Is it necessary to cook beef tripe for dogs, its benefits and harms

Caring for your pet includes providing proper, nutritious nutrition. Beef tripe contains many trace elements and nutrients, so including it in your dog’s diet will have a beneficial effect on its condition and health.

Tripe in everyday life is called tripe, and is part of the stomach of a cow or bull. The cost of tripe is quite affordable, so it is popular with animal owners. Read on to learn how to properly give the product to our little brothers.

Does it need to be washed?

You can buy beef tripe at the market, where they sell beef, pork, and lamb.

Like any meat product intended for consumption, it is recommended to wash the tripe thoroughly under warm running water before cooking, removing any possible contaminants and fatty residues. This will protect the dog from helminths or other harmful substances entering its body.

Purified or not?

Beef gizzard can be purchased on the market in either peeled or unpeeled form. Your dog will like both options and will eat them with pleasure.

Brown fibers are removed from the scar under industrial conditions. To do this, it is treated with steam and boiling water, and then the top layer is removed with a special rotating disk. Cleaning has its advantages - the unpleasant smell disappears and the meat looks more attractive.

However, along with the villi, some of the beneficial digestive enzymes and vitamins that owners buy for dogs in pet stores are also removed and are not cheap. Therefore, smart dog breeders know that it is better to feed the dog unpeeled tripe; the benefits will be much greater.

What it is?

Beef tripe is the first of several cow stomachs . This is where grass and hay end up after being eaten, and then ferment for several hours before being regurgitated and swallowed again.

Due to its unusual function, this organ has a very unique appearance and composition. The walls are not much inferior to the muscles in elasticity and plasticity, since this part of the stomach must stretch greatly and also promote food for regurgitation.

Outwardly it looks strange and even unpleasant. On the inside it is covered with a huge amount of villi and growths, which contain enzymes that are useful for the digestive system of dogs. The color can vary from light brown to grayish green or even black, depending on the diet and genetic characteristics of the cow. Another distinctive feature is a strong unpleasant odor. It is because of this that you will never see this ingredient displayed on the counter.

Due to its unique composition, cow's stomach is an ideal part of natural meat food for dogs of any size, breed and age . It can be added to the diet of dogs who have recently recovered from illness or are prone to food allergies and problems with the digestive tract, and this will only benefit them.

Another undoubted advantage is the price. Depending on the region, it fluctuates, but does not exceed 100 rubles per kilogram. You can buy it in the same place as other meat. The only thing is, you won't see unprocessed cuts on the counter, but if you ask the seller in the meat department, most likely it will be in stock.

Raw

As you know, when cooked, foods lose many useful microelements and vitamins, this also applies to boiled beef tripe. The raw product contains all the essential substances, so it will be healthier for the dog than the boiled product.

However, do not forget that by eating raw tripe, there is a risk of infecting your pet with helminths. For prevention purposes, it is necessary to freeze the product for at least three days in a row.

Important! If you feed your pet frozen fresh products, be sure to carry out routine deworming.

In any form?

Fried

Dogs have their own digestive characteristics and sensitive livers. That is why it is strictly forbidden to give them fried stomachs. Even humans get heartburn and stomach pain from fried food, but dogs can feel completely deteriorated.

How to cook?

Tripe is cooked for dogs with digestive or dental problems, or for older dogs. Puppies under 1 year of age are also recommended to boil the meat product.

Be sure to use a separate container for cooking, as it is too difficult to remove the smell later. Some people simply pour boiling water over the liver from all sides. Others prefer to drain the first broth, and then boil the tripe for another 7-10 minutes for the parasites to completely disappear.

Recipes

There are many recipes for how to diversify a dog’s diet using beef stomach. Here are a few such examples:

Tripe without additives is scalded and cut into small pieces. Add a spoonful of vegetable oil and mix.
If your dog loves carrots, you can add it to the chopped tripe in grated form, you can grate a boiled egg there, and add fish oil.
Finely shredded cabbage, cucumber, and zucchini go well with tripe. All this is mixed with small and chopped stomach.
The tripe is thawed, scalded with boiling water and cut. Next, you can add fresh herbs, raw scalded beef, and vegetable oil to the substance.
Finely grated pumpkin goes well with cow stomach. This mixture should be flavored with a teaspoon of sunflower oil.
You can combine chopped tripe with vegetable mixtures purchased from the supermarket. The mixture must first be thawed, rinsed with warm water and then mixed with tripe.

Every dog owner can experiment with preparing dishes, adding to the tripe the ingredients that his dog prefers. These can be both vegetables and meat products processed with boiling water. Fresh herbs can be added in any quantity; they are very healthy. A little sunflower oil will also come in handy in any recipe.

How to dry?

Tripe in dry form has many advantages - it is perfectly stored at home and dogs undoubtedly like it. This delicacy is easy to prepare with your own hands using the oven.

To do this, you need to chop the stomach into pieces measuring 5 by 10 cm and place in the oven on a baking sheet. A baking tray should be placed at the bottom of the grill, onto which the released juice and fat will drip.

Next, you need to set the oven temperature to 60 °C, open the door slightly for ventilation and leave for 5-8 hours to dry.

The finished product is quite hard and dogs really like it. Store it in a cardboard box or in a fabric bag to ensure oxygen access.

Dish recipes

The main rule for preparing tripe dishes: combine the raw product with fresh vegetables, and the boiled product with cooked ones.

Raw thawed beef tripe goes well with:

pumpkin;
apples;
carrots;
cheese;
quail eggs.

Add vegetable oil or fish oil to the dish.

Boiled tripe is added to porridge with:

beef;
poultry meat;
by-products.

To improve your animal's digestion, add boiled vegetable mixture to the dish.

If your dog is eating dry food, pieces of dried tripe make an excellent treat to encourage compliance with commands. In addition, they will solve the problem of plaque and tartar formation, since when chewing hard skin, the teeth and interdental space are cleaned.

How much to give?

Starting from the age of six months, puppies are introduced to their diet with boiled tripe. This saturates their body with potassium, magnesium, vitamins B and PP, phosphorus, and calcium.

To navigate the principles of feeding, follow these recommendations:

Gizzard should not be a permanent food product for animals; it should be given periodically. Frequent feeding with tripe leads to nausea and upset.
It is advised to give animals cow product once a day, in the morning or evening. During the week there may be 2-4 such receptions.
The serving size is calculated per 10 kg of weight per 100 grams of tripe.
The puppy must be over 6 months old.

It is best to formulate serving sizes immediately, before freezing, so that they are convenient to take out and feed to your pet right away.

How often?

You need to pamper your four-legged friend with a delicious delicacy no more than 4 times a week. More frequent consumption of food can negatively affect the functioning of the digestive tract, since the product is quite fatty and may be difficult to digest. Therefore, do not overdo it in caring for your dog and strictly follow the nutritional advice.

Should I add it to porridge?

Beef tripe is, without a doubt, a tasty and healthy treat for the animal. It contains essential enzymes that dogs need for healthy digestion.

Many dog owners prefer to add chopped beef stomach to their dogs' porridge. If the additive is produced in raw form, then it must first be frozen in the freezer.

Advice! To prevent parasites from entering the dog’s body, it is recommended to rinse the tripe with hot water before adding it to the porridge.

Benefits of beef tripe

A cow's or sheep's stomach contains many nutrients. It consists of three layers, but the most useful for dogs is considered to be the inner one, which consists of glands and growths (papillae). In the middle layer, consisting of muscle fibers, there are nutrients, but there are fewer of them, and the outer layer practically does not have such beneficial properties.

Lamb tripe can also be used as food for dogs, but its nutritional value is lower than that of beef tripe, which contains:

vitamins – group B (B1, B2 and others), PP;
microelements - phosphorus, calcium, potassium, sulfur, magnesium, sodium, iron, iodine;
amino acids - omega-3, omega-6 and others.

The microflora of the stomach of ruminants has a beneficial effect on the dog's digestion. In the wild, wolves - the closest relatives of domestic dogs - primarily eat the victim's tripe.

Important!

Most enzymes and beneficial microorganisms are contained in unpeeled rumen; after heat treatment, some of the beneficial properties of the product are lost.

How to store?

The rules for storing and processing beef stomach are as follows:

After purchasing, the tripe should be thoroughly washed in warm water to remove any remaining food from the stomach, grass or pebbles. It should be borne in mind that it has an unpleasant odor, so processing should be carried out in a ventilated area.
If there is a large amount of fat present, it must be removed from the surface of the stomach so as not to cause digestive upset in the dog.
Next, you need to cut the tripe into portions so that one part is for one meal. This will make it convenient to take it out and give it to your pet right away. Each portion is placed in a separate bag.
Proper freezing should be within 3 days, at a temperature of -6 to -18 °C. After this, the tripe is taken out of the freezer, scalded with boiling water, and allowed to cool.
The cooled product is cut into small pieces, added raw to food, or prepared from them into dishes for the animal.

Important! The shelf life of a frozen product should not exceed 6 months, at a temperature not exceeding -6 °C.

Product quantity

How often can you give tripe to your dog? The pet can be fed this product several times a week. The stomach is served in small portions as an addition to the main food. The amount of offal depends on the age and size of the animal:

Puppies can be given a stomach from 4 months. It is better to boil it first and then grind it in a meat grinder. At first, the puppy is fed this product no more than 2 times a week. By the age of one year, liver can be included in the diet 4-5 times a week. In this case, the offal should occupy about 10% of the total mass of food consumed.
Large breed dogs are given 200 g of product twice or thrice a day. For older animals, the product must first be ground in a meat grinder.
Small dogs are given 100 grams of product twice a day. It is cut into small pieces.

It is important to remember that this by-product should never be abused. Tripe should not be substituted for meat foods. Excessive amounts of liver in the diet can lead to intestinal disorders and liver diseases. This product is beneficial only in moderation.