How to re-moisten dry molts?

[SkittleBunny]

How would one go about making a molt soft and malleable again? Preferably without losing the hairs?

 

[viper69]

Carefully

 

[Teal]

Water. Let it soak.

People often recommend adding a drop of dish soap to the water to erase the surface tension.

 

[SkittleBunny]

Water. Let it soak.

People often recommend adding a drop of dish soap to the water to erase the surface tension.

When it dries will it still look as fluffy as the original? Or will it permanently effect the way it looks? Thanks for the reply!

 

[Vanisher]

It depends how long you let it soak. But maybe not as soft as a 5 minute moult. As said. Water with a drop dish soap!

 

[sasker]

If you want to untangle a crumbled up molt to make it look nice, I do not advice dunking it into water. It will not look as nice after it dries up. You'd better use steam to make the molt more malleable.

 

[Teal]

When it dries will it still look as fluffy as the original? Or will it permanently effect the way it looks? Thanks for the reply!

If you want it to look nice and fluffy, then take a squirt bottle and spray into the carapace area. The water will go into the legs after a bit and make them posable. I use a wet Q tip to moisten the abdomen area of the molt for sexing if I need to.

I don't soak any of my molts because I want them to look nice, too.

 

[nicodimus22]

The method that yields the best results for me:

-Obtain a bowl with a lid, or a Cool Whip or Tupperware container with a lid, etc.

-Tear off a full-sized paper towel, and fold it into quarters (or whatever size you need to fit it in the container.)

-Dampen the heck out of it. There shouldn't be standing water in the container, but you want the paper towel very saturated.

-Lay the molt on top of the paper towel, put the lid on, and wait 24 hours.

I've been able to nicely unfold tons of molts, some of them dried and twisted, for sexing doing this. It works much better than dunking the molt in water, which I have also tried many times.

 

[CommanderBacon]

Honestly, I think everyone covered it, but I just mist it with water, wait five minutes, and very carefully manipulate it with a toothpick, a cotton swab, and sometimes a pair of tweezers. It was surprisingly easy to sex this one that way, for example.