Beef Heart

[Rijnbeek]

Hi all. 

It has been 6 months since our beautiful girl came into our lives and we have realized that she can be a bit picky with food.

So we try to add different things like sardines, cooked egg, chicken, beef, veges to her normal kibble. We also give her barf which she loves.

The other day I found raw beef heart at a supermarket but I didn't get it as it looked a bit scary....! Does anyone have experience with cooking and feeding beef heart to your grey? 

I have read that beef heart needs to be either frozen for more than 24 hours or cooked well to kill bacteria etc. but some people feed it raw as well.

How do you cook yours and how often do you give it to your grey?

Any opinions are greatly appreciated. 

Thanks!

 

[smurfette]

I feed beef heart regularly. But I don't cook it since I always feed raw meat. There has never been an issue for the last 12 years since I started feeding raw.

[LaFlaca]

I have fed beef heart and other organ meats raw for many years with no problem.

[Remolacha]

I have fed beef heart raw with no problems, although the first time I bought one whole and cut it up was I prefer to buy it already sliced

BTW, although technically it is an organ, treat it like muscle meat, that is, you can feed more per meal.

Edited May 1, 2019 by Remolacha

[racindog]

I feed raw and they love beef heart when I give it to them. Been doing it for years. No problem.

[RaineysMom]

mine come frozen from MyPetCarnivore but I have bought fresh lamb and beef hearts (just once) and feed them all raw.  I cut them into small pieces as Mr. Picky prefers (when he decides to eat).  I also feed raw lamb and beef liver, raw hamburger, raw lamb, raw turkey (he can't have chicken), raw green tripe and raw cut up beef (like rump roast).  

[Rijnbeek]

Thank you guys for your responses! 

Looks like feeding it raw is the way to go   

I have also found liver cake recipe for dogs, so I will try this as well. 

Not looking forward to cutting up raw heart and liver, but anything for our beautiful girl! 

[RaineysMom]

be careful with how much liver you give, it is very high in vitamin A and will cause gastric distress if they eat too much.  Organ meats are only supposed to make up 5% of their daily intake.

[valerlero]

Although many people feed their dogs raw meat, I avoid doing it because it can contain parasites, and cooking kills bacteria. That's something I've always done with my dogs, and everyone seems to be fine. Of course, I don't give them bones, especially chicken bones, because they're dangerous to them. They occasionally consume beef jerky that I prepare at home using this recipe: https://www.bigwigjerky.com.au/how-to-make-the-best-homemade-beef-jerky/. I don't claim that all of my actions are correct, but that is the way I do it in general.

[racindog]

I have fed RAW beef heart to many different dogs for many years. They love it and there has never been a single incidence of any issues or anything.  The only thing I could suggest is not to just suddenly give a non raw fed dog their whole food ration in raw. You can actually switch quickly but just to be on the safe side I would give it about a week gradually.  It doesn't hurt to feed them raw along with their regular ration.  You can put a few pieces of cut up heart etc. on top of the regular ration to see how she likes it. They also love raw green tripe and it is very good for them. It has the optimum Ca:P ratio. This might sound weird but be careful with grocery store meat(and also I personally never feed raw chicken because that can carry things other raw doesn't).  The raw that I feed my dogs is IMO higher quality and safer than what you can get at a grocery. My dogs' raw comes from carefully raised non-drugged wholesome farm raised animals (MyPetCarnivore).  Grocery stores, not so much, hence the phrase "meat cow."