(Quick note: this was supposed to be my Tuesday post, but I obviously mis-scheduled. So, there’s a bonus post today.)
I almost cried in the pet food store on Friday. I’d gone in to grab some more treats, before we start our lessons next week. While I was there, I was looking around, as you do, and spotted this:
in the place formerly occupied by this:
This is a problem. Tripett’s Venison Tripe is one of our few safe foods. Tripe is filled (theoretically) with digestive enzymes and nutrition. It’s also apparently delicious, despite (because of?) the most horrific smell to ever come from a can. That makes it our go-to for touchy tummies and our best option for “Oops, I didn’t defrost any food” days. While I don’t know for sure that Silas can’t eat the regular beef or lamb flavors, I also don’t know that he can. I take our safe foods list very, very seriously.
I was already feeling sensitive about the duck thing, and then, here was our tripe going, too.
So, I did what I knew how to do. I bought the five cans left. I had the store call the distributor and see what old-stock we can get. Then I printed out a list of stockists in town, and ran out to buy 18 more cans. (I did not clean out every store in town, because I’m still waiting for my preferred store to see what they can do.)
In proof of my crazy-dog-lady status, you’d better believe that I have already done the math on the number of cases we can use before the “best by” date, plus a small cushion. I am fully prepared to put canned tripe under the bed, if that’s what it comes to. Sometimes, you have to do what you have to do.
Just FYI: the distributor told my store owner that they were having a serious supply problem with the venison. They’re hoping to replace it with a bison product, but I’m not sure how concrete that plan is. Since I’m guessing 97% of dogs out there can eat either the regular lamb tripe or the beef tripe, I suspect I’m the only person who is taking this so much to heart.
My Imperfect Dog 
I don’t blame you, I would have done the same thing. Have you checked online to see if anyone sells it? Sometimes there’s the possibility of getting stuff online that you can’t find anywhere else.
We use freeze dried beef tripe on the dogs food, would freeze dried work for you? Where we buy raw they also sell it frozen, would that work? I could see if they distribute in your area.
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I’m hesitant to order it online because it’s getting treated as a 1-1 replacement. So, even if the listing *says* venison tripe, my experience in the local stores, where the two were usually mixed on the shelf, suggests I don’t have a guarantee to get it.
I can get *beef* tripe freeze dried or frozen. I haven’t seen any others.
I’m lucky to have a local natural pet foods chain (maybe 10 stores?) who stocks it; I suspect I could still get a good bit more, even if my local shop can’t get more from the distributor. And, honestly, I have three month’s worth in the pantry now. That’s enough time to test another food or two and hopefully find something else he can eat.
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That blows! We love Tripett in our house and it’s often part of the Frozen Kong concoctions. But we don’t have issues with lamb or beef. 😦 Hopefully, they’ll have a good replacement bison product out soon. I don’t know of any other companies doing novel protein tripe.
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I have a pretty strong feeling that Silas could eat one or the other. We just haven’t tested either of them yet.
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I have not ever bought tripe because I have heard of the smell. Thank goodness Blueberry’s pretty easy to feed (Ranchlands) and as long as I keep her away from poultry based foods – she does really well.
Hopefully you can stock up on it so you have some time to come up with a back up food!
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