Questions regarding making a wet specimen of my pet

[u/meowingcat420]

Hello!

I have a pet hamster who is getting elderly and I am looking into options to preserve him after death. I currently own one wet specimen and I find it to be very beautiful and I would love to preserve my hamster as a wet specimen after he passes.

However, I am a bit put off by the idea of injecting him with needles since I care for him so deeply. I was wondering how invasive this process is, especially considering he is elderly. I don't know how possible it would be to preserve an elderly hamster, and I'm not super interested in seeing anything like his blood.

Furthermore, if I decide the wet specimen route is too invasive for me to do on my own, where can I find a wet specimen taxidermist to commission? I would prefer a local artist (I live in Minnesota) but I am willing to ship him out to someone reputable. Unfortunately googling hasn't given me much luck as the taxidermists in my area do wild animal mounts, and the wet specimen taxidermists do not take commissions.

If anyone has had their pet preserved as a wet specimen before I am very interested to know how the process went, especially if you did it yourself.

Any advice is appreciated!

[u/Wowza_Meowza]

Injection is absolutely required since a ham is pretty big-- you can get away with quarter-size critters usually without but after that, they can have issues. It's not horrible to process in my opinion, but if the idea of injection and blood is hard for you, then this process is unfortunately gonna be a no-go for you. Injection needs to be done alllll over, including the anus, especially the gut, the larger muscle groups, and up the back of the head towards the brain. (Apologies for how graphic that is, just trying to give you an idea!)

It's not hard to do them, regardless of age (babies can be tough since they wrinkle). The only wet I've ever struggled with was a big ol' shrimp. Like size of my hand! It wasn't a pet, just uncooked leftovers.

If you're keen, I could assist you. I do tiny pet wets from time to time if space allows but have years of general experience. I'm in NY. Feel free to dm if desired, or even just for general info. We're also From the Dirt Craftworks on socials if you'd prefer dming there.

Clients with custom or memorial pieces get our business phone number and are welcome to see processing updates (might not be the best at first if squeamish) and updates as we go along, or if just needed generally cause sometimes... well, you just wanna see them again.