Dehydrating Organs

[Ivy]

Timber is getting close to the point where organs will be introduced to his diet. In the past Timber was a nightmare with eating his organs. He's a smart dog and is always trying to trick me.

I want to dehydrate his organ meals. Would I measure the amount he needs before or after dehydration?

Also, I want to share how cunning Timber can be. Sometimes he gives me a hard time with his food and there will be times where he doesn't want to eat the bone-in meat, only the boneless. So i've been giving him his bone-in meat first, only when he eats it all I give him the rest. It was working great for a while. I noticed now, that he's hiding his half eaten bone-in meat at the front door (the dogs eat on the back porch) and i've been giving him the rest thinking he ate it all.

Crazy dog.

 

[NinaB]

Good question! Did you ever find out? Two of my girls aren't fond of raw organs and I just got a dehydrator so I am also curious. My guess would be to weigh before just because the calorie and nutrient profile would remain unchanged. I've been dehydrating at 115 degrees in order to preserve the enzymes. I've had some success feeding raw organs by cutting them up into small pieces and hiding them in pumpkin puree, honest kitchen, or just a nice homemade broth. Of course that might not work with your mr smartie pants

 

[Kilter]

I would measure before drying.

How often are you feeding him? It sounds like he's not that hungry if he's hiding parts of his meal - if you feed twice a day try feeding once a day. At times I've done every day and a bit feeding - feed breakfast one day, the next day nothing till dinner, the next day a light meal whenever, then repeat the cycle. Or just feed at different times and different amounts (that was when I had big chunks of meat and bone that were more than one day's meal really, if I fed them that much they'd be huge!) so they aren't sure if/when they eat. I'm mean like that.

The other option is to feed the offal mixed with tripe, or ground meaty bones to 'dilute' the taste a bit - feed it in a smaller meal too if needed, or with tripe. Mmm, tripe.

 

[naturalfeddogs]

I don't measure at all, because when I dehydrate it's just for treats.