How Much Hearts?

[F+V]

According to PMR diet, it is recommended to follow 84% muscle meat (incl. hearts), 6% raw edible bone, 5% liver, and 5% other organs.

And then I look at popular recipes online and notice that hearts account for 20% of the entire diet, and 24% of muscle meat. I have no idea how much is ideal but it seems excessively high. Those recipes also use 10% of livers.

Does anyone know the ideal % of hearts in muscle meat?

 

[mschauer]

Heart is generally lower in nutrients than muscle meat but is higher in taurine. Given the lack of solid data on taurine content of the ingredients we use to make our foods it's difficult to say what the optimum amount of heart would be but given that it is lower in most nutrients I use heart for about 10% of muscle meat.

 

[F+V]

Heart is generally lower in nutrients than muscle meat but is higher in taurine. Given the lack of solid data on taurine content of the ingredients we use to make our foods it's difficult to say what the optimum amount of heart would be but given that it is lower in most nutrients I use heart for about 10% of muscle meat.

I was also thinking about using hearts for 10% of muscle meat / of the diet (twice the amount of livers those popular recipes use) but hearts are rich in zinc and iron, and taurine is non toxic and water soluble, so I will for now stick to those recipes. Having said that, I will customize and use only half the amount of livers based on the 5% recommendation since liver in large amounts can result in vitamin A poisoning and our kitties often experience soft/runny feces. Ideally, I can find a different kind of organ(s) for another 5% of organs in the diet... I will ask my butcher if they can source any.

 

[mschauer]

Well, this is annoying. When I looked up the nutrient values for chicken heart and thighs I wrote the values backwards. Heart is actually higher in all the nutrients I thought it was lower in. I'm so glad you posted again!

You really don't need to worry about the vit A in liver. Toxic levels are many, many times higher than what we feed.

 

[F+V]

Well, this is annoying. When I looked up the nutrient values for chicken heart and thighs I wrote the values backwards. Heart is actually higher in all the nutrients I thought it was lower in. I'm so glad you posted again!

You really don't need to worry about the vit A in liver. Toxic levels are many, many times higher than what we feed.

Oh, good
And I was incorrect in calculating % of livers and hearts in the mainstream online recipes in my original post. Hearts is actually 15% of the diet (or 20% of muscle meat) and livers 8%. I just made food with 7% bones, 5% livers, 15% hearts and 68% meat. Hope this mix will keep their feces nice and dry.