Liver info

chris10

TCS Member
Thread starter
Adult Cat
Joined
Sep 16, 2008
Messages
204
Purraise
1
Location
Northern California
A fair amount of people, including myself, are a little hesitant to feed large amounts of liver. What is considered a large amount will vary from person to person. So we will look at what it will take to O/D your cat on vitamin A.

The AAFCO recommends the maximum consumption of vitamin A to be 750,000IU's per kilogram of food on a dry matter basis. Liver has a dry matter basis of 23.54%

1 kilogram= 2.2lbs which is 23.54% of 9.35lbs. 9.35lbs equals 149.6oz of total food.

The average cat may eat 5oz of food a day. 149.6/5= about 30 days of food.
5oz of liver contains 15,731 IU's of Vitamin A. 15,731x30= 471,930IU's of vitamin A

If a cat ate nothing but liver for a month they would still be under the maximum amount. It would actually take 47 meals, at 5oz a meal, to reach 750,000. But the 47 meals would equal to about 14.68lbs of food. Which comes to about 1.5 kilograms converting it using liver DM.

So it seems, if my math is correct, that someone would really need to go out of their way to O/D a cat on vitamin A. Possibly feed nothing but liver and cod liver oil. Or maybe adding a vitamin A supplement along with liver. IMO feeding nothing but liver over a very long period time will O/D them.

In reality if you use the rough guidelines of the prey model diet you will be fine. Even if you go a little over. This was just show what it would take to reach those maximum levels.
 

sharky

TCS Member
Veteran
Joined
Jan 30, 2005
Messages
27,231
Purraise
38
chris may I have permission to cut and paste your post on another forum???
 

auntie crazy

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Feb 4, 2006
Messages
2,435
Purraise
60
It's wild that you posted this now, Chris - I was just thinking about researching this very subject. All the doom and gloom about never, EVER feeding more than a sliver or two here and there or you risk a killing overdose just didn't make sense.

Thank you VERY MUCH for saving me the effort of digging this up myself!!


One of the many reasons I
TCS.
 

dusty's mom

TCS Member
Top Cat
Joined
Sep 13, 2005
Messages
2,176
Purraise
13
Location
California
Originally Posted by Auntie Crazy

It's wild that you posted this now, Chris - I was just thinking about researching this very subject. All the doom and gloom about never, EVER feeding more than a sliver or two here and there or you risk a killing overdose just didn't make sense.

Thank you VERY MUCH for saving me the effort of digging this up myself!!


One of the many reasons I
TCS.
I grind up raw chicken liver in the food processor and freeze in an ice cube tray. I give my cat 1 cube at a time about twice a week as a treat. She loves it!

My vet said that is just fine.
 

StefanZ

Advisor
Staff Member
Advisor
Joined
Sep 18, 2005
Messages
26,000
Purraise
10,650
Location
Sweden
Originally Posted by chris10

If a cat ate nothing but liver ....
Yes, that had been done. Let me retell. It was a vet telling, in Great Britain I believe.
There was this woman feeding her cat with solely liver. Otherwise she was a good owner.
The main sideeffect of grossly excessive A-vitamin is extra bone-growth (possibly cartilage, I dont remember). Here it was extra bone-growth in the spine, immobilizing the cat.
The cat healed herself as good she could. When the immobilization come, she stop eating at all during a 4-5 weeks .= stopped the intake of liver=A-vitamines... And the extra bones went back. And she was back healthy although starved.
After it,new round as liver was the only food the cat got.
After it, anew new round...
After it, the vet lost the trace - the woman and the cat moved. *weeping*

Apparently they had no good help form authorities in that country (GB?).
Perhaps because the woman otherwise wasnt bad owner - she took the cat to vet every time...
 
Top