Can i ask peoples opnions on feeding Tripe and a wholemeal mixer.. I Was very suprised to hear one of the top Kennels in our breed feed this entirely (the dogs Look Fantastic)  Should it be a complete diet type of thing? or just an occasional meal type of diet... What do you think
of it compared to Nutro, and would adding some tripe to a Nutro meal be ok occasionally An then there is the question of how much and how offten?:rolleyes:

Before the foot and mouth outbreak a few years ago all I ever my dogs on was raw green tripe and mixer biscuit.  The puppies were reared on it - the oldies were on it - and I never had a days food related problem, no runny tummies no excess wind, nothing.  Then when the F&M hit I put them onto a complete diet as I couldn't get hold of tripe at all.  They look good on it, but I still somehow think they just had that little extra sparkle on the tripe.  When I went to start up my tripe freezer again it was broken so they've been on complete ever since.  I keep thinking I should get them back onto tripe though.

Debs

Hi tychlo,
Tripe with veg and wholemeal mixer is the main ingredient of our feeding and has been for 25yrs. No probs with it yet and the dogs are always satisfied with it too.

one of the big breeders in our breed feed tripe and mixer too and their dogs always look great.  In the "olden days" when we had Afghans they were reared on tripe with puppy mixer and then tripe with winalot mixer when they were adults.

I always find wholemeal mixer a bit difficult to pick up from the other end goes a bit crumbly for some reason, so we have a dry complete mixed with tripe, chicken mince etc I can't see adding tripe to your usual brand of complete being a problem :-)

Our poodles and bernese are all fed raw tripe with terrier meal, every other day they get a raw egg mixed in with it and if there are any left over veg or meat from our meals it just gets mixed in with it.  When we get a new pup it is changed over as soon as we can (usually within a week or two) but pups always get a suppliment (stress or something similar) until they are a year old. We are very rarely at the vets with our dogs, they all look great and can honestly say we don't have skin problems or digestive problems that a lot of dogs seem to get these days.  My old miniature poodle has had colitis since I got her and since she was changed over to this diet 8 years ago she has never had an upset stomach or dodgy poo's.  And just to make the diet sound even better its got to be the most economical way to feed your dogs :D 

i feed wholemeal biscuit & tripe,my dogs look well on it and i dont worry about there weight [ we are a weighed breed!!], there coats shine and they always look really healthy. and its nice to know what they are getting, im not always sure about these complete biscuits, whats in them!!. my mum years ago when she had german sheperds & dobes always fed great big chunks of tripe they also got a big bowls of biscuit and boy did they do well & lived to be grand old agers.

Do you only feed tripe and biscuit mixer or other meats as well?

Hi All
Can anyone tell me where I can get raw green tripe from. I contacted Landywoods but they have a £50 minimum order, far too much for me to order as I don't have the freezer space. I live in E.Yorkshire. Thanks
Wendy

I'm in North yorkshire and I get mine from Landywoods. Could you not pair up with anyone so that between you you are over the minimum order? :-D

Hi
Thanks for your reply. I have tried to find someone around this area to share an order from Landywoods but no luck!!
Wendy

Whereabouts in East Yorkshire are you? I have to travel to meet the driver anyway so could maybe put our orders together and get it delivered together? PM me if you want.

IMHO no dog should be fed exclusively one source of protein and that would include tripe.  I know many dogs do very well on it, but I would want to feed my dogs a mixture of protein sources and types. Tripe IMHO does not contain the full spectrum of nutrients I would want my dogs to eat and a single source of protein COULD cause a problem if a dog became sensitised to it.  But I do not feed my dogs mixer either.

Just a thought.

But tohme, dogs look good purely fed of tripe and mixer, compleat foods (from the "super premiums" to bakers) and god forbid I know two healthy, outgoing dogs with lovely coats who are fed on Wagg.  Dogs also look good on BARF etc etc etc etc.

So really does it really matter what we put in your dogs?  As long as it suits them?

Our puppy was raised on chicken wings and tesco dog meal because this was all she would eat once we got her home (was weaned with Arden Grange and is now back on it because she eats everything)

I agree 100% with Tohme.

Why are some people so stuck on feeding the one and only same thing day in,day out? Most dogs do well on a variety of different food sources,and feeding nothing but the same one constantly makes introducing new foods harder,and drastically limits the animals nutrient intake.
My dogs also thrive on tripe,but i wouldnt think to feed only that with a bit of wheat for every meal..

Well this thread has galvanised me into action!

I rang round a few local pet food manufacturers and found one thats two miles from my home.  They do trays of loose, unfrozen, unbagged raw green tripe.  She said I'd have to bag it up myself when I got it home but that's OK as I can bag up enough for a feed and not have any leftover to hang around til their next meal.  50lbs for £10 :d

Then I rang my workplace because they stored a small chest freezer in their shed the other week as we found we didn't need two.  My manager said I could have it for £10 :d  So I'm picking that up tomorrow and the dogs will be back on tripe within a week!

Well chuffed!

Debs

Debs do you feed the tripe raw?
I,m asking because Inga has been on a bit of a funny since her last season and won,t entertain her usual complete dry food even with stuff added to it , so I,ve been buying the blocks of frozen chicken I think its called forthglades and mixing it with wholemeal mixer but wasn,t sure about tripe  wether to cook it or feed it raw.
Sharon

Yup, always raw.  Cooking will take out most of the nutrients.  Believe me, you don't want to cook it - the smell is... not good! :d

Debs

Thanks
thats what I was worried about :rolleyes:so you think the blocks of frozen stuff will be ok fed raw then?

Yeah.  Just defrost and serve :d

Debs

I always defrost in a large container with a lid

...do you feed the tripe raw?...

Ye gads I couldn't imagine cooking Green tripe, it smells strong (but not too unpleasant to me) raw, but would be revolting if you tried cooking it, and you would kill all the enzymes and gut flora that is one of the benefits of feeding it.

A Friend of mine fed her dogs (20 of them) on tripe and biscuit all their lives.  they looked fine on it and lived Long healthy lives.

my next door neighbour tried defrosting tripe in her microwave, but because it had been left on too long also started to cook it :rolleyes: The smell was unbearable I also think she got rid of the microwave :-P

lol! :p I find it bad enough just warming it up in the microwave (on those days I've forgotten to defrost it :rolleyes:), can't imagine cooking it!

The days I forget to defrost I soak in boiling water Ive only put it in the microwave once - never again

I find the top of the snakes vivarium a handy place for defrosting meat its lovely and warm so it defrosts in a couple of hours

The days I forget to defrost the dogs tripe they have to eat it frozen :D

I struggle getting mine to eat defrosted - let alone frozen

Hi could I ask how much tripe and biscuit would you give a 31kg bitch a day....would love to give her a change but not sure on quantity to give    thanks

it really does depend , my boys are the same breed and weight, but one is very thin (his weight is all muscle) and one I have to keep an eye on because he can get a bit podgy so that one is fed half of what the other is.  I generally go on how they look.

As ClaireyS says I would go on how the dog looks. As an example my 45 & 48kg zois get 3/4lb tripe each in the morning, one gets 2 cups of mixer with it and one gets a cup and a half. The collies each get 1/4lb tripe and a small handful of mixer. If they are having tripe in the evening too it's 1/4lb for the collies with no biscuit and 3/4 lb each for the zois with a handful of biscuits. They always get the same amount of tripe, I defrost 2lb morning and night, but the amount of mixer/eukanuba they get is adjusted almost daily on how they look :)

Obviously the amount you feed depends on the dogs energy levels and how many treats they get during the day too. My zois have two walks a day but only really run  a couple of times during the walks, the rest of the day they spend sleeping on the sofa. The collies on the other hand are active all day, they run all the time while we're out, constantly fetching a ball or rounding the zois up, and in the house they play most of the time - but they also get quite a lot of liver treats through the day for training.

I also take into account other extras like marrow bones, pigs ears, oxtail etc.

I would maybe start your girl off on a 1lb once a day with maybe half cup of biscuits, and something else for the other meal - you could split the tripe in two and give 1/2lb twice a day but personally the thought of 1/2lb tripe lying around for an extra 12 hours wouldn't appeal to me :) She won't starve on that, and will quite possibly put weight on - either way you can adjust the quantity to suit after a week or so.

Hi could I ask how much tripe and biscuit would you give a 31kg bitch a day

I feed a raw diet - but not biscuit mixer - and the rule of thumb for that is to feed an adult dog between 2-3% of it's body weight. If a pup you do the same ( remembering to increase the food along with the dog's increase in weight) or 10% of the expected weight as an adult. So you would be feeding between 620-930g per day to your adult bitch if it weighed 31kg.

As ClaireyS said all dogs are different so you would need to just adjust the amount of food up or down if your dog was losing/gaining weight. And as I don't feed biscuit I am  not sure what proportion of meat to biscuit you would feed but someone else would probably be able to advise you on that :)

The old-fashioned rule of thumb was to give an adult dog half an ounce of mixed meat and biscuit per pound of bodyweight per day. So a 31 kg (68lb) bitch would get 960g (34oz) of food. A growing pup used to get three-quarters of an ounce per pound.

I have been looking at minced tripe , chicken and lamb . I am not sure I want to use a wheat based mixer I have seen a rice based one but it is very expensive .
can anyone advise me as to the general mix .Is it 50/50 ? .I noticed ataurky has no wheat but could this be used as a mixer even though it is a complete food .
I have also thought about cooking brown and white rice and mincing raw vegetables to mix with the tripe but worry about the quantities .
Any advise would go far
Thanks Sally

To change my pups food every now and then i feed tripe , its so cheap 30p a lb, i normally give her half of a packet or one packet depending how much biscuits i give her just to give her a change of dinner, she loves it and woofs it all down but dont let then breath on you afterwards!!
i also tried to defrost in microwave , not a good idea!! it stank as i cooked it for too long!
i normally just mix it with complete dry food and its goes down well but i dont feed it every day as ive been told it puts weight on very easily but then as mentioned before dogs in the wild only ever ate tripe and raw stuff like that so it is natural for them.
I keep it in my freezer in a seperate compartment and when i know im going to feed her one leave it out side to defrost.