# Dried meat?



## MrsKaia (Dec 3, 2011)

I don't know exactly how much (if any) nutrients are being retained after drying, but I do it so that I have control over the additives that my dog consumes. My agility trainer swears by microwave dried hot dogs from the 99ct store (and I do use them too every once in a while), but I prefer to buy human grade 50% offs (meat and poultry) at my local supermarket (haven't been able to find a good supplier of organ meat), cook that for a short time, dry with a paper towel, and then cut it up to dry in a food dehydrator. If you like you can cook a little chopped up garlic or anything else that your dog likes or tolerates with it. You'll have a nice meat or poultry broth afterwards that you can keep in the freezer until use.


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## ladybird (Jul 9, 2011)

All of the liver I give mine is dehydrated (I have my own dehydrator and do it at home). I just chop it up into treat-sized pieces and put it in for about 6 hours on 65-70C. That makes it dry on the outside and still moist/chewy on the inside (if the pieces are at least 1/2cm cubed), then they go in the freezer along with the rest of his meals. I pick out the daily portions to defrost. I'd say dehydrating roughly halves the weight of fresh so I go by that for portion size - so if they need 25g of liver per day, I use about 15g of dried liver treats that day.

As far as nutrients, freeze dried is NOT better than dehydrated from what I've read because the deep freezing process kills vitamins and such... apparently drying by dehydration is better because the vitamins are just dried up (and for me the liver is still moist in the middle so there is definately going to be nutrients in that part)


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## petitpie (Nov 16, 2011)

I googled frozen foods and dehydrated foods and nutrient loss (I know, I know), but I wanted a quick answer.....(sort of an obsession is health for me). :alien2:

Apparently, frozen food can retain nutrients. It also depends on what happens before or after food is frozen: soil, age, any processing.....

Dehydrating apparently is "yes and "no"......

Sounds like a draw and kinda confusing.....but look it up for yourselves. :angel2:


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## Kaylee (Jun 11, 2011)

Thank you for your responses. 
I'll keep looking for information on dried meat, and if I don't find anything bad I guess I'll use it. I like your idea of keeping it moist in the middle, Ladybird. That way I could put some in my pocket for training but it would definitely be good.


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