Green tripe is the raw, unbleached stomach of cattle. Dogs love its strong smell, and most raw feeders use it as a topper or as about 5 to 15% of the diet. Because it comes from cattle, it counts as beef.
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.
Each block is about 500 g. The blocks are hand cut, so they vary a little, but the carton always weighs 10 kg, packed in a liner inside a carton that’s 36 × 27 × 18 cm, or about 17.5 litres of freezer space.
Where tripe fits in a raw diet
Tripe is technically offal, but raw feeders usually count it with the meat rather than 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.
We keep tripe separate from offal in our own labels too. It’s a stomach, not an organ like liver or kidney, so the shop lists Green Tripe as free from offal, and our guide to liver and organ meat for dogs covers the organ part of the bowl.
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 feed a good deal more than that.
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.
Here’s what 5, 10 and 15% look like for an adult dog eating 2.5% of their body weight a day, the figure our feed calculator uses for a moderately active adult:
| Dog’s weight | Food a day | Tripe at 5% | Tripe at 10% | Tripe at 15% |
|---|---|---|---|---|
| 5 kg | 125 g | about 6 g | about 13 g | about 19 g |
| 10 kg | 250 g | about 13 g | 25 g | about 38 g |
| 20 kg | 500 g | 25 g | 50 g | 75 g |
| 30 kg | 750 g | about 38 g | 75 g | about 113 g |
| 40 kg | 1 kg | 50 g | 100 g | 150 g |
Take the tripe out of the day’s amount rather than adding it on top. For a 20 kg dog at 10%, that’s 50 g of tripe and 450 g of their usual food.
As a topper, most raw feeders use a spoonful or two over the usual meal. Weigh a spoonful on the kitchen scales the first time, and you’ll know roughly where it sits in the table.
Portioning a block
A block of about 500 g goes a long way at these amounts. It’s about ten days of tripe for a 20 kg dog at 10%. Thawed food keeps two to three days in the fridge, so the routine is simple:
- Move one block from the freezer to the fridge the night before, in a sealed container.
- Next day, cut or scoop it into small tubs, each holding two to three days’ worth.
- Keep one tub in the fridge and put the rest straight back in the freezer. Raw meat thawed in the fridge can be refrozen.
- Each evening, move the next tub down when the last one is nearly gone.
With a few big dogs, or tripe as a large share of the bowl, a whole block may be used inside three days, and you can skip the tubs. Our guide to portioning raw dog food has the same routine for every kind of food.
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.
Tick Beef in the filter and every product with beef or green tripe in it greys out, so what’s left to choose from suits your dog. Veal comes from young cattle too, and the filter lists it on its own, so tick Veal as well as Beef. The feed calculator does the same: green tripe and Tripe Rolls are tagged as beef there too. Our guide to beef allergy in dogs covers what to leave out.
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.
If you already feed one of those three mixes, your dog is getting some green tripe in every meal, so a separate carton is optional. Plain Green Tripe suits owners who want to set the share themselves, or who feed a single-protein mince such as Beef Mince and want tripe as a topper. It also goes well over Fussy Mix for a picky eater.
Blocks or rolls?
| Green Tripe | Tripe Rolls | |
|---|---|---|
| Carton | 10 kg of blocks, about 500 g each | 18 kg, ten 1.8 kg rolls |
| To thaw | One block at a time, overnight in the fridge | One roll at a time, in the fridge |
| To serve | Cut or scoop from the thawed block | Put the thawed roll in a sealed container and scoop out each meal |
| Suits | One or two dogs, tripe as a topper | Several dogs, or tripe as a bigger share of the bowl |
A roll thawed whole holds 1.8 kg, so with one dog, keep two to three days’ worth in the fridge and pop the rest back in the freezer in tubs. Our guide to dog roll versus raw mince explains how rolls work. Prices for both are on our price list, and delivery is $5 an order, whatever it weighs.
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.
A container kept just for tripe, with a tight lid, keeps the smell in. A stainless steel bowl rinses clean easily. A strong tripe smell is normal; our guide to telling if raw dog food has gone off covers the signs that matter.
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.
Common questions
Is green tripe the same as the tripe at the supermarket?
No. Supermarket tripe has been cleaned and bleached for people, which is why it’s white. Green tripe is left as it comes, with nothing added, and that’s where the colour and smell come from.
Does green tripe count as organ meat?
Raw feeders usually count it with the meat, not the organ part of the bowl. Keep liver and other organ meat in the diet as well. Balance Mix has both organ and green tripe in it.
Can puppies have green tripe?
Our Puppy Mix has green tripe in it already, along with beef, chicken and offal. Our guide to how much raw food to feed a puppy has amounts by age.
Will green tripe help a fussy dog eat?
A spoonful over the bowl is a common trick for tempting a picky eater, because of the smell. Our guide to getting a fussy dog to eat raw food has more ideas to try.
How do I start my dog on tripe?
Start with a small spoonful over the usual meal for a few days, then build up to the share you want. Change one thing at a time, and take the tripe out of the day’s amount rather than adding it on top.
Products in this guide
More guides
How to tell if raw dog food has gone off
The smell, texture and timing signs to trust, and the things that look worse than they are.
Dog roll vs raw mince: what’s the difference?
What's inside a typical NZ dog roll, how raw mince compares, and where raw rolls fit.
Getting a fussy dog to eat raw food
Six things to try, in order, when your dog turns their nose up at raw.