Liver and organ meat for dogs: how much to feed

Organ meat is the “10% organ” in the 80/10/10 guide, and it’s a part of raw feeding people often ask about. The short version: about half of it is liver, the other half is other organs like kidney, and it’s fed in small amounts because it’s very rich. Below are the amounts by dog size, which organs count, and the ready-made ways to get it into the bowl.

What counts as organ

In raw feeding, “organ” usually means the secreting organs: liver, kidney, spleen, pancreas and brain. Liver is the one nearly every raw feeder includes, and kidney is the other common one.

A few things sound like organs but are counted differently:

• Heart, tongue and cheek are muscles, so they count as muscle meat.
• Green tripe is usually kept separate from the organ part. Our green tripe guide explains where it fits.

How much to feed

A common way to split the 10% is 5% liver and 5% other organ. For a 20 kg dog eating 500 g of raw food a day, that’s roughly:

Like the rest of the 80/10/10 guide, it evens out over a week. Plenty of owners feed organ a few times a week rather than a little every day. Our how much to feed guide has daily amounts for other weights.

For other sizes, using the 2.5% of body weight a day our feed calculator uses for a moderately active adult dog:

A weekly total is handy if you feed organ on set days. A 30 kg dog getting liver twice a week would have about 130 g each time.

Why liver stays at about 5%

Liver is very rich, including in vitamin A, which is why raw feeders keep it to a small share of the diet rather than feeding it freely. Too much organ in one go can also loosen stools, so it’s worth building up slowly.

Introducing organ

1. Wait until your dog is settled on their main protein.
2. Start with a small amount, a teaspoon or two for a medium dog, mixed into the usual meal.
3. Increase it over a couple of weeks until you reach the amount for your dog’s size.

Most dogs eat it happily mixed through mince. A few pick it out, and for those dogs a blend with the organ already minced in makes life easier.

Kidney, including lamb kidney

Kidney is the usual “other organ”, and raw lamb and beef kidney are both widely used. Feed it the same way as liver: cut into small pieces, mixed into a meal, with the week’s total around 5% of the diet. Weigh a kidney once and you’ll know how many serves it makes for your dog. Our guide to can dogs eat raw beef shows how beef liver and kidney fit a beef-based diet.

Kidney has a stronger smell than muscle meat, and some dogs take a few tries to get keen on it. Mixing it through mince, or starting with a mix that already has offal through it, gets most dogs past that.

Where to find organ in our range

Balance Mix is our ready-made option. It’s made from tripe, liver, kidney, tongue, cheek, heart and chicken mince, and you mix one part Balance Mix to two parts of any mince. Chicken Mince with Balance Mix is a common pairing, because the chicken brings bone as well.

Several of our blends also have offal minced through, such as liver and kidney, which contributes to the organ part:

• Active Dog Mix: beef, horse, offal and green tripe
• Fussy Mix: veal, chicken, liver and offal
• Breeders Mix: beef, horse, goat and offal

Wild Mix and Puppy Mix have offal through them too. The organs in Balance Mix are beef, and green tripe counts as beef, so for a dog that’s off beef, Wild Mix brings offal with horse, goat, venison and alpaca instead.

If you’d rather feed organ on its own, plain liver and kidney from the butcher work well. Cut them into small portions and freeze them, so you only thaw what you need.

An ice cube tray makes this easy. Dice the liver small, press it into the tray, freeze it, then tip the cubes into a bag. Each cube is a few grams to a couple of tablespoons depending on the tray, so weigh one once and you’ll know how many cubes make your dog’s serve.

Making the 1:2 Balance Mix routine easy

Our mixes and minces come as blocks of about 500 g, which makes the one-to-two ratio simple to follow without weighing anything:

1. The night before, move one block of Balance Mix and two blocks of your dog’s mince from the freezer to the fridge.
2. Next day, mix the three blocks together in a lidded container.
3. Keep two to three days’ worth in the fridge and pop the rest straight back in the freezer. Raw meat thawed in the fridge can be refrozen.
4. Serve each meal from the container.

For a 20 kg dog eating about 450 g of mince or blend a day, a batch of three blocks is a little over three days’ food. Our guide to portioning raw dog food covers splitting a whole carton.

Organ meat questions

Can dogs eat raw liver every day?

Yes, in small amounts. A little each day and a bigger portion a couple of times a week both work, as long as the weekly total stays around 5% of the diet.

Is chicken liver OK?

Yes. Liver from any of the usual meats works. If your dog needs to stay off a protein, choose liver from an animal they can eat.

Common questions

Can dogs eat lamb kidney raw?

Yes. Raw lamb kidney is a common “other organ”. Cut it small, mix it into a meal, and keep the week’s total to about 5% of the diet.

Can dogs eat offal?

Yes. The organs among the offal, such as liver and kidney, make up about 10% of a raw diet over a week, about half of it liver. Heart and tripe count with the meat.

Is heart an organ?

Not in raw feeding. Heart is a muscle, so it counts with the muscle meat, even though it’s sold with the offal.

Is organ meat the same as offal?

Near enough. Offal is the butcher’s word for the insides, which includes heart and tripe. In raw feeding, “organ” means the secreting organs such as liver and kidney.

Can puppies have organ meat?

Yes, in the same small share. Puppy Mix has offal through it, and our guide to how much raw food to feed a puppy has daily amounts by age.

Do I need to add organ if I feed a mix?

If the mix already has offal through it, like Active Dog Mix, Breeders Mix or Fussy Mix, it brings organ along with it. With a plain single-protein mince, add organ, for example with Balance Mix.