Ground Turkey?

[rsieg]

Quick question, apologies if it has already been asked but did not see it in a forum search.

 

I have been giving Logan the Trader Joe's no salt added tuna for probably a couple years now as an additive to his Taste of the Wild kibble. I have been moving toward cooking my own dinner of late, so on a whim picked up a package of ground turkey for Logan. Cooked up in a frypan in less than 5 minutes, and he loved it. The package had a enough for three nights (last night, Monday night, and Sunday night). I add it to the kibble with some of that Honest Kitchen chicken bone broth for dogs to ensure it is cooled. The bone broth also seems to make Logan eat the kibble. (Skipped the bone broth the first night and he seemed to be able to pick out the ground turkey while avoiding a lot of kibble :-)

 

So my question is, any issues with using ground turkey cooked in a frypan like this on a regular basis? The one possible issue I can think of is sodium, one website I found says 3 ounces of cooked ground turkey has about 360 mg of sodium, but I don't recall the weight of the package I bought (got three dinners out of it though). If it is an issue, not sure if there is a "low sodium" version of ground turkey available anywhere.

 

Thanks in advance for any comments...

[Remolacha]

I am assuming this is just ground turkey, no additives? It should be fine. I would be more concerned about fat, I think turkey has more fat than chicken (but I could be wrong ) but if you are cooking it like you said, that should render out enough fat for it to not be a problem.

[greysmom]

Turkey is lower fat than other ground meats, but you do need to pay attention to if it is ground white meat, dark meat, or a mix of the two (dark meat is higher fat). It should be drained and/or rinsed after cooking if your dog has trouble with pancreatitis or other intestinal issues.

 

If it's *just* turkey there shouldn't be any reason to worry about the naturally occurring sodium level in the meat. And any additive should be listed on the packaging. Ask at the meat counter if you're not sure.

[rsieg]

Thanks for the comments. I did not check the label of the package I bought other than to see "ground turkey" as I was expecting it to be a one-off, but will check the next one for additives. It looked pretty lean, I did not add oil and there was not much liquid in the pan after cooking. I did not think about white versus dark meat, unless they label it not sure how well that can be determined visually with ground turkey. But Logan liked it soooo much, I figure I will at least mix it up and switch between the tuna and turkey as additives.

[claudiav]

try it raw.... just mix with kibble.... i bet he would LOVE it raw too

[RaineysMom]

I give both cooked and raw ground turkey to our pups on a regular basis (along with cooked ground pork and cooked/raw ground beef). If the meat is a little too fatty I simply put it in a colander and rinse some off with hot water (I try to leave a LITTLE on for flavor!).

 

It never occurred to me that raw meat (just meat!) would contain any sodium. That's not much so really not to worry

 

I don't know if you have a Costco nearby, but they usually have a 4 pack (like 1# or a bit more each pack) of the 93% ground turkey for about $2.59 per pound, which is about the cheapest I can get it. Sometimes our Mariano's has the 3 # pack for $7 which is even better but I think it might be the 85% for that price. I smoosh it into a 16 oz deli containers and freeze them like that (when it's raw) and just pull one out as I need it.

 

I also cook up pot roast, beef shanks, rump roast -- all trimmed really well -- for them too, more of an additive (like you, to get Zeke to eat his kibble!) that as part of the raw meat stuff he gets. I'll put some in a ramekin with some water or broth and nuke it for about 30 seconds to warm it and then spoon it on top of the kibble. It's usually well received (some days, NOTHING will entice Zeke to eat... ).

Edited February 20, 2019 by RaineysMom

[Remolacha]

Ok, I got the fat content part wrong Lots of foods have some natural sodium, it should never be enough to be a problem unless you/your pet is on a severely restricted sodium diet.

[greysmom]

Most ground Turkey (at least at my krogers) says percentages of white vs dark meat in the package, inaddition to the percentage of fat content.

[Walliered]

I used to give one of my Galgos turkey necks until one day he got very sick. It turned out to be pancreatitis so no more turkey necks. He is on a low-low fat diet for the rest of his life.

[heartdogs]

My two think raw turkey is a great treat. Last night I gave them so chicken gizzards mixed in their kibble but they wheren't too impressed. I tried ground turkey that I cooked for them & they ate it but never asked for more. If it is fresh it should be ok for them.

[rsieg]

Thanks again for the info. I got two packs of *white* ground turkey last night, Honeysuckle brand, labels say no additives, Seems that Logan likes that brand too :-)

 

I see the suggestions above to try giving it to him raw. Are there any issues there? I just get nervous about salmonella or other bacteria or such.

[RaineysMom]

Thanks again for the info. I got two packs of *white* ground turkey last night, Honeysuckle brand, labels say no additives, Seems that Logan likes that brand too :-)

 

I see the suggestions above to try giving it to him raw. Are there any issues there? I just get nervous about salmonella or other bacteria or such.

as with any raw, keep it as cold as you can at all times until right when you are serving it, and wash things that touch it (hands, utensils, plates) well with hot water when done (you can clean with a bleach solution (1 teaspoon of bleach in like a quart of water or so) too but I'm too lazy to do that every day. I do clean with it after cutting up a bunch of raw meat on my cutting board (and use a hard plastic one instead of my wooden one for raw stuff).

 

Dogs have a much shorter digestive tract so the bacteria doesn't get as much of a chance to grow to dangerous levels in there after eating like humans do. Again, the better (colder!) you can keep food properly (below or above the temperature danger zone - below 40 and above 140) the safer the food will be as less bacteria will grow at lower (or high!) temps. For humans, we have problems because it takes us much longer to process food through our systems and the bacteria has more time to multiply and be a problem -- and if you add in improper handling, like NOT keeping it out of the TDZ, it just makes things worse to begin with.

 

sorry, TMI I'm sure. Just keep things clean and the food held properly and you both will be fine Our boyz LOVE raw food (and cooked too) and while it's a little more work than kibble, as long as they (HE, meaning ZEKE) eats ok I'm happy.

 

You might want to check out MyPetCarnivore.com, they are based in Indy and have some really good stuff. The stuff with bones - even fine ground - worries me so I just stick with the hearts, tongues, gizzards, livers and the green tripe (man that stuff smells like a barnyard in July but they love it!). Just fyi since you're close, in OH.

 

You can try some gizzards and hearts too, if you can find them (Zeke can't have chicken so I have to stick to turkey, beef, etc). Liver is GREAT but because it's so high in vitamin A you can only give like 5% of their total raw per day or it will give them bad tummy issues.

 

like I had said, I do cook beef, lamb, pork, turkey and add some cooking juice or water to a little ramekin and nuke it for 30 seconds to warm up. Putting that with the "juice" on their food is really enjoyed and very easy to do.

 

(sorry for the long post).

 

ETA: I nuke Zeke's raw plate (about 1 to 1.25 #s of meat) for about 30 seconds just to take the "chill' off before feeding - he gets a variety of hamburger, ground lamb, ground/cubed turkey, beef/lamb/pork heart, beef/lamb/pork tongue, tripe, cottage cheese (for some calcium) and the little bit of liver (lamb or beef) (the pork products I cook, I know trichinosis is not really a problem but I'm just old school). Since there's no bone in any of it nuking it won't hurt it and just warms it up (I think nuking would start cooking bone and make it really bad for them to eat...). He gets some kibble to that hopefully covers the nutrition I might be missing in the raw.

Edited February 21, 2019 by RaineysMom