Mine melted at first, too!  I don't actually have a dehydrator; I stuck them
in a *turned off* oven, heated only by the pilot light.  I came back about
fifteen minutes later to a gooey, runny, sticky mess.
 
After that, I remelted them, adding *a lot* more gelatin and more flavoring.
I let them dry at room temperature, and the texture was almost exactly like
the "real" Cheweasels.  They smelled slightly like chicken ..  not bad at
all!  (Of course, my ferrets still wouldn't so much as look at them ... but
they looked and smelled good to me!)
 
I'd had the homemade Cheweasels sitting out for the past week, as I
continued to try to get my ferrets to try them.  (No luck).  Yesterday, when
I handled them, I found that they had gotten brittle and hard, and were
almost sort of sharp around the edges.  So, I threw them out.  I guess the
take-home lesson on that one is that they need to be kept in a closed
container, so that they don't dehydrate.
 
Hope this helps!
 
- Ela
[Posted in FML issue 2349]