OK, so here's my story on prepping heads:
Human heads are easy, because they have big openings in them where you can get at the brain (i.e. so you can stick in a scoop and scoop out the brains), and the face has no snout, i.e. it's flat, which makes things a lot easier. The reason I know that is because on digs, you sometimes have to get sand or dirt etc out of the brain cavity. You still have to be really gentle, because the bone is brittle and the teensy bones in the ears are easily lost. Anyhow, pigs do have snouts, and the openings are not easy to get at. It's a pain in the ass to get the brains out without breaking the bones. If a skeleton is ancient, there is generally no brains to remove (not always true, though), but on occasion, I've had to prep skeletons from various animals to be used as educational tools (that's my story and I'm sticking to it). The other week, I spent several hours prepping another pig. This one was a piglet, which makes the openings even tinier. Cleaning out the brains is time consuming and annoying and sticky (as in not worth the trouble, only worth it if it's a boar or something with tusks). Anyhow, got it done. Put the skull out to dry, up high and after a few days I boxed it much like how I'd have boxed ancient remains. The box was closed up tight, placed i another box, which was closed up tight and placed up on a shelf. Then the door to the room was closed, door knob and all. My rather large dog knows she is not to take anything off tables and counter tops. She's never once chewed up anything before. Apparently this does not apply to things in boxes. She single handedly managed to open the door (!!), pull down the box (!!), open it without damaging it at all, then open the box inside it (also without damaging it), pull out the jaw bone and twelve other smaller bones, devour the 12 small bones (probably whole), chew off some of the jaw and exit the room undetected. I still have no idea how she did it or why, and for some reason, she left the rest of the skull (and several other boxes of bones) alone... Then I started asking her why she looked so guilty, and she really, really looked guilty, searcjed the house, found the rest of the bones still in the box and well, tried really hard to figure out if I was more mad at her for wrecking all my hard work or proud of her for the feat she'd accomplished...
When are you going for the world championship? ^^
