When it comes to balanced raw (or cooked) feeding, secreting organs are an important addition in your pet's diet.
In general, secreting organs can be high in certain vitamins and minerals- vitamin A, iron, copper, & B vitamins are just a few. When following a ratio diet, like PMR or BARF, opting for liver and other secreting organs from ruminant animals is recommended because they are concentrated in several essential nutrients!
To learn more about the nutrients present in certain cuts of meat or organs, you can read my collection of "Nutritional Data at a Glance" posts.
Though there are several organs within an animal that can be utilised in balanced raw feeding, muscular organs like hearts, tongues, lungs etc would NOT be considered secreting organs...
So what organs are considered secreting organs in a balanced raw or cooked diet?
Liver
Brain
Testes (Testicle)
Ovaries
Kidneys
Spleen
Pancreas
Thymus
I tend to include liver from ruminants in all of my balanced recipes for my dogs because beef liver (even lamb liver) in particular, can be such a great addition to help meet/boost daily vitamin A, copper, iron, & folic acid recommended allowances. Obviously liver contributes to boosting more key nutrients than those listed above, but you can read more about that in my NDAG posts.
Pork spleen and beef spleen have also been staples in my puppy's diet because the daily recommended allowance (RA) for iron is 22mg per 1000kcals, compared to 7.5mg of iron per 1000kcals for adult dogs. Spleen is an exceptional secreting organ to include alongside liver, to help meet or exceed iron RAs.
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Hope this was helpful to some!
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xoxo
