Green tripe for dogs: what it is and how to feed it

Green tripe is the raw stomach of cattle, left unbleached and uncooked. It smells strong and dogs tend to love it. If you’ve only seen tripe in a supermarket, green tripe looks nothing like it: the pale tripe sold for people has been cleaned and bleached, and green tripe hasn’t, which is where the colour and the smell come from.

What green tripe is

Cattle have a stomach with several chambers, and tripe is the stomach wall. “Green” means it’s left as it comes, without the washing and bleaching that turns supermarket tripe white. In practice it’s a greyish-brown to greenish colour, not bright green.

Ours is 100% New Zealand tripe with nothing added. It’s bandsawn into blocks like our minces, so you can take out a block at a time.

Where tripe fits in a raw diet

Tripe is technically offal, but raw feeders usually treat it as its own thing rather than counting it as the organ part of the 80/10/10 guide. That job still belongs to liver and other organ meat.

Most people use it in one of two ways. As a topper, a spoonful over the usual meal is a handy way to get a reluctant dog eating. As part of the bowl, some owners feed it within the muscle-meat portion, mixed with other proteins. Either way, feed it alongside muscle meat, bone and organ.

How much to feed

When customers ask us this, our usual answer is somewhere between 5 and 15% of the total diet, depending on the size of the dog and what else you’re feeding. Some breeders swear by the stuff and go as far as half and half.

Whatever share you settle on, count the tripe as part of your dog’s daily amount so the total stays about the same. Our guide to how much raw food to feed has daily amounts by weight.

Tripe and beef

Because our tripe comes from cattle, we count it as beef. If your dog can’t have beef, leave out green tripe and anything that contains it. Our allergen filter in the shop treats it the same way.

Where you’ll find it in our range

• Green Tripe on its own, in a 10 kg carton
• Tripe Rolls, ten 1.8 kg rolls to a carton
• Mixed into Active Dog Mix, Puppy Mix and Balance Mix

Wild Mix has no tripe in it, and no beef.

Living with the smell

The smell is a big part of why dogs love it. A few habits keep the rest of the household happy:

• Thaw it in a sealed container in the fridge.
• Take out only a few days’ worth at a time.
• Rinse the bowl soon after the meal, and wash your hands well.
• Feed it outside if your dog is a messy eater.

Tripe for cats

Some cats like it too. For cats, we suggest the five products marked “For Dogs & Cats”, which are covered in can cats eat raw meat.