replacement for heart and liver in home cooked

stephanie42

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i'm sick of waiting for stella & chewy's to come back in stock everywhere so i'm going to go back to home cooking ASAP.  however, the liver and heart are no longer something i can do for numerous reasons.  should i just add more taurine, or should i get a liver powder like what feline instincts sells?
 
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stephanie42

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@ankitty, i'm not able to get primal grinds locally.  the only chubs i've found in the area have a lot of veggies ground in - i'm not sure of the brand but i've looked into them in the past.

@LDG  - thanks for that.  i think for now i'm just going to cook it without organs and add extra taurine, then order freeze dried liver.  i'll check with my local shop tomorrow and see if they carry/recommend anything.
 

ldg

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I use Stewart's ProTreat. The cats LOVE it. If you can rotate between freeze dried beef liver and chicken liver, even better. And you don't even need to add it to the food if the cats like it - feed it (in the correct amount) as a treat daily. On a daily basis, it doesn't take a lot of volume. For my cats that don't eat kidney, I feed them 10% of their diet as liver.

If you want to add other freeze dried organs, I use Nutricology glandulars. I don't attempt a fresh equivalent, but I do sprinkle a capsule of something on one meal a day - one capsule per cat, once a day, and I just rotate through spleen, kidney, pancreas, beef brain, and thymus. I buy them on amazon.
 
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stephanie42

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i have numerous issues with the heart and liver.  one is that i'm not able to get them locally from a reliable source in my price range.  i live in an apartment and do not have room for an additional freezer, so i can't really buy frozen things in bulk. the second is that i generally do not cook meat - i eat almost exclusively vegetarian at home - and the last times i've cooked the liver and heart i literally feel sick.  i hate the smell of it, the look of it, and handling it.  so if there's another option besides having to handle and cook them from raw, i'd prefer that.  

@LDG, i have a few local stores that appear to carry stewart's according to their website.  i think i might try that.  i guess my main concern is that the recipes i've researched all have liver and some have heart.  i can add taurine to make up for it but i know that feeding yucky inside parts like that is important for a balanced diet.  buying them canned food is becoming cost prohibitive; my husband has recently had a cut in pay and it's just getting harder for all of us to eat like we used to.  it's kind of pushing me back into cooking for them because it's so much less expensive since i have all of the supplements already.
 

silverpersian

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Trader Joe's carries beef liver treats that are 100% freeze-dried beef liver. They are very reasonable in price - I don't remember how much they cost, but I remember being surprised at the price. Between that and taurine, you will be all set.
 
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