Anyone feeding their dogs tripe? I tried it about 12 months ago but thought she liked it a bit to much,she piled on the pounds.Maybe i was giving her to much.
Does anyone know the pro's and cons of using it.

Cheers

Jim

The cons are; 1 it stinks
                    2 as you say, dogs love it too much.
It is actually very low in calories - 17per oz uncooked 28per oz cooked. Its also a very natural food. When wild dogs kill, they always go for the internal organs first. As wild meat is always very lean, they get any fats they need from the liver, kidneys and heart. The stomach,(tripe) provides them with green stuff in the form of pre-digested grass. Dogs do need greens, I give mine cooked cabbage, using the cabbage water to slightly soak their meal. They will eat grass, but blades of grass are covered with a substance called cellulose, which can only be broken down by prolonged chewing. Tripe is an excellent food for dogs as the cow or sheep has already done the chewing for you. If you feed your dogs raw meat it should be very lean as body fat can give them diarrhoea. Fats can be added in the form of suet, which comes from around the kidneys. If you are feeding tripe as an addition to a complete feed, feed half complete feed and half tripe. If you are feeding it with a mixer, feed about 1 third mixer 2 thirds tripe. You really need to use your common sense. If your dog looks too fat, cut down on the carbohydrate side of the meal and increase the protein.
But remember, dogs do need a certain amount of complex carbohydrate for slow-release energy.

Green tripe is usually recommended for adding 'body',so yes,it is a good food for weight gain.Green tripe is pretty much a complete food,cooking it destroys one of the most important parts of GT..the loads of enzymes it contains.

Moisture   71.37%
Crude Fat   11.70%
Protein   15.82%
Ash   1.23%
Phosphorous   0.14%
Calcium   0.12%
Calories   756.35 cal/lb.
pH   6.12
Lactic Acid Bacteria   12,000 CFU/G
Linoleic Acid (EFA)   2.72%
Linolenic Acid (EFA)   0.37%

http://www.greentripe.com  For everything you ever needed to know about tripe :p

Sorry, my mistake. You are quite right ktee, I read the calorie count for clean dressed tripe by mistake.

and that would have most of the benefits of it removed.

Ktee that link is really interesting, thanks for that.Can I just ask how often do you all feed tripe to your dogs?
Sue

Every second day mine get tripe twice a day for their breakfast and supper. The other days they have tripe for their supper and their breakkies will be chicken wings, liver, oxtail or similar. Mine also get lovely big meaty marrow bones every few days but I don't count these as a meal. They also have free access to complete food 24/7. Strange mixture I know but they all look great and have bags of energy

Hi chaumsong, I only feed it twice a week, they get chicken wings most days,and also have lamb and beef raw or whatevers in the freezer, plus tinned fish twice a week. I have been thinking of giving them tripe more often, as it always goes down well, its the one thing apart from the tinned fish that the pup is guaranteed to eat just now in this hot weather.
Sue

dog usually do well on tripe because it is very bio available to dogs.  However I would not feed a dog SOLELY on tripe as it has some deficiencies.  I feed it circa once a week, still frozen in this weather.

Saxon, I know a lot of books purport that dogs go for the stomach first, in actual fact if you read any scientific studies on the eating habits of various canids you will find that they will not go for the stomach but rather then intestines where the vegetable matter has been broken down.

Blades of grass are not "covered" in a substance called cellulose, all grains and vegetative matter consist of various amounts of cellulose which is not broken down by the dog unless frozen or pulped.  Cabbage has quite a lot of cellulose.  Cooking vegetables destroys their vitamin content.

There is no proven, scientific or veterinary requirement for carbohydrates in dogs and in fact many owners feed no carbohydrates at all (vegetables, fruits and cereals/grains).

This happens in the wild too, carbs are restricted to overripe, fallen fruit and predigested food via prey! ;)