "tail" section which I dried in Borax.
After degreasing for a few weeks:
Next step is whitening with peroxide:
Now, I have my own supply of art materials to create necklaces and earrings.
Dermestid Beetle Cleaning of a Snake
Taking a walk, my friend spotted a small gopher snake which was run over by a car. Again, I skinned it and processed it.
This time, I fed the flesh to the dermestid beetles to eat and clean.
The end results of the beetle cleaning. I now have an articulated snake skeleton which I will frame for an art project. This snake was much smaller than the two large gopher snakes so I do not need these small bones for jewelry making.
My next goal for snake processing is try to tan a skin and learn more about leather.