I'm going to try hydrated tonight. I'm also having problems with the BG not wanting to hang on to the dry Optimal BG pellet. Interesting, I did not notice this problem when feeding Sportsman Choice last summer or Optimal BG Jr last fall.
So I just came up from feeding hydrated Optimal BG. All I can say is WOW! what a difference hydrating made. I saw ZERO rejections. I am going to increase my feed amount by 50% right away and probably more as I see how it goes. I lacked a "recipe" for hydrating so I went with 3 parts pellets to 1 part water. Moisture content was ok. What ratio do you guys use?