Recently i have noticed that my usually fussy dogs will suck up their food if i add baked liver(i bake in oven for 10min.)But i have heard you should limit liver to 1-2 times a week due to the high vit. A,is this true?I am finally on to a winner with their fanatical eating habits and i dont want to stop it,but if it harms them i will have to find something else,what about boiling the liver and pouring the stock over their food will this be as harmful?

Thanks all.

Shihtzu-lover

IMO having baked the liver I do not think it would hurt if you used it all the time as long as it was not in large amounts, stick to say 10% of the total meal. Boiled and liquidised may be better as you could spread the flavour with a very small amount. You could try pilchards in tomato sauce or tripe as a change so you would only need to use the liver for about 2 days a week. You could all ways add a small amount of tinned cat food, have found the type in gravy not that in jelly, works best.

I feed liver once a week; no more because of its high Vitamin A content which, if overdone can result in toxic liver in dogs.  Offal is also quite laxative :D

Fine I would agree with you but how much per body weight per week is ok, and if it is baked dry some of the problems disappear along with the nutritional value.

:)

Thats what i thought Jackie,the more it's baked the less vitamins there are?I dont give it for the nutritional value ,just the flavour.
I will cut it down tho,i will alternate with tripe etc. My dogs weigh in between 6 and 7 kilo,they are lightweights compared to yours :D

Thanks for your advice guys :)

Would Just giving them the liver broth over their food be o.k?

Providing it is not more than about 10% IMO, it will be mostly water so it should do not harm. You could try some chicken broth too they may like that and don't forget the pilchards or cat food for days when you are busy.

This is an interesting thread; in humans, I understood that no vitamin or mineral is toxic, as long as it is naturally sourced, ie vitamin C from oranges as opposed to supplements.  Of course, it may well be different for doglets. I wonder, is vitamin A in liver a concern for dogs because it has already been synthesized *into* vitamin A by the host animal, as opposed to being converted (by the animal that's munching it) from beta-carotene ?

Anyone know?

Jo

Better tell that to all the people who got cirrhosis of the liver from drinking masses of naturally produced carrot juice (carotene) when it became the craze several years ago! 

It matters not whether the vitamin is synthetically produced or "natural" they can be toxic.  Water soluble vitamins are rarely a problem as they are flushed through the system, the symptom of too much Vit c is diarrhoea.  Vitamins A and D are fat soluble and are, therefore stored there in the body. Therefore in huge amounts can be toxic to both humans and dogs.

However it is true that you would be giving mega doses, which is, unfortunately perfectly possible with all the additives, capsules etc available not to mention food sources.

HTH

Gosh, I never knew that! Thanks Tohme. (Think I'll cut down on the carrot juice too.   )  :)

Jo