Can I substitute a vitamin tablet for organ meat?

[billsharp]

Liesl loves all beef, all lamb, cooked chicken (not raw), all bones, whole fresh tilapia, salmon, pork neck and rib (meaty) bones.

She absolutely refuses organ meat--kidney, liver--no way. As in, re-try it as her only food for over 24 hours and she still refuses it.

I give her a Petco multivitamin every other day or so--do I really need the organ meat? What is she missing specifically if she has a vitamin but no organ meat?

[fg2chase]

I really hate liver too...

[I_LOVE_MY_MIKKO]

Sorry, I don't know about a vitamin, but have you tried grinding it/putting it in a food processor with the other meat?

Also, just curious why you don't feed the chicken raw like everything else?

[Jax08]

Chicken liver was the only thing that Jax would eat to begin with. I had to partially cook it to start but now she'll eat anything.

[onyx'girl]

I found my dogs more willing to eat liver if it was partially or totally frozen. Same with fish, they won't eat it thawed. Whole foods provide better nutrients than a vitamin supplement. I'd rather give the vitamins naturally than in a supplement.

[lhczth]

Liver is an excellent source of Iron, Vit A, protein, a number of minerals and the B vitamins. Beef liver is better than chicken liver in most of these areas. Beef kidney is an excellent source of iron, B vitamins, and many necessary minerals. Kidney also contains Omega 3 fatty acids. Lamb liver may be the best of all of these in its value as a food item, but is not as easy to get.

Natural sources of anything will always be more available to the body than what is found in a supplements, especially the synthetic vitamins that are most commonly used.

[natalie559]

Sure you can- but you wouldn't know what to supplement without knowing what the dogs needs are and what the other ingredients are contributing to the diet. I wrote more about how I do this here,

How I create and balance a homemade diet

[Gmthrust]

Here is a helpful source of nutritional info; for example on raw chicken liver. To give credit where it's due, who gave me the idea to be more accurate of items being fed----I think it's GSDs-n-Rotties<---not sure on her nic...Nicki?---good grief!---I seriously can't remember her nic---she has/had some excellent links to nutritional facts and values; I lost those links when my laptop imploded! She is the one who helps a lot and she writes way better than I do. lol. If someone remembers---I'm sooo sorry and embarrassed to space out her nic! But using these types of sources that I got thru her, I try to figure out what my girls are eating and whether their needs are being met.... so....let's say.....if I were to find one of my girls refusing, for instance, chicken liver, I can search for nutritional info and replace it with at least a temporary solution of "whole-foods" vitamins and/or "raw-foods" vitamins, while trying to figure out better solutions to an issue. I'm thinking there are many sources for these types of whole-foods, raw-foods vitamins/minerals....one that comes to mind is Standard Process...(one of my girls, the oldest one, Cris, had a terrible flare up of itchies, and my vet recommended that company.... the product name is Antronex. It worked, and Cris is fine now). Probably none of this was helpful, but I hope something comes of it...and best wishes!

[Gmthrust]

Natalie, thanks for that thread...gonna finish reading it now...just wanted to say thanks!

[billsharp]

Thanks for all the help, you've given me some great leads.

She won't eat raw chicken. If I braise it in butter she'll sometimes eat it.

I tried mixing minced liver in with the hamburger, but she left that too--although I may have mixed too much in. (She also left it when I mixed ground turkey in. Good grief.)

Jax, thanks, cooking slightly to get it jump-started OR giving frozen may be my best bet.