Reviving my Kefir grains

[rd200]

So im not sure what happened, but my kefir grains have like started to Dissolve??? I had put them in a jar of milk, and when i went to take them out they were breaking apart and instead of 3 or 4 large clumps of them, there was only 2.... not sure where the others went??? There are some remanants in teh milk but they are looking not so great. I dont get it, they are like dieing, and im doing everything right (i think) Any ideas as to why they are doing this??? thanks

 

[citylife]

Do you use metal strainer or spoons? I understand you can use any milk except skim (not enough fat content to feed them).
Maybe having the milk room temp before adding grains may help it out. I do not have a clue as you can see but wanted to throw a few things out there. I use no metal.
Good luck to you.

 

[moolie]

The metal rule is only important if it's something other than stainless steel--we've always used stainless steel spoons for scooping our grains out each day and plopping into a new jar.

There's a thought, do you use a clean jar each day when you take the grains out and put them into new milk? We change jars every day.

I'd also heard the bit about not using skim milk, we use whole (homegenized because we can't get anything else locally) organic milk, and we pour it into the new jar straight from the fridge, and our grains grow like crazy. We keep having to give extra away.

Google Dom's Kefir Page and have a good read through his info--he may have some advice for what you are seeing.