[OzChi]

I'm full of questions today aren't I!

That's coz I've decided to go from a diet based around pre-mades plus some chicken wings to putting together my dog's raw food myself. I didn't think the pre-made was 100% nutritionally balanced and I was worried about preservatives, it was a good intermediate step but i'm ready to go the whole hog so to speak.

Last night I fed liver and kidney mixed with some pork offcuts. Chloe wasn't that impressed and really just played with her food. Axle on the other hand gobbled his down in minutes and seemed to like the kidney especially. This got me wondering about the ratios for the raw diet. Is 10% organ meat a minimum standard? Can i feed more if he particularly likes it? Had no issues with runny poop, it was black though which didn't particularly surprise me given the really high iron content of the liver, i know this can happen from personal experience with iron supplements. Can't think of why more would be a problem but i'm happy to be informed differntly if that's the case.

 

[svdreamer]

I found this, hope it helps:

Do not overdo the organ meat! Organs are incredibly nutrient rich and are a necessary component of an appropriate raw diet, since these are a vital source of vitamins and minerals for your pets. Too much organ meat can lead to loose stools and a bout with diarrhea (which clears up quickly when the next meal comes through).

 

[Brodysmom]

Pam is correct. Don't overdo the organ meat! It's 10% of the diet because it is very nutrient dense. Try to keep it at 10% of the diet with 50% liver and 50% other organ. When weighed out for an average 5 pound dog, that's about an ounce of liver and an ounce of kidney once a week. Daily serving would be about the size of a fingernail. Not much at all!

 

[OzChi]

Cool, i will just keep it as a smidge and be happy that Axle likes it so much. Now to get Chloe to eat it...

 

[LostLakeLua]

Yupyup, the purpose of "prey model raw" is to mimick the actual ratios of whole prey. So, since organ only makes up about 10%, going over that would be messing up the balance. =)

My Kahlua HATES raw liver. Detests it. Tried every trick in the book. I resorted to "pilling" her with it but she went from my best friend to having this betrayed look on her face so I couldn't keep up with that for long lol. Now, I stick with Free Dried Raw Liver for her. While I still believe raw would be best; I think there's a USDA or something website that analyzes the nutrients in foods and compares them raw, cooked, etc. and liver oddly enough was the weird exception to the rule of cooking destroying nutrients and actually increased some of them. Granted freeze drying is a far stretch from cooking; but I do feel comfortable feeding it to her as a replacement.

 

[Mel's chi's]

Remember you can always use cod liver oil as a liver substitute or alternative. Also, the heart and gizzard are considered muscle meat and can be given in greater quantity ( mine love this mix!)