Using freeze-dried beef liver as a meal topper

A liver topper for dogs is freeze-dried beef liver crumbled over a meal, and our label lists topper next to treat and reward as a way to feed it. The liver is the same; only where it lands changes. The one rule that moves is the count: crumbs on the bowl come out of the treat budget, not the meal.

What does the label mean by topper?

It means the liver can go onto the food instead of into a hand. The feeding statement on the back of every bag covers it in the first line. The bag says: "Feed as a treat, reward, or topper. Intended for intermittent or supplemental feeding only." It goes on: "Always supervise while feeding and provide fresh drinking water." The last line is "Not intended as a complete and balanced diet."

Read as a whole, the statement makes the liver an extra however you serve it. A topper is a treat that happens to sit on dinner. It is not a meal, and the label is plain about that. The same statement is printed on all three bag sizes, so the rule does not change with the bag.

How do you crumble liver over a meal?

Hold a piece over the bowl and rub it between thumb and fingers. Freeze-dried liver is dry and brittle, so it crumbles along the grain into flakes and dust with no knife involved. Stop when the food looks lightly dusted rather than covered. Stir it through if your dog tends to pick, or leave it on top if your dog eats straight down.

Keep it dry. The label does not cover soaking or mixing with water, so we do not suggest it, and dry crumbs sit on kibble or on wet food equally well. The crumbs that gather in the bottom of a bag were made for this job, so tip them straight from the corner. Reseal the bag afterward and keep it somewhere cool and dry, as the back label asks, then wash your hands, which the label asks too. The pieces themselves are shown on the beef liver page.

How much liver goes on top?

Less than you would think, because the amount is set by the treat budget and not by the bowl. VCA Animal Hospitals puts all treats and snacks at no more than 10 percent of a dog's daily calories, with the other 90 percent from complete and balanced food. Liver should be only part of that 10 percent, and crumbs on dinner are part of the liver.

We do not print a spoonful per meal, because a spoon of crumbs weighs something different every time and a dog's calorie number is personal. Our bag's label prints 81.6 kcal ME per ounce. Type your dog's daily calories into the calculator on how much liver a dog can eat and it returns a weight of liver for the whole day. Whatever lands on the bowl comes out of that figure, and so does whatever went into a pocket for the walk.

Which meals can take a liver topper?

Any meal the dog already eats. Dry kibble takes crumbs well because they sit on top and cling to the pieces. Wet or fresh food takes them too, and they soften a little on contact. A dog on a food the clinic chose is the one exception worth a question, so ask your veterinarian before adding anything to that bowl, liver included.

The topper is intermittent or supplemental by the label's own words, so it does not need to be on every bowl. Some owners dust the evening meal and keep the morning plain. Others save the crumbs for the kibble they packed for a weekend away, where a dry bag in the door pocket of the car beats anything that needs a cooler. There is no schedule from us, only the budget.

What about a dog that picks the topping off?

Some dogs eat the liver and leave the food. That tells you the liver ranks high with that dog, which is useful to know for training, and it tells you the topper is working as a treat rather than as part of the meal. We make no promise that a topper changes how a dog feels about its food, and the label makes none either.

Two ways to handle it. Stir the crumbs through so there is nothing to pick off. Or take liver off the bowl and hand it over as a reward once the meal is finished, where the same crumbs buy the same look. Either way the amount stays inside the budget, and the meal stays the meal.