Abstract: In order to explore the relationship between the water characteristics of livestock manure after hyperthermophlic pretreatment and the subsequent composting ripening cycle, the water characteristics of chicken manure and pig manure were determined by using the drying method, and the dehydration rate and the maturity period were also detected. The following four treatments were conducted: traditional composting (CK); hyperthermophilic pretreatment composting (HPC) with pretreatment time of 2, 4 and 6 h, respectively. Results show that after hyperthermophilic pretreatment, the content of bound water (capillary water + adsorbed water + internal bound water) in pig manure and chicken manure was significantly lower than that in the control (P < 0.05). Among them, the proportion of capillary water in the pig manure and chicken manure after high temperature pretreatment for 4 h was 72.0% and 68.0%, respectively, significantly higher than that of the control, while the proportion of adsorbed water in the pig manure and chicken manure was 25.9% and 30.9% respectively, significantly (P < 0.05) lower than that of the control. Compared with the control, the hyperthermophilic pretreatment for 4 h can make the subsequent composting process heat up in advance, increase the temperature and prolong the high temperature period, eventually the seed germination index reached to 80.1%. In addition, the dehydration rate of pig manure and chicken manure after hyperthermophilic pretreatment was significantly higher than that of the control (P < 0.05) in the subsequent composting process. And, the correlation analysis show that there was a significant (P < 0.01) positive correlation between dehydration rate and seed germination index. Therefore, the hyperthermophilic pretreatment changes the water distribution of livestock and poultry manure and promotes the transformation of water in the form of high binding energy to low binding energy, which helps to promote the dehydration efficiency of subsequent composting process. To some extent, it is beneficial to shorten the decomposition time and reduce the cost of composting, and provide new methods and ideas for future research on dehydration technology of livestock and poultry manure.