Baking as a new way of preserving dead Ts

[lunashimmer]

Hi everybody. I am running what seems to be a successful experiment--I'm baking / drying out a dead, mature G. rosea. Ella died sometime earlier this week; I discovered her Thursday night. The beginning of the experiment can be found here.

To summarize, I preheated my oven to its lowest temp, 170 degrees. I have kept the door open some to lower the temp even more; the dorr has been slightly open the entire baking time.

I put Ella on her back in an old cake pan lined with non-stick foil. I inserted folded foil between her stretched legs to keep them straight, which didn't work. Her legs curled some--not as much as they had been pre-baking--but some.

I noticed an odor after about 15 minutes. It's not unpleasant, just not the normal house smell. The odor is definitely coming from the oven and not my dogs.

After 30 minutes, I checked on her and discovered the curled legs and a hardened prosoma. Her legs were also hardened. I turned her over, placing her on a crumpled piece of foil the same size as her body to support her so the legs wouldn't curl more. Her body felt warm, not hot or burning. I imagine the lowish oven temp is keeping her innards from boiling and then bursting through the exoskeleton.

I checked on her after another hour. Her abdomen was hard to a gentle touch, but still gave some when pushed a little harder. I put the timer on for another hour.

The 2nd hour timer just went off. She is definitely harder than before. There is still a slight give when touching the middle of her opisthosoma so I am baking her for another hour. I took her off the lump of foil and looked at her underside. It looks "cooked"--blackened. I suspect this is from being baked on the foil which would be slightly hotter than the surrounding air of the oven. I put her back on the ball of foil because I want to mount her in a shadowbox, and I want her front (top) to be pretty.

I will say that this slow and low baking is making her very shiny and her color pop. She is definitely a pink or copper G. rosea. She was a pretty girl!

I'll update in another hour. I think that will be the end of the baking.

The odor in the house hasn't increased any since I first noticed it (either that or I'm getting used to it ). I did have to close up the windows and turn on the a/c as it was almost 80 inside.

 

[zonbonzovi]

I'm interested to see how this works out. I assume you will post photos? I'd be sleeping alone for using the oven for this purpose. Ever tried a food dehydrator?

 

[lunashimmer]

I have taken her out of the oven. I am letting her body cool down before doing any further examination. I touched her while she was still hot--there was no give at all. My fingertip was shiny with some sort of moisture that wasn't oily or extremely wet, and it dissipated when I rubbed my fingers together (then washed them of course). Not sure what it was but that's why I'm letting her cool before looking at her.

The odor is dissipating as well as she cools off. Baked tarantula, while not pleasant, isn't terribly bad either. It sure isn't appetizing though. :sarcasm:

Her legs look a little more curled now.

There are a couple things I would do differently next time:

I would pop the T in the cold oven and then turn on the oven to its lowest temp. That would prevent the room-temp bodily fluids from heating too fast and exploding.

I would also wrap some sort of heat-proof material (several layers of cardboard?) in foil and place that in the baking dish under the T so I could frame the legs with pins to keep them stretched out. I would guess that the heat would still make them curl a bit but probably not too much with the pins being there.

Ella is cool now. My fingertips still got a little of the whatever it is on them after touching her this time, but less than when she was fresh out of the oven.

All in all, I'm happy with the results. As long as her body lasts, I think this is a good way of preserving our pets!*

I'm interested to see how this works out. I assume you will post photos? I'd be sleeping alone for using the oven for this purpose. Ever tried a food dehydrator?

I don't have a dehydrator; hence, the using the oven. My husband said "interesting..." when I told him what I was doing (he's out of town). No sleeping alone for me--maybe if she had 'sploded in there, though. :biggrin:

I Googled dehydrators and the highest temp they work at is about 145 degrees. I figure by keeping the oven door open the whole time, the internal temp hovered around 155-160 degrees, which apparently is not too hot as it seems to have worked fine.

I will post some pics soon!


*And by pets, I mean tarantulas...not our mammalian pets.

 

[Amoeba]

I hope you drained the guts first....

 

[lunashimmer]

I hope you drained the guts first....

I didn't! That's the beauty of this experiment! If she stays like this, with no rotting because she was fully dried out, i.e. baked, then there will be no need to cut into the Ts after they die. :wink:

---------- Post added 09-10-2011 at 04:22 PM ----------

The set up:

Her curled legs and the ball of foil she baked on:

Ella's baked bottom:

Her pretty pink color:

She's completely cooled and feels hard as a rock.

What do you guys think of this?

 

[zonbonzovi]

The abdomen is hardened? That's great if it remains that way. Will you update after a few days? I just wonder if there is any gas buildup/moisture retention or if there will be significant shrinkage as it continues to dry. I dig the pre-oven pinning idea...when not lazy I've pinned animals(non-Theraphosids) as soon as they were found dead & they've come out very nice if dried quickly or frozen in postion. If you can do it AND the oven dehydration works out it'll be a perfect marriage for preservation purposes. Abdomen shrinkage & discoloration make my teeth hurt, haha.

 

[HighFlyer]

That's definitely an interesting way of preservation. Please keep us posted with either pictures or updates in the days to come.

 

[Vespula]

She looks good, actually. Wow. Y'know, except for the being dead part. Be sure to keep us updated, I'm interested in how this works out!

 

[cnapple]

This is what I love most about tarantula people - our innovative use of day-to-day items to support our hobby!

 

[xhexdx]

I'm definitely interested to see how this method holds out for long-term preservation. Interesting idea, and as others have already said, please keep us posted.

 

[lunashimmer]

Update!

The abdomen is hardened? That's great if it remains that way. Will you update after a few days? I just wonder if there is any gas buildup/moisture retention or if there will be significant shrinkage as it continues to dry. I dig the pre-oven pinning idea...when not lazy I've pinned animals(non-Theraphosids) as soon as they were found dead & they've come out very nice if dried quickly or frozen in postion. If you can do it AND the oven dehydration works out it'll be a perfect marriage for preservation purposes. Abdomen shrinkage & discoloration make my teeth hurt, haha.

Yes, the abdomen is hard as a rock. I will definitely update in the coming days. I'm interested to see if this is a viable, long term solution to keeping our Ts around!

That's definitely an interesting way of preservation. Please keep us posted with either pictures or updates in the days to come.

Thanks! Will do!

She looks good, actually. Wow. Y'know, except for the being dead part. Be sure to keep us updated, I'm interested in how this works out!

Lol! :laugh:

This is what I love most about tarantula people - our innovative use of day-to-day items to support our hobby!

Fo shizzle!

I'm definitely interested to see how this method holds out for long-term preservation. Interesting idea, and as others have already said, please keep us posted.

Thanks, Joe!


Update after 5 hours:

I went out to dinner and came home to find that the odor has left the house (thank goodness--the husband comes home soon!). She's still hard as a rock. There's still a little shininess on my finger when I touch the abdomen--it's not wet or damp feeling and not oily feeling either. I'm at a loss as how to explain it. Any ideas???

I'm going to leave her in the old cake pan with all the foil for the next week or so. The foil makes for a nice contrast to her darkness and I think it will be easier to tell if something happens. I'm thinking this really worked, y'all. :biggrin:

I'll keep posting this week and maybe for the next month so we can see how this goes. Thanks for being so supportive!!! AB members are the best!

 

[D3N2]

I went out to dinner and came home to find that the odor has left the house (thank goodness--the husband comes home soon!). She's still hard as a rock. There's still a little shininess on my finger when I touch the abdomen--it's not wet or damp feeling and not oily feeling either. I'm at a loss as how to explain it. Any ideas???

Is it flakey or powdery? Only thing I can think of is her hair or the outer layers of her exoskeleton flaking off?

 

[phily1579]

Is it flakey or powdery? Only thing I can think of is her hair or the outer layers of her exoskeleton flaking off?

Im confussed. What are u preserving if the Thing is Dead??? Just throw her out and let her rest in peace dude.

 

[Quazgar]

Baked tarantula, while not pleasant, isn't terribly bad either. It sure isn't appetizing though. :sarcasm:

I do believe I've read that tarantula is a delicacy in parts of Asia...

 

[lunashimmer]

24 hour-post baking update

Is it flakey or powdery? Only thing I can think of is her hair or the outer layers of her exoskeleton flaking off?

Nope, neither. It's an oily-looking sheen that is neither oily nor damp when I rub my fingers together. It's strange!

Im confussed. What are u preserving if the Thing is Dead??? Just throw her out and let her rest in peace dude.

Hmm, you must be a newbie tarantula keeper if you don't understand why I'm doing this. Here's something that will really blow your mind: I (and a lot of others in this hobby) also keep the shed exoskeletons!!! :sarcasm:

Update: 24 hours post baking

She is still dry and totally hard. There appears to be no shrinking of anything--except for being cool, she is still the same as when I took her out of the oven. Woo-hoo!

 

[Allanzo213]

I do believe I've read that tarantula is a delicacy in parts of Asia...

Theres a video on youtube...of a chef oven baking cobalt blues for food....i was pissed.

oh wait, found it

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=YVnXRnUPogM&feature=related

and after they've been basted

http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=l_P8n_7d4dU&feature=related

oy, i can't imagine doing that to any of my t's lol

 

[jhalla16]

i definitely would never try this and also think that there's better ways of going about preserving your dead tarantula... popping them in the oven sounds like a terrible idea to me, but to each his/her own i suppose.

butttttttttt in my humble opinion, that is downright disgusting.

 

[Raven9464]

Thank you so much for sharing this! I wish I had this info when my son's rosie of 8 years passed away. But will definately put it to use in the future!

 

[jim777]

Wow, that pink is really pink! Did she look like that while alive, or did the baking really allow that color to pop out?

 

[lunashimmer]

I do believe I've read that tarantula is a delicacy in parts of Asia...

Yes, I've heard of cooking them in banana leaves, then eating the soft bits (i saw that on a show with Rick West--he actually ate it!), and I've heard of them fried and sold by street vendors in Asia.

Theres a video on youtube...of a chef oven baking cobalt blues for food....i was pissed.

Yeah, people are weird. Believe me, I am not planning on eating her. :barf:

i definitely would never try this and also think that there's better ways of going about preserving your dead tarantula...

How would you preserve one of your full-grown, cool-looking tarantulas? I could never bring myself to slice open its belly, scoop out all the mush, and so on and so forth! Baking a tarantula--essentially drying it out--avoids all the mess and potential barfiness. But you're right, to each their own.

Thank you so much for sharing this! I wish I had this info when my son's rosie of 8 years passed away. But will definately put it to use in the future!

You're welcome!

Wow, that pink is really pink! Did she look like that while alive, or did the baking really allow that color to pop out?

I do believe it popped even more, probably because her exoskeleton got darker. But she always did have a pretty color, especially in the right light. My smaller G. rosea is even brighter than Ella was. She's just gorgeous.

---------- Post added 09-12-2011 at 07:07 PM ----------

Ella's still lookin' good. The bottom of her abdomen is a little wrinkly--I think she's shrinking just a bit. The top of her abdomen still looks nice and round and full. When I touch the top of her abdomen with my finger, I can feel a slight vertical indentation, down the center of her body. This was the part that was the softest the longest during baking.

She doesn't smell at all. That oily residue is still present on my fingers after handling her. Her prosoma shows no sign of shrinking and is still colored that beautiful pink copper.

I am definitely putting her in a shadow box in maybe a month (to make sure she's stable). My favorite holiday is Halloween and I have some fantastic gothic/spiderweb/spooky scrapbook paper that I'll use for the back ground. Maybe even string some of that fake cobweb stuff in the box with her. I will soooooo post pictures of the final project.