kfeusse Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 this is in our science program to do next and I am wondering 1) is it gross? 2) is it worth doing? 3) how many items can we expect to find in one pellet? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Alice Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 1) Yes, a little. 2) YES. 3) We found the complete skeleton of three separate animals. One rat and two mice. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lady Marmalade Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 Yes, it is a little gross, but it really is fascinating to see how many little animals are in one of those pellets. We were never able to assemble a full skeleton, but we easily found 5 skulls in our pellet. DD wore gloves while dissecting, and it took quite a while, but we both thought the end result was worth it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Guest Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 Totally worth it, ds loved it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jennifer3141 Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 Completely worth it!! We do them for fun every month or so. Actually, those were the weirdest things in my kids' Xmas stocking this year. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
itsheresomewhere Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 Completely worth it!! We do them for fun every month or so. Actually, those were the weirdest things in my kids' Xmas stocking this year. :D :iagree: My kids love them. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kfeusse Posted April 19, 2012 Author Share Posted April 19, 2012 thanks....ok...now I am more prepared. How long does it take to do this project...and how careful must you be...it is something that the adult person should do...or can I kid do it without damage?? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kfeusse Posted April 19, 2012 Author Share Posted April 19, 2012 Completely worth it!! We do them for fun every month or so. Actually, those were the weirdest things in my kids' Xmas stocking this year. :D OK...THAT is weird...:D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Belacqua Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 It's interesting. Just a word of caution though. If you have a cat, don't leave it out unattended after. My cat jumped on the table and started crunching on the bones! :ack2: Sounds like a win-win! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
DianeW88 Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 They're really fun, and honestly, not gross at all. It's an owl hairball. :D They radiate them well, so there's no chance of catching anything from them, and they're super easy for kids to do on their own. We have a mess of them around here somewhere. After that...graduate to dissecting cow eyeballs. Those are a blast!! Big as tennis balls and they leave all the muscle tissue behind the eye attached. They come in a Zip-loc full of formaldehyde solution. The eyes all look like they're staring at you when you lift the bag out of the box. :lol: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
jar7709 Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 My kids loved it! Not too gross, most of the ones you buy have been autoclaved so the germs are killed, there's a lot of fuzzy fur that looks like dust. We found remains of three voles in one pellet. I blogged about it not too long ago, link in my sig, about halfway down the front page. :001_smile: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
plath Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 What age would you say these are good for? I can't wait to do these with dd but she's only 4 now. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jeanne in MN Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 They also usually come with a grid showing you what bones of common prey of the owl looks like so you can piece a critter together by following the chart and identifying bones. It's like a puzzle. :) We actually found a quarter- sized bird head with a large, long beak! I put that one in a baby food jar and kept it! But I also keep all kinds of science stuff. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
3peasinWa Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 my ds dissected one at age 5. He loved it - but he preferred to use a small tool to look thru it, rather then use his hands. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Amy1k Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 It's interesting. Just a word of caution though. If you have a cat, don't leave it out unattended after. My cat jumped on the table and started crunching on the bones! :ack2: And if you have a burrowing dog around, keep the box HIGH up. My brother's dog got to the low shelf our box of owl pellets was on, opened the box, and spread bones everywhere. I was traumatized. :cry: :laugh: Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Paintedlady Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 It's only gross for a minute, and then you get over it. Yes, totally worth doing! DS even turned it into a project for our homeschool science fair last year. Learned a lot and lots of fun. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kfeusse Posted April 19, 2012 Author Share Posted April 19, 2012 My kids loved it! Not too gross, most of the ones you buy have been autoclaved so the germs are killed, there's a lot of fuzzy fur that looks like dust. We found remains of three voles in one pellet. I blogged about it not too long ago, link in my sig, about halfway down the front page. :001_smile: I looked at your blog...you guys are right....it really looks cool. My kit only came with 2 pellets...wish I could get another one quickly. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Pretty in Pink Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 It's not all that gross and you generally find some very interesting things. As a PP mentioned, the kits usually come with illustrations to help you identify what you are looking at. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
garddwr Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 We did this a few weeks back, here's my blog post about it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Trilliums Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 My kids, who love science hands on stuff, really did not care for the pellet dissection. I was definitely more into it than they were. Bit of a let down for me since I had been looking forward to it. I guess my kids are more into exploding stuff. :) Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Jane in NC Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 thanks....ok...now I am more prepared. How long does it take to do this project...and how careful must you be...it is something that the adult person should do...or can I kid do it without damage?? How long it takes depends upon the person doing the dissection. I once lead a group of upper level elementary grade students through the process. Most just picked through and identified the mouse bones on a chart I gave them. One spent hours reconstructing a three dimensional mouse skeleton from the bones. Personally I think it would be dull to watch. I'd let the kids do it. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thescrappyhomeschooler Posted April 19, 2012 Share Posted April 19, 2012 Another vote for yes, it is worth it. My kids loved it, and it wasn't nearly as gross as I had anticipated. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Bluegoat Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 I used to work at a museum in the school loans department, and one of the things I got to do was sort through all the dissected owl pellets that were returned. It was so interesting, and it was a really popular kit just because of that activity. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mrs Mungo Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 I don't think it is very gross. It is very worth it. The kids can do it just fine. Don't knock the box of sorted bones behind a bookcase and leave it for a mover to find 6 months later. Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kalanamak Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 Do it on black construction paper. The bones really show up. Anyone done the fake one? Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
ThisIsTheDay Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 It's interesting. Just a word of caution though. If you have a cat, don't leave it out unattended after. My cat jumped on the table and started crunching on the bones! :ack2: :lol::lol::lol: I was going to post a warning also about keeping it away from the cats! Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Lizzie in Ma Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 Absolutely worth doing, one of our favorite labs. I've even put owl pellets in the kids Christmas stockings so they can do it again. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Rivka Posted April 20, 2012 Share Posted April 20, 2012 So worth it! I was really surprised by the number and good condition of bones we found. Here's a video of my 5yo explaining the process. :D Quote Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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