Beef lung as muscle or organ or neither?

[silverpersian]

Hello all,
Mypetcarnivore now offers beef lung. I know that it can be used as a treat in its dried form. I assume that the fresh/thawed would be fine as a treat.
Could I use it in the actual meal? If so, would it count as muscle or secreting organ?
I have the same question about tripe - is it best as a treat or can it be used in place of meat?
Thanks!

 

[furmonster mom]

I believe lung and tripe are considered in the "organ" category.  Great for treats or as part of the organ portion of meals.

 

[silverpersian]

Thanks so much for the quick reply!

 

[ritz]

I've always thought both lung and tripe were considered meat/protein. That's how I use them in prey model raw. I can occasionally get chicken lung at farmer's markets and tripe at independently run pet stores. Ritz likes lung but chicken lungs are really really tiny. Likes tripe too, though has thrown it up (can't eat red meat on an empty stomach).
Note that you want green tripe not honeycomb/white tripe. (It's not really green, just not processed like white tripe that has been bleached.)
http://catcentric.org/2013/05/23/a-raw-feeding-terminology-discussion/

 

[furmonster mom]

I can see how (green!) tripe might be treated as a meat, because it's the stomach lining, and the stomach is kind-of muscle-ish.  I treat it as an organ or a treat because of the high enzyme content.. it is very rich.

But I have always seen lungs treated as organs. 

They are not really a muscle, they are more like a spongy balloon or bellows that is operated by the diaphragm (which is a muscle).  They don't operate by themselves, they need that diaphragm to work.

I think of the lungs as a "processor" much like the liver and kidneys. Their process is a little different; instead of processing the impurities out of the blood, the lungs process oxygen into the blood.  Consequently, as a "processor" they are much more bloody than most muscles, also like liver and kidneys can be.

 

[goingpostal]

I feed lung and tripe as muscle meat.