# How much freeze dried liver can a dog have per day?



## Michiyo-Fir (Jul 25, 2009)

I remember lots of organs give most dogs diarrhea and I just bought a bag of freeze dried liver as training treats for Nia.

How much can she have a day? Is it still around 10% of her diet?

Also, is it ok to give lots of treats during the day from training? (I use Wellness Wellbites, dehydrated chicken and freeze dried liver) Kibble doesn't work for her and in exercises like counter conditioning against reaction to other dogs and doing the watch me command I use quite a bit of treats.

She shouldn't have any kind of nutritional deficit from eating too much treats and not enough balanced dog food or something right? I'm currently using a big handful of treats during most days. 


Btw, I'm not worried about weight gain from treats since she can't keep weight on and she eats less kibble when I give her lots of treats anyways.


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## Kathyy (Jun 15, 2008)

Well the liver is probably less than 10% water and fresh is 70% water so one ounce of fresh would be about 8 grams and one ounce of freeze dried would then be equivalent to about 4 ounces of raw. About, just doing approximations. My 38 pound Max ought to get about .5 ounces of liver and .5 ounces of other organ on average a day so would get about 4 grams of dried liver. That is more than you think but might be less than you are offering up. You can slice the chunks into wafers so they go further. A big pain.

Except for the slight possibility that she isn't getting much calcium I think you are doing just fine as you are feeding good quality treats. With the liver you could be feeding too much vitamin A and also copper if you are using beef liver.

It would be ideal if you could find a balanced food she would accept as a treat. I haven't done it but ZiwiPeak would be great. It is jerky type rectangles that break up easily. The treats are easy to find and that is the only product I have used. Very good quality stuff and Mr. Iamtoogoodforhotdogs loves them. She might even get fat, the ration is tiny as it is potent stuff. Another is one of the moist food rolls. Unfortunately my favorite Natural Balance seems to have gone bad, adding unnecessary ingredients but there might be other food rolls that would work.


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## Michiyo-Fir (Jul 25, 2009)

Thanks! And I thought I would never get a reply! 

I gave her quite a lot of liver the other day and she seemed fine.

Finding a food she'll take as a treat is VERY hard. There is no food in the world that she really likes. She won't even eat things like chicken for 3 days in a row. Another thing is if I feed her something she really likes for example I suspect Ziwipeak a lot and it's high in calories, then she's not that hungry. She will starve herself for DAYS because she doesn't feel starved enough to eat her kibble. She will honestly only eat when she's starving which means sometime between 24 or more hrs per meal. That's why I'm having so much problem with her!

On top of that she always gets between 3-5 hrs of exercise a day so it's pretty easy for her to lose weight.

A trainer I consulted tried to put her on a schedule, 2 meals a day 15 min per meal. We tried for about a month and she lost 1.5-2 lbs and only ate every other meal or ever 2 meals. And since each portion was only 1/4 cup, she was losing weight really fast. But even after a month, the trial was terminated because she was not eating when food is given and she lost way too much weight. Her regular weight is only 6.5 lbs, imagine losing 2 lbs of that! 

Even liver isn't that interesting to her. I have no idea what to do. I may try Ziwipeak but I haven't seen their treats in our stores. I've only seen their food and it's darn expensive! But next time I might try a bag as training treats. 

Thanks for the great suggestion!


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