# I must love my dogs...



## kathylcsw (Jul 31, 2011)

Because I spent over an hour this morning cutting up, wrapping, and bagging an entire cow liver. If you have never bought a whole cow liver I am here to tell you they are really, really big. I ordered it from the meat dept at Virginia Tech a couple of months ago figuring it would be slightly bigger than a kidney. WRONG! It weighed 12 1/2 lbs!! At the time I was totally overwhelmed by that big hunk of liver so I just stuffed it in the freezer. Since liver is such a small part of the diet I had enough that I didn't need it right away anyhow.

I noticed this week that I had enough to maybe get me through next week so I knew it was time. I got it out last night and sat it in the sink overnight to thaw. I did it as soon as I got up this morning because I was not looking forward to it. I hate messing with liver. It is just so squishy and bloody and plain icky. But now it is done and if I did the math correctly I have over 2 years worth of liver. I have learned my lesson and won't be buying any whole cow livers again!

As an aside some of you know that Lola has had liver issues since the introduction. She has never eaten it thawed out. After much work I had finally got her to eat it frozen without adding enticements. A couple of weeks ago she stopped doing that and wouldn't even eat it with parmesan on it. I had resorted to making up little meat balls with liver in the middle and then freezing them. This morning she was eating down bits of raw liver like it is her favorite. I guess it is too much to hope she keeps eating it like this.


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

LOLOL! Two years worth! Now that is funny.

I wonder - could Lola be liking this liver because it's better quality liver?? I don't know what the other liver you had was, but maybe there is something different about this one.


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## meganr66 (Mar 2, 2012)

i got a cow liver like that before... its huge its ridiculous. LMAO


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## shellbell (Sep 24, 2011)

Haha, been there done that! Someone I know butchered a total of about 7 steers last winter, and I got a few sets of lungs/trachea, liver, hearts, and spleen. It was quite the project.....really is amazing how big that liver is. I have also processed entire pig livers, and those are huge as well!


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## kathylcsw (Jul 31, 2011)

xellil said:


> LOLOL! Two years worth! Now that is funny.
> 
> I wonder - could Lola be liking this liver because it's better quality liver?? I don't know what the other liver you had was, but maybe there is something different about this one.


I am not really sure why Lola liked this better. What I had been feeding was fresh beef liver. It was from a locally raised and slaughtered cow. She is just being a diva I guess!


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## kathylcsw (Jul 31, 2011)

shellbell said:


> Haha, been there done that! Someone I know butchered a total of about 7 steers last winter, and I got a few sets of lungs/trachea, liver, hearts, and spleen. It was quite the project.....really is amazing how big that liver is. * I have also processed entire pig livers, and those are huge as well*!


Oh man I had thought that I would get pig liver next (in 2 years) in hopes that it might be smaller. Wonder how big lamb liver is? I really wish I had know how big beef liver really is. I am not sure it would have mattered because I think I have to buy the whole organ when I buy through Va Tech.


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## kathylcsw (Jul 31, 2011)

Well this morning I fed Lola the Diva her 10 g breakfast "snack" as raw liver and she ate it up. This is the dog who has never eaten unfrozen liver. Even to get her to eat it frozen has been a struggle. I don't know what is so special about this liver but I am gonna roll with it.


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## creek817 (Feb 18, 2012)

kathylcsw said:


> Well this morning I fed Lola the Diva her 10 g breakfast "snack" as raw liver and she ate it up. This is the dog who has never eaten unfrozen liver. Even to get her to eat it frozen has been a struggle. I don't know what is so special about this liver but I am gonna roll with it.


Well, at least you have two years before you have to worry about getting her to eat liver again!! (hopefully!) haha!

I got a whole cow liver recently too, and it was 6 months worth for my (22 pound) boy. They are MASSIVE!


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## Kat (Jul 12, 2011)

Lol that happened to me! I never expected a liver to be so big. I told my friend to pick me up two cow livers when she went to her butcher. It took forever to portion them out. And then i ended up having to throw one out because some weird cyst was growing inside of it. I always thought beef liver was the size of the cut of ones at grocery stores, not just a piece of a whole one lol.


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## kathylcsw (Jul 31, 2011)

Kat said:


> Lol that happened to me! I never expected a liver to be so big. I told my friend to pick me up two cow livers when she went to her butcher. It took forever to portion them out. And then i ended up having to throw one out because some weird cyst was growing inside of it. I always thought beef liver was the size of the cut of ones at grocery stores, not just a piece of a whole one lol.


OMG I cannot imagine your expression when you picked up 2 of them!! I was flabbergasted by just the one so 2 would have thrown me for a loop. Oh well raw feeding has quite the learning curve but I am working my way up it.


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## Dude and Bucks Mamma (May 14, 2011)

Two years from now when you are facing liver again don't thaw it out all the way. Liver is SO much easier to cut up when it is still half frozen!

I had a beef liver at one point too. I thought it would be the size of a pork liver... Boy was I surprised!


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## kady05 (Jul 29, 2011)

LOL, been there! I just got 20lbs. of liver, and it came whole. Those didn't surprise me as much as the beef hearts.. holy cow some of them are HUGE!

Side note: I wish I lived closer to VT! I'd love to take advantage of that.


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## kathylcsw (Jul 31, 2011)

kady05 said:


> LOL, been there! I just got 20lbs. of liver, and it came whole. Those didn't surprise me as much as the beef hearts.. holy cow some of them are HUGE!
> 
> Side note: I wish I lived closer to VT! I'd love to take advantage of that.


Yeah I was pretty excited when it occured to me that they might be a good resource. Their liver is a bit pricey @ $1.95 per lb but I get heart and kidney @ $1.25 per lb. I am impatiently waiting until fall when they slaughter lamb. My pups haven't had lamb yet so I hope to get as many hearts as I can and some kidneys. I would love to get some liver too but I must remind myself I DO NOT NEED ANY LIVER!!!


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## kathylcsw (Jul 31, 2011)

Dude and Bucks Mamma said:


> Two years from now when you are facing liver again don't thaw it out all the way. Liver is SO much easier to cut up when it is still half frozen!
> 
> I had a beef liver at one point too. I thought it would be the size of a pork liver... Boy was I surprised!


It was still partially frozen so it wasn't awful to cut up. Liver is just so darn bloody! I had to keep rinsing my hands and my scissors. Those poultry shears I got from Pampered Chef are probably my best investment since I started my raw journey. I use them for almost everything.

How big is a pig liver? I like to switch it up so after my 2 years of beef liver I will buy either pig or lamb next. Any ideas on how big lamb liver is?


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## kady05 (Jul 29, 2011)

kathylcsw said:


> Yeah I was pretty excited when it occured to me that they might be a good resource. Their liver is a bit pricey @ $1.95 per lb but I get heart and kidney @ $1.25 per lb. I am impatiently waiting until fall when they slaughter lamb. My pups haven't had lamb yet so I hope to get as many hearts as I can and some kidneys. I would love to get some liver too but I must remind myself I DO NOT NEED ANY LIVER!!!


$1.25/lb. for heart is great! I pay $1.39/lb. for it.

Pig liver is a bit smaller than cow. I didn't weigh the whole ones though, but they're probably a pound a piece.


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## monkeys23 (Dec 8, 2010)

Whoa, an hour to cut up that much liver?!?! That seems crazy to me! Or am I just way to used to cutting up this stuff? It takes me maybe 15 min to cut up a liver or two, a few hearts, and some tongues.

Big, big fan of cutting up liver while its mostly frozen. Soooo much easier!


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

kady05 said:


> $1.25/lb. for heart is great! I pay $1.39/lb. for it.


I pay $1.69 for beef heart, $1.39 for pork heart. I think you are both getting good deals.


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## Dude and Bucks Mamma (May 14, 2011)

The pig livers I got were much smaller. Both were still several pounds but much smaller than the beef liver. The next time I get whole livers I am going to take pictures and write the measurements down so I can have a little library of sizes and weights of various species' livers. I think it will be handy for planning out what to buy and knowing how much freezer space I'll need for it.


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## kathylcsw (Jul 31, 2011)

monkeys23 said:


> Whoa, an hour to cut up that much liver?!?! That seems crazy to me! Or am I just way to used to cutting up this stuff? It takes me maybe 15 min to cut up a liver or two, a few hearts, and some tongues.
> 
> Big, big fan of cutting up liver while its mostly frozen. Soooo much easier!



There are several reasons that it took so long. It was my first time cutting up something that size so there was a learning curve! I also have small dogs so I cut it into pieces that were 1lb or less each. Then I wrapped each piece in plastic wrap and then bagged them. Like I said earlier I had to keep stopping to rinsie blood off my hands and scissors too. Then there was the fact that both dogs and 1 of my cats were all begging for bites so I kept cutting tiny bits off for them. Hopefully I will get faster as I go along!


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## monkeys23 (Dec 8, 2010)

Oh so you were using scissors to cut it up? Wow no wonder. i can't imagine tackling that with scissors. Why the plastic wrap before bagging if I may ask? That seems silly since its going in a ziplock anyway.

I make 0.25lb chunks and bag 'em two to a bag since I have 2 dogs. Ditto with kidneys. They get organ + RMB four nights a week.


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## Donna Little (May 31, 2011)

Because my dogs are all idiots (and I mean that in the most loving way) I can't give any of them boneless meat unless it's cut up into bite size pieces. And considering I have small dogs, it has to be pretty small cubes. Throw a bony piece at them and they'll chew. If it's boneless they try to swallow it whole and commit suicide in front of me. Several have done the "inhaling of large hunks of meat thing", only to choke and go down like a fainting goat. Not pretty, or fun for that matter. So I have gotten really fast at cutting up large hunks of meat into small hunks of meat. I'm about to try giving the Min Pins larger pieces again to see how it goes because they seem to behave better than the rest of them. Last time I got beef heart I bought 120 lbs, let it thaw enough to handle it and had that stuff chopped up in about an hour. I seriously think I could be a butcher at this point....


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## kathylcsw (Jul 31, 2011)

monkeys23 said:


> Oh so you were using scissors to cut it up? Wow no wonder. i can't imagine tackling that with scissors. Why the plastic wrap before bagging if I may ask? That seems silly since its going in a ziplock anyway.
> 
> I make 0.25lb chunks and bag 'em two to a bag since I have 2 dogs. Ditto with kidneys. They get organ + RMB four nights a week.


Actually the scissors are a godsend and work much better than a knife. They are poultry shears and the cut right through. I wrap the pieces in plastic wrap so they don't freeze together. This way I just pull a hunk out and thaw it for use. That prevents me from having to thaw the entire bag enough to pry a piece loose and then refreeze. I freeze about 8-10 hunks in each bag.


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## kathylcsw (Jul 31, 2011)

Donna you crack me up. The line about your dogs going down like fainting goats had me laughing out loud. You really need to have a column in one of the dog magazines!


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