Just what is green tripe? Let’s just say, I try to forget I’m a vegetarian when I think of what I feed the carnivores in our family… There’s detailed information available at http://www.truecarnivores.com/greentripe.shtml , which includes, “tripe is the stomach of ruminating animals. These animals (i.e. cattle, buffalo, sheep, deer, goats, antelope, etc.) are classified as being four-footed, hooved, cud chewing mammals with a stomach that consists of four chambers. The four chambers of such a stomach are known as the rumen, reticulum, omasum & the abomasum. The food the animal eats (i.e. grass, hay) is swallowed unchewed & passes into the rumen & reticulum where it is then regurgitated, chewed & mixed with saliva. It is again swallowed & then passed through the reticulum & omasum into the abomasum, where it is then further broken down by the gastric juices, amino acids & other digestive enzymes. Yummy!”
I had the chance to go to their shop when I visited Vancouver, B.C. What a treat it was to have freezer after freezer of different brands and products to choose from. When you feed raw, that kind of wide selection is not something you often get to see. Sort of like how I feel now about larger ‘health food’ grocery stores, where I can actually buy most of what’s on the shelves without seeing a ton of chemical ingredients.
For those of you in the U.S., there’s a great source of frozen raw food, including green tripe, that can be purchased online. http://hare-today.com I so wish they shipped to Canada as well, for they have some wonderful choices not found elsewhere. However, there is a great option in Canada. Carnivora, (formerly Urban Carnivore http://www.carnivora.ca ) is carried by local retailers across Canada. They have a large selection of ground whole animals, and I do mean whole. It may sound distasteful to think of such things, but I firmly believe whole is best, just like Bailey and his whole mice.
There are just so many natural components that can’t be replicated in a lab or kitchen. Mouse fur, for a graphic example, is nature’s roughage to keep ‘things’ moving for cats, all without the unnecessary load/stress that carbohydrates can cause them. And tripe serves as a perfect source of vegetable matter for our furry friends. Partially digested, it so suits their shorter digestive tracts that just weren’t designed for masticating veggies from scratch like our systems were.
We get our green tripe from Carnivora, and have for years. While it is amazingly aromatic to put it mildly, all our four-footed friends absolutely devour it. While not the whole animal in this case, it helps compensate for the inevitable lack of feeding whole prey all the time. Helps come closer to that balance. Interestingly, there seems to be less grass eating when they get their tripe, their intended ‘greens’ source I suppose. They certainly eat the stomach contents of their prey in the wild, or in the house in Bailey’s case.
While fresh/frozen is best (i.e. Carnivora for Canada, Hare Today for the U.S), if that’s not practical or possible, there are some dried, freeze-dried, and canned alternatives. There’s even a tripe biscuit, as seen below. Bon appétit! Or should I say bone appétit…
Hi Dakota – Tripe residue sounds just lovely. Having just used the ground green tripe and more recently the dehydrated version as treats, we’re able to feed indoors just fine without any mess thank goodness. They just eat it up like any other food – but I can imagine whole fresh pieces getting flung about with head shakes – that would not be fun.
On a side note, I had actually just finished working on a follow-up post on green tripe, and then come across your comment – great minds think alike. But I’m hearing the theme from The Twilight Zone…
Hi Elizabeth – just happened upon your site. We now carry ‘whole green tripe’ at True Carnivores. It’s an outdoors feeding activity. I once (only once!) tried feeding it in the kitchen…my dogs picked it up in their front teeth and promptly shook it! Needless to say, I had tripe residue all over the kitchen floor and on some of the walls. Bletch.
But it sure cleans their teeth and helps with digestion! I find that dogs that eat ‘poop’ (looking for digestive enzymes) will give that horrible habit up when served raw tripe.
All the best to you.
Cheers, dakota and Trubble and Pekoe