# Where do you find organs?



## GoingPostal (Sep 5, 2011)

I'm considering switching one of my dogs to raw, can't really afford to do all three but this one is having allergy/skin problems all of a sudden and she's always been a chunk on kibble anyways, she's got a bad knee awaiting replacement and needs to lose weight too. I already feed my cat and ferrets raw, but they get a lot of whole prey and I order hearts from hare-today. Ordering enough organ meat for a dog, especially 3 when I switch everybody isn't really cost effective, I'm figuring I'd need at least 10 pounds a month or so. Locally all I can get is liver, small containers of chicken liver, turkey livers in the occasional giblet pack the butcher puts out and beef liver but only devined, I did ask about ordering but I can get hearts in a 30 pound case, livers in a 50 and that's it. There's no ethnic markets or the like. I had high hopes of getting a deer this year, would have been great for meat and organs but everybody skunked out but my brother who won't give me meat for a dog. I don't know how long it's safe to hold organs frozen, if I order a case that would set me on livers for half a year, but no variety because I'd never use multiple cases. I'd still need organs other than liver too.


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## JoeynZoey (Apr 25, 2011)

If you're just going to make the transition to raw, liver is the last source and any other organ you'll want feed/introduce. Most wait until at least a month or two before beginning to introduce organs, and at a slow gradual rate.


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

Well, hearts aren't really an organ. i think they are a muscle meat.

When you come to a point when you want to start feeding organs, you should be able to find them. i think alot of people feed liver only because they can't get other organs or because liver is usually pretty cheap. 

Now and then I find kidney just at the grocery store. When I do, I buy it all up.


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## shellbell (Sep 24, 2011)

I order most of my organs through My Pet Carnivore. There are also some local butcher shops here where I think I could get them if I needed to. Someone I know who feeds raw gets them from one of these shops for $.50/lb and is going to pick some up for me in January. Also through word of mouth, I had some deer hunters save me organs, and co-worker of my mom's has given me organs from steer she has butchered.


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## GoingPostal (Sep 5, 2011)

Yeah I buy hearts for the taurine for the cat/ferrets because I can't get them locally, I've been feeding them raw for about a year now and I've never seen anything but liver for sale. Is it fine to keep organs frozen for 6 months or so? If I need to I'll order organs in bulk and just feed mostly liver, but even hare today isn't too big on organ options, beef spleen and kidney, ground pancreas, a few mixed ground options which I guess might be better if I can mix it with ground beef or whatever, the dog I want to switch is picky but wasn't sure if ground would last as long as whole organs. I don't even know yet if beef will agree with my dogs too so that's a concern on buying in bulk. I'm not worried for the immediate future, I know I won't need them right off the bat but it's something I need to figure out for the long term.


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## doxieluv (Aug 8, 2011)

I would check out the group to see if they have anyone in your area. CarnivoreFeed-Supplier : Carnivore feeders and feed suppliers


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## naturalfeddogs (Jan 6, 2011)

All we get is liver, because it is all we can find around here. But I get it from walmart most of the time. I keep looking for kidney but no luck yet.


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## barneysmom2510 (Oct 12, 2011)

I am able to find kidney on occasion and I have some liver at the grocery store. I have been feeding raw for 2 months and I am just going to start feeding organs this week.


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## KC23 (Nov 17, 2010)

I buy tubs of chicken livers from the grocery store. I can get beef liver at a local meat market (and I get beef heart there too). I sometimes buy pork kidney from the Asian market near me. The dogs also get some organ meat from the leg quarters and whole chickens I buy for them.


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## monkeys23 (Dec 8, 2010)

Its fine to keep it frozen for 6+ months.

Maybe check around for small scale beef producers or see if there are any kill plants around you could order offal from. It would be worth asking at your local store or whatever if they could order in some liver/kidney for you.

Mine eat a lot of beef heart/tongue for boneless meat meals and nearly all our organ meat is beef liver/kidney. Feel kinda lucky because my stepdad let me take a few packages of lamb liver and 10 hearts, most of that and the lamb lungs went to a lady with greyhounds who is a paying customer. My family raises natural beef and lamb, so yeah I guess I kinda cheat. I pay in physical labor. We had to worm the weanling calves yesterday, that was fuuuuun lol. Joking, I actually prefer the ranch work to my "real" job.


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## GoingPostal (Sep 5, 2011)

I realized I have a fair amount of beef kidney in my freezer, my ferrets wouldn't touch it, it's been frozen awhile but probably still ok. Found out a coworkers relative sells beef so hoping I can talk to them and see about maybe getting some organs when they slaughter and in the summer there's a lady at the market who raises goats for meat/milk, not sure what they do with the organs but somebody to ask anyways. Jersey is flaking hair and itchy, I went ahead and started her on raw, didn't have anything defrosted so she got some stellas and chewys and a little turkey gizzard that the cat was supposed to get last night, and a chicken quarter today, I didn't have any backs. I went and ordered a case of quarters and bought a pack of drumsticks to last me through till it gets in, have tons of thighs on hand. So far so good, poop is normal. Day 1 down.


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## GoingPostal (Sep 5, 2011)

On day 5, feeding chicken quarters still, I haven't been taking the skin off but she seems to handle it fine, I finally saw her poop yesterday, she might have been going when the b/f takes her out but I hadn't seen any since day 1, looked completely normal anyways. She did yak some bone during the second night because I caught Ripley eating it that morning. Is lung an organ or muscle? I found out I have some beef lung as well, forget I ordered all those random things last time.


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

lung is not an organ.....it is fed as a muscle.....

an organ secretes:
liver
kidney
thymus
brain
spleen
pancreas
thyroid
adrenals

i think i have them all.....but you get the idea...


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## GoingPostal (Sep 5, 2011)

Thanks for the run down on organs, I thought about buying some rabbit heads in my next hare today order for brains but not sure she would even eat it, she's kind of picky on food that actually looks like an animal. My ferrets and cat eat them but only if I smash them up first which is incredibly disgusting.


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## KittyKat (Feb 11, 2011)

xellil said:


> Well, hearts aren't really an organ. i think they are a muscle meat.
> 
> When you come to a point when you want to start feeding organs, you should be able to find them. i think alot of people feed liver only because they can't get other organs or because liver is usually pretty cheap.
> 
> Now and then I find kidney just at the grocery store. When I do, I buy it all up.


Yeah, I find calf liver at the grocery store. Occasionally I have come across kidney and pick that up.


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