what are organ meats exactly?

[RufusRules]

I have been feeding Rufus a raw diet for almost a year now. He is doing quite well. I talked with a "doggie nutrition expert" and she told me I needed to give him more organ meats. I had been giving him chicken gizzards, but she said that wasn't good. She didn't elaborate on what I should give him.

I thought gizzards were organs, help! (I also give him two sardines a day, would that be considered some organ meat?)

Also, I have been reading that alot of you give your dog something called "marrow bones"? Would I get that from a butcher? Are they beef bones?

This whole thing is so confusing, and there is no definitive plan that I can find, so many schools of thought. Any advice is appreciated!

Thanks!

-Denise and Rufus

[gmacleod]

I don't think chicken gizzards are bad - but they're not enough, certainly.

A dog should have about 15-20% of the total diet made up of organ meats (otherwise known as offal). That's internal organs such as heart, lungs, tripe, kidney and liver. It should also be from a variety of different animals (beef, lamb, pork, venison, turkey etc) - just chicken won't do. Offal is the most nutritious part of an animal and is usually very high in vitamins and minerals - that's why it is so important in the diet.

[Borgan]

I was also considering adding a bit of organ meat to Luna's pre-packaged raw diet to put on some weight. For a 21 lb dog, who's eating a 1/2 pound of food already (per day), how much is enough (daily)? I don't want her to have loose stool. And also, when you go to the butcher, how do you ask for it? Ground? Mixed types of meat? And when you bring it home, how do you divide it for freezing? I ditched the DIY raw diet because it was too high-maintenance!!! Don't want to get too much into it again...

[gmacleod]

How much offal is already in the mix you feed? Or to make things simple, do those mixes come without offal?

Beyond that little conundrum, the simple answer would be to figure out what 15% of her weekly food allocation would be. If she's eating 3.5 lb of food per week, that would work out to be 8.4 ounces of offal you'd need feed per week(and 8.4 ounces less other food to feed).

Sooo - 8.4 ounces of offal per week. How you choose to feed it is up to you and your dog. Mine is fine with being fed meals that consist completely of offal, so that's usually how I feed it. He'll get a meal of heart one time. A meal of kidney or liver another time. Tripe fairly frequently, etc. That's the easiest way - but I'm blessed with a dog that has no problems with that.

But that way of feeding does give some dogs runny stool (especially with liver) - a whole meal of offal is just too rich. And if that's the case for your girl, then you'd probably prefer to add just a little offal to her meals on a more regular basis. Eg. Splitting her 8.4 ounces up between five or six different meals.

I don't bother getting offal ground. I just buy what looks good at the butcher and freeze it in appropriately sized amounts. I feed it roughly diced. If you were to be adding just a little to many meals, then I'd suggest that you dice it up when you get it home, and freeze it that way. Then it's just a case of defrost and serve as required :)