Guide
Choosing between the 1.5, 3 and 6 ounce bags
Updated
The right beef heart bag size depends on how fast your dog gets through it, not on the dog alone. The three bags hold 1.5, 3 and 6 ounces of the same pieces. Find your dog's daily treat amount in ounces, divide the bag by it, and you have roughly how many treat days each bag gives you.
Which beef heart bag size should you buy?
Answer three questions before you pick, and the choice tends to make itself:
- How many dogs are eating from the bag? One dog on the occasional reward and three dogs on a daily routine empty the same bag at very different rates.
- Is it a treat, a topper, or both? A topper goes on the bowl most days, which adds up faster than a few rewards on a walk.
- How many treat days a week do you want to plan for? Some households use beef heart daily, others keep it for training evenings.
If the answers are one dog, treats only and a couple of days a week, the smallest bag covers a long stretch. If the answers are several dogs, toppers and every day, you are shopping at the other end of the shelf. The listing says: "Beef heart is the year-round one, in 1.5 ounce, 3 ounce and 6 ounce bags."
How many calories does each bag hold?
The bag does not print a per-bag figure. What it prints is the energy per weight. The bag says: "Metabolizable Energy: 2,657 kcal ME/kg (approximately 75.3 kcal/oz)."
Multiply that per-ounce figure by the bag size and you get, by our arithmetic rather than anything on the label, about 113 kcal in the 1.5 ounce bag, 226 in the 3 ounce bag and 452 in the 6 ounce bag. Our guide on how much beef heart for dogs lays those out in a table with the method behind them.
The per-ounce number is the one to remember. Every bag is the same beef heart, so a bigger bag holds more ounces of it, nothing else changes.
How long does one bag last your dog?
Take your dog's daily calories from the food bag or your vet and type them into the treat budget calculator on our product page. At its 10 percent default it works out a daily amount in ounces. That daily figure is the only number you need.
Divide the bag's ounces by the daily ounces and you have the number of treat days in that bag. Skip a day and the bag lasts a day longer; add a topper and it goes faster. We are not going to print an example, because the only daily figure that matters is your dog's.
The bag is clear about one more thing. The bag says: "Not intended as a complete diet." A bag that lasts a week and a bag that lasts a month are both treats beside the regular meals.
When is the 6 ounce bag worth it?
When the daily ounces add up. A multi-dog house, a dog that gets a topper every evening or a few weeks of training classes will all run through the 1.5 ounce bag quickly, and the 6 ounce bag means fewer reorders. Those are usage reasons. We will not talk about value per ounce here, because the right bag is the one that matches your pace.
If you already know the pace, there is a simpler route. The listing says: "If you would rather not think about reordering, a recurring order handles it." On our product page the one-time purchase is selected by default and the recurring option is there if you want it, so a beef heart recurring order is a choice, never the starting point.
The 1.5 ounce bag earns its place too. It is the one to buy when you do not yet know whether your dog is interested, and the one to put in a travel bag for a short trip.
Does bag size change how you store it?
No. The listing gives one storage direction for all three sizes. The bag says: "Close the heart bag again after opening and store it cool and dry." The listing calls beef heart shelf stable with no refrigeration needed, and that does not change with the size you opened.
The bag does not state a shelf life or a best-by window, and we do not estimate one. If you want the longer version on where to keep an open bag, our storage guide has it.
Questions
Is the 1.5 oz bag a good first bag?
Yes. It is the smallest of the three and holds the same pieces as the others, so it tells you whether your dog takes to beef heart without a large bag sitting open afterward. Once you know the answer and your dog's daily ounces, you can size up with some confidence.
Is the 6 oz bag harder to keep fresh once open?
The bag does not say, and we will not guess. The reseal and cool, dry storage direction is the same on all three sizes, and no shelf life is printed on any of them. Pick the size by how quickly you use it.
How many pieces are in a 3 oz bag?
Not stated. The bag gives a weight, not a piece count, and the pieces snap into smaller ones anyway, so a count would not hold up. Measure by weight: the label's figure of about 75.3 kcal per ounce is the unit the calculator works in.
Does the calorie figure per ounce change with bag size?
No. The label's figure of approximately 75.3 kcal per ounce describes the beef heart, and the beef heart is the same in every bag. What changes between bags is the number of ounces. Our per-bag figures are that one number multiplied out, nothing more.
Is the heart bag in the Beef Trio the same size as the 3 oz bag?
Yes. The trio's listing names a 3 ounce bag of beef heart, the same size as the middle bag sold on its own, alongside a 3 ounce bag of beef liver and a 2 ounce bag of beef tripe. Each bag in the set holds a single ingredient, freeze dried raw in Pennsylvania.
Can I set up a recurring order?
Yes, on our product page. One-time purchase is what the buy box shows first, and a recurring order is an opt in beside it. Billing and cancellation live in your Sniff and Shift account, so you can change the pace or stop it there once you know how fast a bag goes.