Liver

Have you considered feeding the liver raw?  Cooking liver destroys a fair amount of the nutrients.

I wouldn't mind raw chicken livers.  But the dog is allergic to chicken.  Beef liver looks gross green or red.  What can I substitute?

Turkey livers, rabbit livers.

You need some organ meats, if you're feeding a home prepared diet, or you'll need to supplement for the nutrients you're missing out on.

I put beef or pork (not anymore!) livers in the food processor and liquefy them. They're smelly, but once they're mixed in (as 5-10% of the total food) they're not bad at all!

I feed kibble, but I add raw beef/calf liver twice a week.  Trust me, what looks and smells gross to us is delicious to them.

Yesterday I bought calves liver. I never cooked it before and when I put it in the pan it was surrounded by reddish brown goop. I rinsed it off and fried it. When it cooled alot of it turned greenish. What happened?

 My family loves liver but I don't cook it the way you did. I soak it in cold water first and then rinse it thoroughly. After that it gets coated with flour and cooked with onions; there is no reddish brown goop. Liver won't really brown if you don't dredge it in flour, so that's why yours was "greenish"; that's fine and nothing to worry about. It's not true that cooking liver destroys it's nutrients; one ounce of cooked calf's liver has 375% of the recommended daily amount of vitamin A and 9% iron; the same amount when raw has 219% of the recommended daily amount of vitamin A and 10% iron. Because it is so high in vitamin A you should only feed a very small amount to your dog.

Do the B vitamins maintain through cooking?  I always thought cooking was bad.

I think the recommened amount of liver is 1 ounce per 10 pounds body weight per week.  I think that's a conservative amount though.

Do the B vitamins maintain through cooking? I always thought cooking was bad.

 
  Yes they do;   [linkhttp://www.monicasegal.com/newsletters/2005-07NL.php]http://www.monicasegal.com/newsletters/2005-07NL.php[/link];
 
100 grams of beef liver, raw vs. cooked:
calories: 135 vs 191
protein: 20.36 gr vs 29.08 gr
carbohydrate: 3.89 gr vs 5.13 gr
fat: 3.63 gr vs 5.26 gr
calcium: 5 mg vs 6 mg
iron: 4.90 mg vs 6.54 mg
magnesium: 18 mg vs 21 mg
phosphorus: 387 mg vs 497 mg
potassium: 313 mg vs 352 mg
sodium: 69 mg vs 79 mg
zinc: 4 mg vs 5.30 mg
copper: 9.75 mg vs 14.28 mg
manganese: 0.310 mg vs 0.356 mg
selenium: 39.7 mcg vs 36.1 mcg
vitamin C: 1.3 mg vs 1.9 mg
thiamin: 0.189 mg vs 0.194 mg
riboflavin: 2.75 mg vs 3.425 mg
niacin: 13.17 mg vs 17.525 mg
pantothenic acid: 7.17 mg vs 7.11 mg
vitamin B-6: 1.08 mg vs 1.017 mg
folate: 290 mcg vs 253 mcg
vitamin B-12: 59.3 mcg vs 70.58 mcg
vitamin A: 16,898 IU vs 31,714 IU
 
  As for the amount of liver a dog should have, Monica Segal's recipe for a week's worth of food for a ten pound dog calls for one fourth ounce of beef liver, one ounce for a twenty pound dog, etc. Cooking enhances some nutrients but destroys others. Enzymes and probiotics are destroyed by heat, which is why dog food companies that add them to their food spray them on after the kibble has been cooked and allowed to cool.

 
I didn't know that about flour and liver.  Now I know how to feed liver lovers.
I am going to look for turkey livers.  I hope I don't have to wait till thanksgiving.
"what looks and smells gross to us is delicious to them."  I have to learn to think like a dog.
Liquify.. hmm.. an idea for liversicles for summer.
 
Thanks, everybody.
 
 

The only reason the amounts of some nutrients go up after cooking is because of the loss of moisture when cooked. She's not talking about availibility there, but the content of the food. Cooking doesn't somehow create higher levels of nutrients. I'd like to compare 100 grams raw, and then that same 100 grams, after cooking, which would make it less than 100 grams, because it would have less moisture.

I soak liver, duck and other wild game in milk (duck and wild game is soaked in salt water first, then the milk) and that really helps pull out the blood and tone down the taste.  I then do it in flour, lightly brown each side, slice up onions over the top, add water, bring to boil, cover and cook til tender.  That is for humans.  For the dogs I just rinse and add.  in fact, will make the chicken stew tomorrow night and this week am added calf liver for 2ed meat.  Will cook a little of it for me.

Cooking the beef / calves liver in a little bit of water will release that icky brown goop, but thats absolutely normal.   So is the funky green color.    Just pick the liver up and shake the gook off.

http://mooreshaven.com/pets/dogs/safety/badfoodslist.html

Scroll down to the section on liver.  I don't feed liver in high quanitities, and I never feed it raw.  My dogs get organ meat in smaller quantities which I occasionally bake into their training treats.  [sm=2cents.gif] 

Spiritdogs - you're absolutely right - too much of anything is never a good thing and liver is PACKED with Vitamin A.     To give you an idea of just HOW packed it is, 2 grams of liver (that's GRAMS, there are 23 grams in an ounce) meets the entire daily Vit A requirements for Prancer (who weighs 15 lbs).   One ounce would deliver 11x the amount she needs !
I came across something from a Monica Segal pamplet or forum (can't remember which) where she states she never goes over 5x the recommended allowance of Vitamin A.    Seems reasonable to me.
However, without liver in homecooked meals there would likely be a deficiency in Iron and Copper, so a little is needed for those minerals and some other trace minerals.  You just have to be careful with its usage and keep in mind the amt of Vitamin A delivered in any supplements you use.
BTW - Sweet Potatos are also loaded with Vit A so one needs to be aware of the levels in that food source also

since dogs LOVE liver I usually feed them their weekly allowance as training rewards-- chop it up and pop it into the food dehydrator overnight and mix it into a batch of non-liver based treats.