green tripe

**Important note** I'm not a vet and have had no medical training. Do not use this post as a way to treat your dog for any illness - see a vet! This is simply something that I think will work for us because of the information I have found on it and am very passionate about sharing this information with you.

I got really lucky because the butcher that I went to sells raw meat specifically for dogs. A lot of it is not quite what I want (the bone is ground into the meat instead of allowing them to chew on the bone. The downside to that is it doesn't clean their teeth the way gnawing on a bone would) but with a few modifications, I can get everything I want from them if I choose to do so. One of the things that they sell is green tripe.

Now don't be confused - there are two types of tripe. Green and white. White is what humans eat but provides no nutritional value for dogs and green is for our pups. I found a 5 pound bag for $8.50 so of course I had to take it home. It was a big hunk of frozen gunk so I had to defrost it and break it up into smaller sizes. I put them into 5 ziplock bags and put 4 back in the freezer to save for later. The last bag went into the fridge and it is what we are adding to each meal. I'm not going to lie though - to say this stuff stinks is an understatement. I opened the bag and started gagging. I portioned everything out with a candle burning beside me. It was nasty. So of course, Luna and Ares spent the entire time begging for it!  See how gross it looks?!

I've mentioned before that a lot of the raw food diet doesn't really agree with dogs who are still on a kibble diet but this is an exception. It is absolutely fine to give with your dog with the kibble and starting last night, that's exactly what I did. I've taught Ares and Luna to sit and wait for the "ok!" to start eating. Last night, however, it didn't work. Luna went straight for the tripe as soon as I set it down. This morning, she did the exact same thing with one difference - she grabbed the tripe out of her bowl and chewed it up while sitting and waiting for me to tell her that she could eat her food. Silly girl! How can you be mad at that genius?

Disclaimer: because Ginger is not my dog, she did not get to experience the joys of green tripe. Sorry, Ginger!

Now the educational stuff about green tripe:

Now I'm sure most of you are wondering: what in the world is tripe?! Simply put, it is a cow's stomach lining (specifically, the fourth chamber of the stomach where the actual digestion takes place).   Because of this, it contains partially digested plant matter, gastric juices, and digestive enzymes.  The only processing that this tripe receives is to remove the larger pieces of undigested food. Yummy, right? It's a completely different process to get white tripe, including washing and bleaching it. It is also usually from the first three stomach chambers rather than the last. Because of this, it doesn't provide any of the benefits that green tripe provides.

Now, why I put up with the disgusting smell to give it to Ares and Luna:

It's so healthy! I'm terrible with myself, but I kind of gravitate to the crunchy, organic stuff. I'll be the person who makes their own baby food instead of buying the jars of it. I've always done things to help keep Ares and Luna healthy. They get probiotics (specifically bene-bac) when they have upset tummies and now they're getting allergy medication twice daily to control their reverse sneezing (giving it to them at night keeps Luna from waking up and reverse sneezing). I've never liked a lot of medicine. I think our society over medicates. (That said, I take a small mountain of pills each morning. Pot, meet kettle). If I can get them off of medicine and provide organic and CHEAPER ways to keep them healthy, I'm all for it. 

Green tripe aids digestion, purifies and cleanses blood, removes toxins, parasites and fungus, improves metabolism, hormonal function, and boosts the immune system. Even though it is boneless, it is a great way to keep your dogs teeth clean and white which means little to no trips to the vet to get expensive teeth cleaning! 

Green tripe also contains probiotics and amino acids! These maintain a healthy belly for your pups. The naturally occurring probiotics rather than the manufactured stuff I had been buying was reason enough for me to buy the tripe! 

The specific strain of probiotics found in green tripe is lactobacillus acidophilus. It is known to prevent and treat diarrhea, yeast infections, and urinary tract infections. It also counteracts the side effects of medications such as antibiotics, improves their coat and prevents shedding, relieves the pain of arthritis, and eases the symptoms of allergies.

The last part is what really interests me. Something natural to keep the dogs from reverse sneezing during pollen season? Our pollen counts have been off the chart the past few days. It's terrible here but because Ares and Luna don't actually suffer from severe pollen allergies, I thought I would experiment a little. I stopped giving them their allergy medication a couple of days ago. They haven't had any symptoms yet but I've now given them the green tripe last night and this morning. I'm waiting to see if they will continue to have a lack of allergic reactions, or if the green tripe is enough to keep it from presenting itself in Ares and Luna.

**Important note** I am NOT a vet and do not give medical advice. I am simply compiling and relaying all of the information I have found about green tripe online. If your dog is sick, SEE A VET. This is NOT a cure-all! For example, because Ginger suffers from severe allergic reactions to pollen, I would never take her off of her medication to test the green tripe on her, nor would I recommend that her owner do so. Talk to your vet to see if this is a good fit for you - I simply find that it is a good fit for me.

Ox tails and beef knuckles

Let me venture back into controversial territory and say that ever since Ares was 3 months old, I've wanted him to be on a raw diet. The ex-vegetarian in me thinks it's absolutely disgusting, yet the way I see it, kibble is like eating McDonald's every single day of your life and eating raw is like eating fresh, home cooked meals. In my mind, it's just better. For various reasons that I won't get into right now, we haven't made that leap.

But I have made an effort. I've bought marrow bones for them instead of rawhides, I buy a few various smoked or slightly cooked bones from local pet stores, let them eat the meat and take them away (eating cooked bones is a HUGE no-no!). I also bought a dehydrator, as you know, to make jerky treats for the dogs. Mike thinks it's absolutely disgusting, which some of it is. We don't allow the bones on the bed because they're still meaty but the pups absolutely love ripping off the meat and licking out the marrow. It seriously keeps them entertained for hours. When I first gave them a marrow bone, I have them eat it outside - my apartment is entirely carpeted and I can't risk them staining it. After the meat comes off, the bones are allowed inside. I have a huge balcony that I can block off since they're leashed when we go downstairs and they just go to town.

Lately, the idea of raw feeding has grown more and more inside my head. I've done my research - I've figured out how much of each type of meat the dogs need to eat a day, I've even started pricing out how much it costs to feed the dogs a day in kibble ($0.70 for both) vs how much it would cost to feed the dogs a day in raw meat ($1.40 for both). Needless to say, unless I can find cheaper sources, it'll be awhile before I can convince Mike we should take the leap.

But Mike has been out of town the past few days and while the cat's away the mice will play, right?

We started out with beef knuckles (yum?) These particular ones I bought frozen from a local pet store and thawed out the day before giving to them. We have The Ginger again so she got in on the action! I was worried how the dogs would react with sharing but they did remarkably well. (In the beginning at least!)

 

 After awhile, they started to get possessive of the knuckles and started growling at each other if they looked at each other wrong. I learned from my trainer last year that this type of aggression, as long as it doesn't progress, is fine - they're telling the other dogs to back off of their food.

They did still share though and have been taking turns chewing on it.

The next night I bought some ox tails at the grocery store. In the picture below, Ares was chewing on a super tiny bit of tail and swallowed it whole! You can see his tongue sticking out of the side of his mouth while he worked it down.

I gave Ares another, really big piece and he and Luna spent a good 30 minutes chewing their bones. Ginger also ate hers whole immediately so I don't have any pictures of her eating her raw bone.

Ginger did a really good job of moping around while Ares and Luna gnawed on their bones. The reason she didn't get another one while Ares did is because dogs have trouble digesting bones on a kibble diet. I'm prepared if Ares gets an upset tummy because of the bones, but I'm not going to do that to a dog that isn't mine.

Eventually, Luna gave up completely on her bone. Her mouth was tired! Poor Ginger though, when Luna gave up, Ginger tried to get it to eat the rest and Luna went right back to it and took it from her! Luna did let Ares have it and I took it away from him. 

When they had dinner, I gave them a smaller portion than they would normally get to account for their appetizer. Also, as with their regular food and bones, I make sure that they will let me come up and take the food from them or their mouths. Ares has always let me, but Luna had to be taught. It's really important to make sure your dog isn't going to bite you if he has food! (We had a dog growing up that did that! And poor us as kids, thought it was great fun to play in Webster's food!)

Coming up next: adventures with green tripe. (Blegh!)