Beef liver?????

[kazzy220]

As a total newcomer to home cooking I'm sticking to the beef that I know works well with all three bullies.

Question .......... I found some really nice beef liver ..... is that ok to throw in with the ground beef. The pack I was looking at was 1lb .. so thinking maybe 3lb ground beef to 1lb beef liver.

Or is beef liver too rich for them???

 

[Lucy-licious]

Liver is ok... but dont give it too often. and what I remember with Billy it gave him soft poops..so I didnt get it again x

 

[BruceP]

high in iron.

 

[kazzy220]

Ohhhh ... I've been talking about this on the ROEB chat page we have on facebook ... my venture into home cooking. One of our ROEB fosters has home cooked for a long time and has said it's ok to do a 75% ground beef and 25% beef liver mix but only maybe once or twice a month.

Now I have another ROEB person saying because of the high Vit A content of beef liver, that if I give it in more than 3 servings it will cause Vitaimin A toxicity!!!??

[MENTION=4225]Twice[/MENTION] [MENTION=5228]Zoey1974[/MENTION] [MENTION=2291]cowsmom[/MENTION]

 

[cowsmom]

[MENTION=959]kazzy220[/MENTION] i think beef liver supposed to be used sparingly like when you feed raw. gives them soft if used to much. as for toxicity hm i dunno bout that.


edit: ok i looked in a couple of places on the web and it says this on the pit bull site i looked at.

Dogs can develop hypervitaminosis A, an overdose of vitamin A, if they consume too much beef liver. Other maladies that result from an abundance of beef liver include deformed bones, unusual bone growth and weight loss.

This was on a natural dog health remedy site listing human foods for dogs and how good they are for them or not good

Although liver contains a lot of nutrients, feeding too much liver to our dogs is a no-no. In very large quantities, beef liver can be toxic to dogs because it contains large amounts of vitamin A

 

[Twice]

Ready for conflicting information?

The American Association of Feed Control Officials (AAFCO) regulates the vitamin levels in all pet food. The group has determined that the recommended minimum daily dose of vitamin A for dogs is 2,272 International Units (IU) per pound of food or 50 IU per pound of body weight.
The toxic dose of vitamin A for dogs has been set at between 2,500 and 113,600 IU per pound of food, but only if this elevated level of vitamin A is fed to a dog daily for months or even years.

That's a whole LOT of liver!

According to the FDA, 3 ounces of beef liver contains 27,000 IU of vitamin A. Goose liver has the highest amount coming in at 31 IU, chicken 11 and fish is the lowest at 9 IU. Vitamin A is a water soluable vitamin, if the body gets more than it needs it stores it in the fat cells. (the edited in part...) This is where the toxicity can come from. If enough is stored in fat cells, when the body starts burning that fat the vitamins or whatever else is stored in there releases into the blood stream, doubling or sometimes tripling the dose.

If I remember the raw feeding directions, they say to only feed organs once a week anyway.

 

[Sherry]

I use to freeze little bits of liver and use as treats. But it will def give loose stools. I hate loose stools. Once in a blue moon may be ok, but I hardly buy it anymore, even though the price is right!

 

[kazzy220]

Ready for conflicting information?



That's a whole LOT of liver!

According to the FDA, 3 ounces of beef liver contains 27,000 IU of vitamin A. Goose liver has the highest amount coming in at 31 IU, chicken 11 and fish is the lowest at 9 IU. Vitamin A is a water soluable vitamin, if the body gets more than it needs it stores it in the fat cells. (the edited in part...) This is where the toxicity can come from. If enough is stored in fat cells, when the body starts burning that fat the vitamins or whatever else is stored in there releases into the blood stream, doubling or sometimes tripling the dose.

If I remember the raw feeding directions, they say to only feed organs once a week anyway.

I think I may do liver only once a month then but at 1/8th of the ingredients. That way it will be safe but no loose poops.

 

[anatess]

In Prey Model Raw feeding, liver is an important part of the diet as we try to minimize plant matter such as vegetables as much as possible in their diet other than what is found in green tripe. Liver has the most nutrients in whole prey. Liver needs to comprise no more than 5% of the dog's food intake and another 5% for all other secreting organs (non-muscle organs). As we believe that plant matter is not as efficiently digested in a dog's digestive tract as animal sources are, liver is then considered as more advantageous for the dog than its corresponding vegetable source of vitamins and minerals.

 

[kazzy220]

In Prey Model Raw feeding, liver is an important part of the diet as we try to minimize plant matter such as vegetables as much as possible in their diet other than what is found in green tripe. Liver has the most nutrients in whole prey. Liver needs to comprise no more than 5% of the dog's food intake and another 5% for all other secreting organs (non-muscle organs). As we believe that plant matter is not as efficiently digested in a dog's digestive tract as animal sources are, liver is then considered as more advantageous for the dog than its corresponding vegetable source of vitamins and minerals.

So maybe I should do less than 1/8th of the total amount ....

 

[anatess]

So maybe I should do less than 1/8th of the total amount ....

If you're doing it as part of his staple meal, yes. But, if it's just an occassional thing, then it's fine. In PMR, the rule-of-thumb is the total food intake is 2-3% of the dog's ideal body weight and 5% of that 2-3% is liver. So, for my 60lb dog, I feed around 1.5lbs of food everyday with around 1.2 ounces of it being liver. I do the small daily liver serving instead of giving half a pound of liver one day a week because the dogs' stools tend to get soft after a big liver meal. Yeah, it's tedious chopping up liver in such small pieces. I got so good at it that I can slice off a chunk of liver, put it on the scale and it would most often than not fall between 1 and 1.5 ounces! I chopped up 3 months worth of liver for my 3 dogs in one chopping session...

Disclaimer: This is all for raw liver. Cooked liver may be different. I haven't looked into that actually.