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I am not a nutritionist; and this is not a “balanced” raw dog food recipe. I balance over time for my adult dogs. I feed puppies commercial raw or a nutritionally complete DIY meal.
Green Tripe with Zucchini Noodles and a Raw Egg
Now this recipe has to be unexpected. Who adds zucchini noodles to their dogs' dish? Me, that's who. I had some extra zucchini noodles left over from a meal that I made for myself and I didn't want to throw them out (I wasn't going to be able to finish them before they went bad). Because zucchini is good for my dogs, I figured I'd add it to their meal.
Benefits of Zucchini for Dogs
Zucchini is a low fat, high fiber treat that is great for a dog's meal. Zucchini is high in Vitamins B6, folate, C, and K. It also brings potassium, magnesium, antioxidants, and anti-inflammatory phytonutrients (chemical compounds produced by plants that are beneficial to humans and animals) to the meal. I usually include zucchini when I make my veggie mix or ferment vegetables.
Benefits of Green Tripe for Dogs
I add green tripe to my dogs' diet because it's full of nutrients, it contributes to the variety in their diet, and they love it.
” 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, and the abomasum. The food the animal eats (i.e. grass, hay) is swallowed unchewed and passes into the rumen and reticulum where it is then regurgitated, chewed and mixed with saliva. It is again swallowed and then passed through the reticulum and omasum into the abomasum, where it is then further broken down by the gastric juices, amino acids, and other digestive enzymes. Yummy! “
Source: GreenTripe.com
A lot of people believe that green tripe is beneficial for gut health and I don't agree. I'm not convinced that there are enough enzymes floating around a meal of green tripe to support a dog with a compromised gut, like Rodrigo, but I do think that this should be a regular part of a dog's raw diet.
Does Green Tripe Give Does Diarrhea?
Someone once told me that he couldn't give green tripe to his dogs because it gave them diarrhea. It's tempting to think “then you're doing it wrong,” but that's not the case. While my girls can devour a full meal of green tripe, Rodrigo and Scout only have a partial meal (1/4 cup or less) of green tripe because a full meal will give them loose stool or diarrhea.
I've found that I can prevent the loose stool by decreasing the amount of green tripe I feed (1/4 cup or less).
Raw Chicken Egg
Each of the dogs enjoys a raw chicken egg at least four days a week. I feed raw eggs because of the number of nutrients they bring to the meal. Raw eggs fill many nutritional holes in a dog's diet and they also support good coat health and they serve as a substitute for kelp (a source of iodine) for dogs with a kelp-sensitivity.
Raw Dog Food Ingredients
- 1/2 lb of green tripe
- zucchini noodles (I split what I had remaining equally between our four dogs)
- 1 raw egg per dog (or poached)
Sourcing for Ingredients
- GreenTripe.com
- Grocery Store*
*Our grocery store carries certified organic, certified humane, free range chicken eggs. When they go on sale, I buy every carton. You should see the looks I get when I'm stocking up on eggs, sardines, and oysters.
Balancing this Raw Dog Food Recipe
I ran this recipe through the Animal Diet Formulator to see what nutrients were missing. I was pleasantly surprised that it didn't take much to balance this recipe. Adding 1/3 of a teaspoon (or1.632 grams) makes this a great supplemental recipe. It's pretty close to balanced
But I kept playing around in ADF (yeah, it's like a video game to me) and found the following recipe to be balanced:
- green beef tripe – 10 ounces
- medium size pasture-raised chicken egg (1)
- zucchini – 2 ounces
- canned pumpkin – 1 teaspoon
- dried kelp – 1 tablespoon
- canned boiled oysters (not smoked) or baked oysters – 2.25 ounces
- canned sardines, no salt added (1)
