Hannah Zulueta Ingredients · Taurine
Taurine, Grain-Free, and the DCM Scare
What actually happened, and where taurine actually lives
I find it fascinating that articles about dogs with DCM tend to arrive a few weeks before I start getting served ads for taurine supplements. Coincidence? Maybe. Maybe not. A few years ago grain-free diets got blamed for heart disease in dogs. The story that spread was simpler than the truth.
Where I stand
I would rather you fed the gizzard than the powder.
I have watched raw feeders who formulate carefully add synthetic taurine to the bowl specifically to push past the RDA. I caution against it. Synthetics can open up a whole host of other problems, and this is a nutrient your dog can get from food, in quantity, from ingredients that are cheap and easy to find.
So this article is not an argument. It is where the story came from, and then it is a list. Here is which ingredients have taurine in them, and how much.
Follow the thread
How grain-free took the blame
Setting the record straight
The headline vs the evidence
Grain-free diets cause DCM. That was the headline, and it spread fast.
Recent studies call both the grain-free link and the taurine link inconclusive. The FDA has since said grain is not the culprit and the matter needs more investigation. The thread that holds together is formulation, less protein and therefore less taurine, rather than the grain itself.
The nutrient at the center
So what is taurine
Taurine is a sulfur-containing amino acid. Because of its structure it is not built into the proteins the body makes. Instead it sits free in the tissues, doing its work in the heart and beyond.
Essential, or not
Cats and dogs are different here
Essential. Cats can barely make their own taurine, so it has to come from the diet.
Not proven essential for dogs. But research suggests it may be conditionally essential, meaning it matters more under certain conditions. Worth including either way.
Where to get it
Taurine in muscle meat: dark vs. light
Milligrams per 100g. Dark meat leads, breast trails.
The data
Taurine by ingredient
Values are milligrams of taurine per 100 grams, sourced from Animal Diet Formulator. Filter by organ type to compare like against like.
Every remaining ingredient in the Animal Diet Formulator set returned no measurable taurine. Those entries still carry cystine, which is why the full table below lists both columns.
The complete table, taurine and cystine
| Ingredient | Taurine mg/100g | Cystine g/100g |
|---|---|---|
| Turkey liver (raw) | 131.85 | 0.212 |
| Duck gizzard (raw) | 120 | 0.24 |
| Chicken heart (raw) | 112.5 | 0.211 |
| Turkey heart (raw) | 110 | 0.194 |
| Chicken liver (raw) | 110 | 0.275 |
| Turkey gizzard (raw) | 106.8811 | 0.222 |
| Chicken gizzard (raw) | 100.4 | 0.239 |
| Whitefish, typical (raw) | 96 | 0.19 |
| Pork kidney (raw) | 77.3 | 0.361 |
| Beef liver (raw) | 68.8 | 0.376 |
| Lamb liver (raw) | 68.8 | 0.2454 |
| Beef heart (raw) | 65.2 | 0.1485 |
| Lamb heart (raw) | 65.2 | 0.138 |
| Bison heart (raw) | 65.2 | 0.019 |
| Duck egg (raw) | 64.1 | 0.285 |
| Lamb kidney (raw) | 62.1518 | 0.21 |
| Pork liver (cooked) | 8.5 | 0.491 |
| Pork heart (cooked) | 0 | 0.309 |
| Beef heart (cooked) | 0 | 0 |
| Veal liver (cooked) | 0 | 0.49 |
| Veal heart (raw) | 0 | 0.185 |
| Beef liver (cooked) | 0 | 0.479 |
| Chicken liver (cooked) | 0 | 0.383 |
| Duck heart (raw) | 0 | 0.21 |
| Duck liver (raw) | 0 | 0.252 |
| Lamb kidney (cooked) | 0 | 0.27 |
| Pork kidney (cooked) | 0 | 0.557 |
| Freeze-dried beef kidney (cooked) | 0 | 0 |
| Beef kidney (cooked) | 0 | 0 |
| Chicken gizzard (cooked) | 0 | 0 |
| Turkey gizzard (cooked) | 0 | 0.252 |
| Duck gizzard (cooked) | 0 | 0 |
| Salmon, Atlantic (raw) | 0 | 0.213 |
| Salmon, sockeye | 0 | 0.237 |
| Sardine | 0 | 0.147 |
| Mackerel | 0 | 0.215 |
| Anchovy | 0 | 0.218 |
| Mussel, blue (cooked) | 0 | 0.312 |
Source: Animal Diet Formulator.
Read the table this way
Five things the numbers tell you
- Cooking costs you most of it. Scroll the cooked entries in the full table. Pork liver drops from the top of the list to 8.5, and the rest of the cooked column reads zero.
- Poultry beats the red meats. Turkey, chicken and duck sit at the top. Beef, pork and lamb sit in the middle.
- Chicken gizzards are the easiest ones to find, and still carry real taurine. One hundred milligrams per hundred grams, just behind its duck and turkey cousins.
- Freezer storage costs you taurine. The longer it sits frozen, the lower the level.
- Grinding costs you taurine. Whole muscle and whole organ hold more than ground.
Two of the five things on that list are not about the ingredient at all. They are about what you did to it after you bought it.
The pathway
Why cystine is in the table
Taurine is not strictly essential for dogs the way it is for cats, because a dog can build its own. That is the reason the second column exists. Cystine is the raw material.
The chain actually starts one step further back, at methionine.
Read the two columns together rather than separately. An ingredient with no measurable taurine and a strong cystine value is still doing work upstream.
If you feed raw
The three I would reach for
I no longer feed raw. That changed what goes into my own bowls.
For those of you who still feed raw, the three best sources here are raw duck gizzard, raw turkey gizzard, and raw chicken gizzard, the last one being the easiest to find outside an Asian market. All three are inexpensive, and once you know which store to walk into, easy to find.
Gizzards carry choline as well as taurine, which solves a specific problem in my house. One of my dogs cannot have egg, and egg is where most people get choline into the bowl. Gizzards cover it for her.
Sourcing
Where to buy organs
Asian markets. That is the short answer and it has been the short answer for years. Gizzards, hearts, livers and kidneys are ordinary grocery items there rather than a specialty order, and the price reflects that.
Buy it whole rather than ground, feed it fresh rather than out of long freezer storage, and you keep most of what the table above promises.
Check your own bowl
Is your dog getting taurine?
Tap what you feed. The answer comes up below.
A food formulated to AAFCO standards technically meets the requirement without added taurine, so companies do not always add it.
Some will tell you whether they added it, usually through a vitamin pack. Check the label or ask the maker. If it is not clear, add a taurine-rich food.
Fresh food may carry taurine through its ingredients, but not always.
If the recipe does not clearly include taurine-rich meats, add some. A tablespoon of dark poultry meat or gizzards several times a week covers it.
A food labeled “for supplemental feeding” may or may not carry enough taurine.
Verify the level on the label, or contact the manufacturer to ask. If you cannot confirm it, supplement.
If it is not clear that taurine is in the food or in the ingredients, feed sources that contain it or supplement.
Dark meat, hearts, and gizzards are your simplest options. Look back at the charts above.
Common questions
A few more things people ask
Does grain-free dog food cause DCM?
Not proven. The FDA has said grain itself is not the culprit, and the question is still under investigation. The thread that actually holds together is formulation, lower protein meant lower taurine, not the absence of grain by itself. More on the sweet potato side of that same fear: Is Sweet Potato Bad for Dogs?
Does my dog need a taurine supplement?
Not if the food or the ingredients you add already carry it. Dark poultry meat, hearts, and gizzards get most dogs there through the bowl. I would rather you fed the gizzard than the powder, synthetic taurine pushed past the RDA opens up other problems worth avoiding when food can do the job. For the broader supplement question beyond taurine, see the supplements page.
What foods have the most taurine for dogs?
Turkey liver and duck gizzard sit at the top of the organ table above, both over 100 milligrams per 100 grams raw. Turkey dark meat leads the muscle-meat chart. Cooking and grinding both cost you most of it, so raw and whole holds the most.
Does chicken liver have taurine?
Yes. Raw chicken liver carries about 110 milligrams of taurine per 100 grams, one of the highest values in the whole ADF ingredient set, just behind turkey liver and duck gizzard, and well ahead of most muscle meat. Cooking drops that number sharply, chicken liver cooked runs close to zero in the same dataset, so raw or lightly cooked keeps more of it intact.
Does beef liver have taurine?
Yes, though less than poultry liver. Raw beef liver runs about 68.8 milligrams of taurine per 100 grams, roughly two thirds of what chicken liver carries, still a genuinely useful source, just not the top of the list. Lamb liver lands at the same value, 68.8 milligrams, if you are comparing across proteins.
The bottom line
Grain was never the real question.
The evidence on grain-free and on taurine is still unsettled, and worth watching. What you can do today is simple. Make sure taurine is in the bowl, through the food or through the ingredients you add. Dark meat and organ meats make it easy.
How much organ, how often, and against what calorie target depends on the dog. A heart condition in play changes the answer again. If you want a recipe built with real ingredient values behind it rather than a scoop of powder covering a gap, book a consultation.
More reading: what complete and balanced actually means, the nutrition calculators, or the rest of the blog archive.
Taurine description and whole-food values: Small Animal Clinical Nutrition, 5th Edition. Organ meat and cystine values: Animal Diet Formulator. A zero reflects no measurable value in that database entry.
Hannah Zulueta obtained her Certificate in Canine Nutrition from CASI Institute. She is also studying for her Doctorate in Acupuncture, Traditional Chinese Medicine, and Herbalism from the esteemed Pacific College of Health and Medicine. If you’re as keenly interested in health for yourself, visit her website for human health: Satori Acupuncture and Herbs.
She resides in San Diego with her three dogs, Maggie, Orbit, and Mr. Higgins.
She is available for one on one consultations. She develops evidence-based recipes that meet both NRC and AAFCO nutritional standards while integrating the therapeutic food principles of Traditional Chinese Veterinary Medicine into her formulations.
Additionally, you can find her sharing free content on Instagram.
