Hello Edward,
No, the freeze dried foods that I make are not semi-liquid or thin
soup. I do not use any special freeze-drying equipment.

The only equipment that I use is a frost free freezer, a sharp knife
and a pair of shears, some ice cube trays and Styrofoam meat packing
trays.
 
I cut the raw meaty item into pieces approximately 1 inch square by
about 1/4" thick. Small items like chicken hearts get cut into thirds.
The pieces are then put into the ice cube trays or spread upon the
Styrofoam trays then stacked on the shelf in my freezer. Because the
freezer is frost free the moisture is removed from the meaty items.

The original moisture content of the food will determine the length of
time for the item to dry. When the item has the consistency of a piece
of leather or if I test a piece by cutting it in half and it is uniform
in color and consistency all the way through it is done!

I have successfully freeze-dried every type of raw meaty item that I
feed to the ferrets. This means Cornish game and, chicken, salmon,
rabbit, chicken heart, chicken livers, chicken gizzards, turkey hearts,
chicken necks, and turkey necks. I even freeze-dry their duck soup,
mashed pumpkin (blockage prevention), and the ground meat mix which is
made of ground pork, turkey, veal, beef, chicken, mix together and put
in ice cube trays. When the mix is frozen at pop out the meat cubes cut
them in thirds and allow them to continue to freeze-dried. This turns
the ground meat into something with a dryer consistency that will offer
some teeth cleaning ability.

Freeze-drying liver takes exceptionally long because of its very high
moisture content but pretty much everything else will be freeze-dried
within two to three weeks at the most.
 
Cheers,
Kim
 
please visit :
for ferret help and info:
http://holisticferret.proboards80.com/index.cgi
http://ferretopia.proboards51.com/index.cgi
yahoo groups Natural Ferrets

for fun: 
www.vanityferret.com

[Posted in FML 6070]