# Beef heart VS pork heart



## Donna Little (May 31, 2011)

I'm about to have my sister pick up some meat for me tomorrow in Alabama where she lives and the pork heart is slightly cheaper than beef. Any opinions on if it's as good for the dogs as beef? Is it a lot fattier? I've obviously never bought pork heart and just wondered if it would be comparable in nutrition.


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

Donna Little said:


> I'm about to have my sister pick up some meat for me tomorrow in Alabama where she lives and the pork heart is slightly cheaper than beef. Any opinions on if it's as good for the dogs as beef? Is it a lot fattier? I've obviously never bought pork heart and just wondered if it would be comparable in nutrition.


I don't know either, but my new raw dog food guy has it and I was going to buy 30 pounds next month for a change from beef heart. I'd be interested in what people have to say, also.


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## shellbell (Sep 24, 2011)

I've fed pork heart before. I didn't notice it being particularly fatty. I got about 8 of them for cheap, and they were HUGE.


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## whiteleo (Sep 7, 2008)

Beef heart is much more nutrient dense I'm 98% sure, don't feed a lot of pork but just knowing how they treat those pigs makes me ill..


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

whiteleo said:


> Beef heart is much more nutrient dense I'm 98% sure, don't feed a lot of pork but just knowing how they treat those pigs makes me ill..


Supposedly, the pig heart I'm getting comes from farm raised pigs, not factory farmed. Of course the only way to be 100% sure is to drive up and look.


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## Donna Little (May 31, 2011)

Hmmm, I really have no idea where these pigs are coming from. There's only a .03 difference in price per lb but I was thinking if it was as nutritionally good as beef and each heart was a bit smaller too (thus easier to handle and cut up) then I'd go that route. But now that I think about it I will probably just stick with beef heart because any other cuts of beef are so costly they don't get a lot of that but I do feed other cuts of pork. 
Okay, thanks for the input. I'm going with the beef!


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## DaneMama (Jun 27, 2008)

I would get both for variety's sake. Beef heart is typically fattier but fat isn't a bad thing...its a great thing. Luckily the beef heart fat is easy to see and cut off...the actual meat is very lean.


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## Maritan (Nov 11, 2011)

I use pork hearts to make small cubed training treats. I feed her fatty beef heart as part of her meals. I keep all of the fat because like DaneMama was alluding to, fat is a carnivore's energy source. And it also helps that the heart is from a grass fed cow.


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## BoxerParty (Nov 9, 2011)

I grabbed some pork hearts at my new "dog food" grocery store. The price was AMAZING, and I couldn't pass up the opportunity for my dogs to get more variety, and more red meat, for so cheap.

I have major concerns about feeding pork, which are almost all related to my warm and squishy feelings about pigs. If I could find a source for traditionally raised pork, I'd feel better about it. So I've settled on continuing to avoid eating it myself, but feeding it to the dogs occasionally.


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## Liz (Sep 27, 2010)

We get pork heart for about half the cost of beef heart - so my guys get a lot of it. They love it. I like that they are easier to handle, smaller and actually a heart and a chicken back is a meal for my guys.


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## Donna Little (May 31, 2011)

DaneMama said:


> I would get both for variety's sake. Beef heart is typically fattier but fat isn't a bad thing...its a great thing. Luckily the beef heart fat is easy to see and cut off...the actual meat is very lean.


Beef heart is their main source of red meat but because my dogs are so small and my biggest one only eats 5.6 oz of food per day I don't give them big gobs of the heart fat or it would make up most of their days worth of food. So if pork heart was less fatty I would actually prefer that. They get plenty of fat in their diet so I'm not concerned about that but like to get the most bang for my buck so to speak. This place is the cheapest I've found for heart since my beloved Food Lion closed their doors. (I need a moment of silence please....:frown
They charge $1.25 per lb and every place near me is asking $1.99 now. The pork costs a tiny bit less but I give my dogs a lot of pork ribs, and pork picnic roasts. I can't afford to give them a lot of beef other than the heart because the cheapest I ever see beef around here is around $3.89 per lb.


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