What is it? Has anyone here used it? And last but not least wher would one find it?

Thanks,

Green tripe is basically ground-up cow stomachs, including the remains of their last meal. It is a complete food (see the nutritional analysis on the web site referenced below). It smells revolting, and dogs love it. I'm told that German breeders and trainers swear by it. My trainer swears that dogs "bulk up" on it faster than with anything else.

The best source I know of is greentripe.com out here in the Bay Area: only $0.79/pound if you buy the five pound bags. It comes frozen in big "sausages." She also has green tripe plus trachea, which adds a big dose of chondroitin for the dog's joints (cow tracheae and gullets are the main industrial source for chondroitin sulfate).

Mary Voss, who runs greentripe.com, raises Afghan Hounds and competes in coursing and other events. She feeds only green tripe, along with some bones for them to chew on. One of her Afghans is now 17 years old!

I've found it an excellent food for my GSDs, and am considering eliminating most everything else in their diet.

I have been feeding tripe for many years. Alone, it is not enough protein for working dogs. At least this was my experience. For the first few years I fed natural , tripe was the only source of meat I used. Now, that I feed a variety of meat the dogs look better, have better energy and I feel are healthier all around.

Tripe does not have to be ground up, although this is the easiest to feed. However, I do get mine in 1-2 lb. sizes as well and feed this to the dogs in the summer months outside. They chew and knaw on it for awhile before they get swallable peices. It is great for thier teeth and it will bulk up muscles that are used to 'tear' the large pieces apart.

You can also feed sheep tripe, goat tripe, etc.

You may be able to get your own tripe by going to meat processing places. It is 'illegal' in Canada for a butcher to sell it in it's unbleached form but the meat places will often sell it for 'animal' food. The biggest problem is that you will then get it in its 'full' form and chopping it into smaller pieces is not a fun activity (I tried it once!).

Is this stuff similar at all to "honeycomb tripe" that I see in grocery stores?

Honeycomb tripe is simply tripe that has been trimmed and cleaned to make it suitable for human consumption (well, so say some--I wouldn't touch it, myself--de gustibus non disputandum...)

The deficiency of protein in tripe is one thing I was concerned about--the nutritional analysis seems low in that regard. Good to hear from someone with more experience, Shandar.

BTW, shouldn't this topic be moved down to the Health section?

The reason I started it here, was Bernhard Flinks recommends Tripe for tracking. So I thought this was a good place. ANyone use it for that?
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It's way too messy and nasty for tracking, IMO.

However, Mary at greentripe.com has a really nice treat that's composed of tripe plus beef (I think). It comes in a sausage and is quite firm and _very_ attractive to dogs. Many of the people at our club use it for tracking--I'm going to switch over to it as soon as I use up all the hot dogs I bought at Costco. <g>

I do. Works great! In Europe, however, they let it get so rank & rotten it will REALLY turn your stomach. They will also semi-starve the dog until he figures out that to eat he must track. (Many people here do that, too)

You still have to wean the dog off of food as you progress. Try beginning with a panty hose leg with tripe inside as a drag and leaving small pieces intermittently along the track, then drag only occasional parts of the track, etc. Buy the frozen tripe from the butcher or grocery (if they do not carry it, they will know where to get it) and thaw only what you need. Dogs LOVE this stuff!

This is, of course, used for only puppies, sport tracking and the very beginning of Drive tracking if it is needed...which, with a good prospect, it should not be.

Update on greentripe.com: her website isn't up-to-date, so you won't find the Zmackers/tripe combo treat listed. It's the same price as Zmackers.

She also has a new product that might be interesting to BARF feeders: "a new product meat for performance dogs. It was made for racing/coursing dogs, sled dogs and shutzhund dogs. It consists of 1/2 beef, 1/2 tripe, trachea, gullet, and extra fat for endurance and stamina. It is $.80/lb and comes in 2lb rolls."

I've heard of the panty-hose trick, come to think of it. Sounds like a good idea, but I'll stick to easier-to-deal-with treats. For one thing, they keep longer; tripe is a "live" food, full of enzymes, and tends to digest itself rather quickly once thawed. And the more digested it gets, the worse it smells.

That, BTW, is one of the difference I noted between the greentripe.com stuff and some tripe I got from Halstead's (which was almost 4X the price). The greentripe stuff is really fresh and doesn't start to smell really bad for a couple of days after thawing.

So is there any benefit to the honeycomb tripe?
That seems to be all I can find way down here in the Keys. But have been reluctant to try it ujntil I hear more. Anybody ever feed the honeycomb?