Just a question on gland lure color and why mine is darker. I have red, grey, and coyote gland lures I made. All glands I collected from my own catches, did my best to gather good clean ingredients, and each species batch has a single liver from one of the specimens in it. I ground and jarred all separately, did not separate genders. These batches are 2 years old now, in pints, kept sealed in an old non working dorm fridge in an unheated shop. I did not stir enough in the first six months from what I read here, but they smell useable to me, and have made catches with them. Each time I go to check on them or get some to use, the top layer is darker and when stirred in it makes the lure grey or greyer in color. I am curious how to stop this on the future batches, I tried to give as much info as possible in this lengthy post, thanks in advance.

The top of your lure gets exposed to air in the jars.

Yep, exposure to air will darken aged glands.

Fair enough, but I have gland lures I bought from others that are 2 and 3 years ago that do not have this happening. I can only figure I obviously lack something in my formulation to keep this from happening. Does anything prevent this darkening or do I need to handle it differently to avoid the color change?

Raw handled glands or meats will continue to darken with age. This is due to the nature of decomposition and the multiplying of bacteria in the organic tissue. That is the effect of oxygenation of the material. Good lure making can be a long trial and error process over many years.

Appreciate that Bob, and it makes sense. I have another batch in the pipeline I just added to the raw jar an hour ago. I will handle this batch differently and see if I can mitigate some of this. Had I not stirred it in the stuff underneath was still a nice color, I think I can do this differently and still utilize the grey portion in another formula.

Thank you E.J. and Todd as well for your thoughts. I am still catching with my "grey matter" so all is not lost, much like putting up fur, the end goal is the best appearance I can achieve. Thanks again.

There are multiple preservatives that will prevent discoloration. But they will change the rotting and aging process.

This is my first batch, it has the smell (I think) that I want, and I have not added anything to it but urine. Looking back at my empty bottles they are all Jameson products, and I feel I harvested good glands all frozen same day as caught, then ground, aged. I think I may not have stirred often enough the first six months, and none have been "stopped or stabilized, but to my nose, they have not changed much since last season, It was made circa first quarter 2024.

The reason your boughten lures don't change color is because they have been stopped with preservatives. But if you want to age something you can't have preservatives in it. Kind of defeats the purpose. Once it is age to where you like and you stop it, it should quit changing colors. Although prolonged exposure air or sunlight may still cause some darkening.

If you want a gland like color that I have you need to be very strict with your cuts, keep blood and any other additives/feces from that animal will cause a drastic color change to your product during the aging process.

Those other additives will change everything. If you would like to up grade your process to a natural tan/cream/light brown finished color with a natural animal specific odor you need to be on top of your process and pay attention to it regularly. You need to watch for changes, bacteria, mold growth and any other problems like fly eggs, larvae etc.

You must be sure you start with very clean gland cuts. Absolutely no feces in your attached colon pieces to your anal gland and no other organs added. When you start adding livers, kidneys or other organs you will get dark red/grey breakdown gland color.

We have always aged everything indoors in a controlled environment. No drastic temperature changes or exposure to high temperatures. You will never get clean finished gland color with outdoor aging. If they start to turn you have done something wrong. Our glands remain the same in color once they have several months of age beyond the fresh ground state.

Gland and meat aging can be very challenging to a beginning formulator until you get a handle on it. There is a very big odor difference between rotted down glands outdoors and those aged slowly indoors over years. Smell them side by side and you will understand better. We prefer a more natural and subtle gland odor vs the sharp outdoor aged material.

Great info, thank you. Sounds like it is back to the drawing board on a couple items. I forget where I read to include the liver, I do remember the source cautioned about adding too much. I have an old non working fridge indoors to age in, I only make oils outside.

Thanks for sharing Bob.

Ask the animals what they think of it. Its easy sometimes to put more emphasis on what we think it looks like or smells like, when what we should b most focused on is how attractive it is to the target animals. Don't give up on something until the animals tell u its not good enough. Ive got a gland lure i use liver in and the color doesn't affect the catch rate any.

My GL40 is a red fox gland lure tat has beaver liver in it. Like Seth said, let the animals tell you what they think of it. To me this lure has a mild peanut butter odor. There's no peanut butter in it. Over time, the surface of this pasty lure darken some.

My lure is catching fur, so far no refusal I know of, I just thought I'd ask about the greying color of it. I stirred that layer in without thinking. Next time I will skim it off and see if I can retain my color. I probably should have "stopped" an ounce of it every 6 months to compare it going forward. I appreciate everyone's input. I don't sell lure, not trying to take food outta anyone's fridge, just enjoying the art of trapping and making my own lur wee from critters I catch.

Dave Edwards once cautioned me about a producing a gland lure that is "too hot". He mentioned using liver to tone things down a little.