# How much organ?



## Kat (Jul 12, 2011)

I am 5 months into feeding Ruby raw. Had a good start but as soon as I started introing beef I had to keep backtracking, beef did not work with her. Lamb was suggested to me instead and it went perfectly, Ruby is fully transitioned to lamb. So now I can FINALLY start organs, a bit stressed that it took this long but I couldnt help it >.< Anyway, so Im going to start with a small amount of organ, for breakfast today she got .20oz of organ with chicken wings. 

Should I feed a small amount of organ once a day everyday? Or once a day every other day? Im hoping that in a week I can bump it up to .50oz, and slowly increase from there. 

So, when she is fully transitioned to organ, how much do I feed her in a week? I dont understand how to calculate it. 

I weigh her every week, and she stays at the 16lbs 33oz mark, give or take a couple ounces. 

I do have to feed her 4 oz meals to keep her from losing weight like crazy, so I dont know if I would have to feed higher organ, or just the "recommended by weight" amount of organ.


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## eternalstudent (Jul 22, 2010)

How you feed the organ in the long run is up to you, it does not matter really if you feed it all in one meal or lots. I spread mine out as becka can not handle all the organ in a single meal, so she gets hers spread out over a week. 

I would stick to 10 % of what you are actually feeding, if you are feeding more than the guideline amounts it means you dog is using more and this will not just be limited to protein but all the other vits and minerals that we feed.

Ultimately you will find out pretty quick if you have fed to much in one sitting !!!!


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## eternalstudent (Jul 22, 2010)

ok so don't know how it posted twice


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## Kat (Jul 12, 2011)

On the "how to get started prey model raw" website, it says organs should be 1.5 meals a week. So would that be 6 oz of organ a week total for her then?


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## monkeys23 (Dec 8, 2010)

I feed it 4 nights a week, so that would be their overall weekly portion broken up into four meals. I always pair it with their RMB's, makes it easy since overall diet is supposed to be 10% of each of those.


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

if you want to be exact, multiply 4 oz x 2 which is a day's worth of meals.

so 8 ounces x 7 days a week is 56 ounces.

so, you're going to want to feed 5.6 ounces a week in organs. which means you're going to feed 2.8 ounces of liver and 2.8 ounces of another offal, usually kidney...

when you think about it, if you want to get nuts like i do......i divided 2.8 by 7 days a week...and then after i got over myself, i cut a bunch of liver into 1/2 inch squarish pieces and i feed them liver one day and whatever the next. 

my dogs eat organs frozen..

when you start, feed a tiny dime size piece ......this is not a race..you can feed it to start once a week....and then go up from there. don't worry if it takes a few months......agonisingly slow is good.


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## Kat (Jul 12, 2011)

Thanks for the replies  I doubt I could get Ruby to eat a whole meal of organs, when fully transitioned I will probably feed them 3 times a week with her bone-in meals. 

I have pork, chicken, and lamb liver. I have not been able to find any other types at my grocery store, except that they do have a whole shelf of beef organs - kidney, liver, tongue, spleen. 

Just not sure if I can do the beef though since Ruby cant handle beef meat. I want to get hearts too, but the only place I know that sells hearts is a pet store that sells turkey hearts.


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## shellbell (Sep 24, 2011)

I feed organs every other night, alternating between liver and other things. I feed them along with muscle meat, so I am probably giving about 4-5oz of organs total, every other night. Which comes to roughly 10% of the diet over the course of a week.


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## schtuffy (May 17, 2010)

Kat said:


> I am 5 months into feeding Ruby raw. Had a good start but as soon as I started introing beef I had to keep backtracking, beef did not work with her. Lamb was suggested to me instead and it went perfectly, Ruby is fully transitioned to lamb. So now I can FINALLY start organs, a bit stressed that it took this long but I couldnt help it >.< Anyway, so Im going to start with a small amount of organ, for breakfast today she got .20oz of organ with chicken wings.
> 
> Should I feed a small amount of organ once a day everyday? Or once a day every other day? Im hoping that in a week I can bump it up to .50oz, and slowly increase from there.
> 
> ...


I don't even bother to weigh organ...the primary reason being that Louis really hated it but also couldn't handle it in the beginning. I started with slivers of liver (yay poem! :tongue the size of my fingernail. He's been on raw for a year now, and he still only gets them in nickel to quarter-sized pieces. I always feed it with a boney meal. I also don't really stress about the exact 10% organ, I just try to feed it 3 times a week or so...I know it's probably not enough, but his bloodwork results were great, so I'm not totally screwing things up! Sometimes I also judge by his coat quality. I forget to feed organ time to time, and his coat will get a tad more coarse. once I feed him the liver sliver, he's back to silky smooth in a day or two.

True, he could probably handle much bigger portions of liver now...he might even be able to handle a quarter of his portion as organ. I don't know, but honestly I also don't want to try. Diarrhea is a nightmare for furry butts! Small pieces spread out works for us, so you just have to figure out what works best for you :biggrin:


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## xellil (Apr 4, 2011)

Kat said:


> Thanks for the replies  I doubt I could get Ruby to eat a whole meal of organs, when fully transitioned I will probably feed them 3 times a week with her bone-in meals.
> 
> I have pork, chicken, and lamb liver. I have not been able to find any other types at my grocery store, except that they do have a whole shelf of beef organs - kidney, liver, tongue, spleen.
> 
> Just not sure if I can do the beef though since Ruby cant handle beef meat. I want to get hearts too, but the only place I know that sells hearts is a pet store that sells turkey hearts.


Just FYI, tongue and heart are not considered organs, but muscle meat. Tripe is also not an organ, as I found out recently.


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

Kat said:


> Thanks for the replies  I doubt I could get Ruby to eat a whole meal of organs, when fully transitioned I will probably feed them 3 times a week with her bone-in meals.
> 
> I have pork, chicken, and lamb liver. I have not been able to find any other types at my grocery store, except that they do have a whole shelf of beef organs - kidney, liver, tongue, spleen.
> 
> Just not sure if I can do the beef though since Ruby cant handle beef meat. I want to get hearts too, but the only place I know that sells hearts is a pet store that sells turkey hearts.


your ruby is a little lighter in weight than my pug and he gets a little slice of liver every other day, frozen.....because that's the only way he'll eat it. i don't even weigh it any more, but it's probably a 1/2 inch cube......sometimes smaller, sometimes bigger...on alternate days, he gets kidney or spleen or sweetbreads or whatever i have on hand.

my SIL takes slivers off a frozen lamb liver for her min pin/ chi.....

i only do that because my kids don't like organs, so i give them daily like treats after a walk on the treadmill or outside.


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## ciaBrysh (Dec 16, 2011)

I dont want to hijack this thread but I'm a bit confused. According to calculations.. Raj...who weighs 65 lbs gets about 1.3 lbs a day should only get .4 organ meat/4 days and Willow who gets about 1 lb per day should get only .3/ 4 days does that sound about right?


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## Kat (Jul 12, 2011)

Gave Ruby her second .20oz piece of liver with her chicken drumstick for dinner today. Her poop was fine after the first one a few days ago. We'll see what happens with her next poo!


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

ciaBrysh said:


> I dont want to hijack this thread but I'm a bit confused. According to calculations.. Raj...who weighs 65 lbs gets about 1.3 lbs a day should only get .4 organ meat/4 days and Willow who gets about 1 lb per day should get only .3/ 4 days does that sound about right?


let's see if i can still do math. 44 oz x 7 days = 308 oz per week
so
30.8 oz = 10 per cent for organs
that means
15.4 oz for liver
15.4 oz for other organs

i think that's right. and that is per week....

the other dog:

eats 16 ounces x 7 days = 112 ounces per week
so 
gets
11.2 ounces of organ
5.6 oz of liver
5.6 ounces of another organ.

so you could easily divvy this up during the week....

feel free to correct me. i excelled in other subjects, but not math.

my dog gets 6 oz per day x 7 =42 ounces per week
so ten per cent of that is

4.2 ounces per week
2.2 for liver
2.2 for other

so they get some every day, because it's so small BUT i started out giving them dime sized pieces until i built up to what they get.


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## ciaBrysh (Dec 16, 2011)

How did you get the 44 oz? I was going by 1 lb 3 oz so Raj gets 19 oz/day I think oso at least, unless I'm getting my numbers from the wrong place?


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

if you want to use daily numbers, that's fine. i was using weekly numbers....so that i know how much to give on a seven day cycle. mine are small, so they get their organs every day as a treat for taking a walk...

if he is eating 19 oz per day, then ten percent of that is 1.9 oz per day....

five per cent of that is .95 oz, so 

he would get
.9 give or take oz of liver
and
.9 give or take oz of some other organ, such as kidney, spleen, pancreas, adrenals, any secreting organ, brain, and i can't think of the other ones today, because i have no brain cells left after going to costco on friday the thirteenth. 

ok. and you're right. i'm wrong in my upper numbers.
my bad.

if he is getting 19 oz per day, that's 133 oz per week. my bad.

then you take ten per cent of that, which is 13.3 oz, divide it into two, five percent liver and five percent something else, and that's your ten percent per week number...

that would be the per week amount of ounces. sorry for the confusion...where's natalie when i need her LOL

6.65
6.65


it's the one thing i don't measure. i just almost thaw liver or whatever and cut them into half inch cubes.....

i think i'm right. if not, let me know and i can shoot myself  or drink.


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## ciaBrysh (Dec 16, 2011)

magicre said:


> if you want to use daily numbers, that's fine. i was using weekly numbers....so that i know how much to give on a seven day cycle. mine are small, so they get their organs every day as a treat for taking a walk...
> 
> if he is eating 19 oz per day, then ten percent of that is 1.9 oz per day....
> 
> ...


Don't shoot yourself lol I'm terrible at math as well (had to drop out of it in 10th grade of high school or else I probably wouldn't have graduated lol)
This is how I'm getting my numbers..Organs should take up about 1.5 meals a week. so if one meal is 9 oz thats about 13 oz per week. 
Wait, so I'm now getting 3.25 LOL :rofl: per every 4 days so it would be 6.5 ounces of liver and 6.5 ounces of kidney or other offal 
Oh geez lol I have no idea what I'm talking about and I completely hijacked her thread....sorry!!


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## Kat (Jul 12, 2011)

Lol it's ok, any other organ questions can be asked here too  So, Ruby had really gross poops twice today. Maybe Ill cut the .20oz down in half for next time, dont want to go through that again if i can help it lol


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

Kat said:


> Lol it's ok, any other organ questions can be asked here too  So, Ruby had really gross poops twice today. Maybe Ill cut the .20oz down in half for next time, dont want to go through that again if i can help it lol


you don't need to feed beef liver. there are plenty of other livers....

and start out with a sliver, a dime size piece...you don't need two tenths of an ounce....liver is tricky.


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## Kat (Jul 12, 2011)

Another question, do i have to wait for her to be fully transitioned to the liver before i can intro kidney? 

And I know heart doesnt fall under the organ category, but do I have to wait for her to be transitioned fully to organs before introing heart?


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

ciaBrysh said:


> Don't shoot yourself lol I'm terrible at math as well (had to drop out of it in 10th grade of high school or else I probably wouldn't have graduated lol)
> This is how I'm getting my numbers..Organs should take up about 1.5 meals a week. so if one meal is 9 oz thats about 13 oz per week.
> Wait, so I'm now getting 3.25 LOL :rofl: per every 4 days so it would be 6.5 ounces of liver and 6.5 ounces of kidney or other offal
> Oh geez lol I have no idea what I'm talking about and I completely hijacked her thread....sorry!!


kat won't mind. she gets to laugh at both of us.

organs are 10 per cent of their diet. i do it per week, since it's easiest for me....liver is 5 per cent and another organ is the other 5 per cent.

so you multiply the amount of ounces you feed per seven days, one week...and take ten percent of that to give you the weekly amount of organ. divide that into two and that will give you your five and fiven per cent.


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## chewice (Jan 1, 2012)

Okay, so...that im straight.

Organs are considered "filters"... so kidneys with pee...brain with knowledge obviously, liver with crap...stomach with food...do intestines count?!

but heart is not considered since it beats and beats and beats and it is a muscle.


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## magicre (Apr 7, 2010)

Kat said:


> Another question, do i have to wait for her to be fully transitioned to the liver before i can intro kidney?
> 
> And I know heart doesnt fall under the organ category, but do I have to wait for her to be transitioned fully to organs before introing heart?


consider the transition to heart the same as the transition to liver and every other organ.

consider that chicken is the least nutritious and the least harsh on their digestive systems...that's why many of us choose to offer it first. to get them used to eating raw.

and then we progress. when i got to beef, i was feeding beef roasts...and i started with dime sized pieces for a month. i would just give them this teeny tiny piece with their regular chicken or fish or pork dinner....

same thing with liver and kidney....everything was a build up..especially the rich stuff and anything after chicken and turkey is the rich stuff


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