Why are you concerned about mixing the tripe in with each meal?? You have to mix something wet in with the dry old kibble so why not tripe, it's appetizing and your puppy is getting all the vits and minerals from the kibble going down with it?

At 10 weeks old my puppy was eating nothing but 1/4 of a pack of tripe with each bowl of kibble 4 times a day, which is what my breeder told me to do and at 10 weeks old I don't think their little baby teeth are capable of crunching up a ball of hard kibble, so the tripe makes it go down a whole lot better, unless you soak the kibble of course, but even then, the middle bit always stays rock hard!

There's nothing wrong with tripe, it's good stuff, it stinks to high heaven so they love it!

My Border Terrier was terribly fussy when I first got her but I did not spoil her with tripe but just kept putting down the food that I wanted her to have.

If she didn't eat it I removed it and she went without

She soon learnt her lesson and feeding time is now a joy and yes - it's the food that I wanted her to have.

I was worried about it being too fattening and then what we would do if we take him anywhere with us that doesn't have a freezer.
We noticed him get noticeably heavier in just the 3 days that he was eating tripe.

My pup is 9 weeks old and is on 3 meals a day (Fish4Dogs).

I am no expert, but just on flicking through this thread it does seem as if your pup has been on a lot of changes in diet in a short space of time (assuming you got him at 8 weeks?)

He has been tried on
Fish4Dogs
Tripe
Chicken
Beef
Royal Canin
Natures Harvest

Thats a lot of changes, or foods tried and maybe the reason why he is not settling on one particular diet maybe? I am sure someone else will say if that is not the case.

It might be an idea to not give him things like liver treats, and rawhide chews, nothing in fact other than his dinner.

Decide what food you want him to have (my pup loves the Fish4Dogs puppy kibble), measure out how much he should be having for his weight and put it out for him..

Leave it down for 10-15 minutes and then take it up until it is time for his next meal.

With my pup, he gets a meal about 7am, 1pm and then 8pm. I make the lunchtime meal a little smaller than the others because I do a bit of training with him in the afternoon and give food as treats.

Don't know if that helps at all, but I hope things get sorted soon for you.

He has only eaten the Royal Cannin, the Natures Harvest and the Tripe.

He refused the chicken, and he hasn't tried beef yet other than licking a chunk of it when at my boss' house.

I guess we can try 3 meals now, see if that gets him hungrier.

The treats we use for training are not very filling, they are very small dried pellets made from powdered liver and blood and I break them in half too as it takes him too long to chew them up before we can carry on with training if he gets a whole one.

I don't know if we want him to just eat the fish4dogs with wet or that mixed with the tripe if it means he loves it and eats with gusto.

Tough decision.

I cant leave him on the royal cannin though as he gets terrible dandruff on that food.

This thread has left me really confused LOL.

He will eat the Fish4Dogs mixed with a bit of tripe, correct? if so, just feed that.

My dogs have bit of everything, raw, cooked, 'good' foods, 'rubbish' foods and are none worse for wear (note: don't do this with a young pup!). I've mixed all these on the same day and even on the same meal and they are still alive to tell the tale. They eat their own poo and sorts of nasties, so I don't worry about digestion rates.

I don't suppose his meals with tripe will be bad....just give him a small bit with his foord each time, just don't give alot.

Yes Tess's coat is stunning too since she has been on tripe, all my three adults have it (green tripe) and they have lovely coats also

Hi Sam I would keep your puppy on 4 meals a day until he is 12 weeks old and three meals up to 6 months, rather than cut out a meal too soon it is better to feed a little less at each meal.

I don't see any problem with mixing a tiny bit of tripe in with every meal, I would moisten the kibble first and mix the tripe in well . If you think your puppy is looking too fat you could reduce the quantity of food slightly. Feeding too few meals can cause your puppy to have a painful distended tummy and digestive problems.
Puppies should be grown slowly and fed little and often.

I totally agree with Mini there, 3 meals a day will be too much for his sensitive system to take at 12 weeks of age, and you also don't want to put him off by putting down too much in any one go, he'll just walk away with the mere thought of having to eat all that!

You don't have to go by what it says on the bag either, because they usually state such a drastic difference in the "from" and "to" weights let alone the amount of cups per day, it's quite scarey that you think you have to get all that into them throughout each day sometimes! You'll get an idea of just how much he can tolerate in any one go, so use that amount as your guideline, don't overphase him for each meal, and if he's hungry, give him a bit more if you think you can. Somebody once put up on here, that the size of each meal should be no more than the size of the puppy's head, and back then, I thought that was a brilliant guideline so that you never feed too much in one go. Good luck again!

p.s. Another tip I learned when feeding my puppy was, if you start getting runny poop, then you're feeding too much in one meal, the puppy can't cope, so it just gets shoved through and out t'other end!

He will eat the Royal Cannin mixed with tripe, the fish4dogs he will spit out.

We bought some freeflow tripe today so we can just get out small amounts and put just enough in to coat the kibble then he will love it.

We will stick with the tripe then.

We read the packet and realised we seem to be feeding far too much kibble. we weighed it out and it seems like with the royal cannin he only needs one and a half handfuls per day (which is half of the recommended amount as its mixed with tripe) and we were feeding a handful per meal mixed with tripe.

I don't think he feels fat though, you can still feel his ribs....

we will stick with the tripe though since he loves it and it means he eats properly.

If he gets fussy with tripe then we will stick to our guns and that's all he is getting

Thanks for all the support and reassurance. we feel much better about our decision now