Leaving freeze-dried tripe with a sitter at home

Tripe for pet sitters comes down to one short note taped to the bag. Write where the bag lives, the daily amount in ounces from our treat budget calculator, press the bag shut after every handful, water down, stay in the room while the dog eats, and wash hands after. Say up front that it smells.

What should a pet sitter know about tripe?

Start with what it is. Our freeze-dried tripe is raw green beef tripe, unbleached, from a farm in the United States, and beef tripe is the only ingredient on the label. The listing says it is made and shipped in small batches by Sniff and Shift in Malvern, Pennsylvania. A sitter does not need any of that to do the job, but it answers the question they will ask when they open the bag.

Then the smell. Our product page answers the smell question plainly: tripe has a naturally strong smell, and freeze-drying makes it milder than raw. Milder is not mild. A sitter who opens the bag without warning will have an opinion, so put the warning on the note and say it out loud when you hand over the keys. If they want the long version, the green tripe smell guide is the page to send.

Then the handling. The tripe is sold raw, so hands get washed after touching it. That goes on the note even for a sitter who already knows.

Last, how the dog gets it. The listing describes two uses: break a piece into bite-sized bits and hand them out one at a time, or crumble a piece over kibble or a raw meal. Tell the sitter which one is the house habit. The dog's week should look like every other week, just with a different person holding the bag.

How much tripe should the sitter give each day?

The daily amount comes from you, not the sitter. Before you leave, run the treat budget calculator on our feeding guide. You type in your dog's daily calorie number from your vet, and it returns a weight of tripe in grams and ounces. Out of the box the calculator is set to a 10 percent treat share, and that is only its default. Your vet sets the real target, so if they gave you a different share, write their figure on the note instead.

Write the result on the note as a weight. A kitchen scale reads a weight without anyone having to interpret it, and a sitter has enough to interpret already.

If the sitter is also feeding meals, say whether the tripe is a reward that day or a topper on a meal. The label calls it a treat or meal topper and says it is not intended as a complete diet, so the regular food stays the regular food and the tripe rides on top of it or alongside it.

Here is the whole note, ready to copy:

• Where the bag is: name the cupboard or shelf.
• Daily amount by weight, from the calculator.
• Reward or topper, and which meal if topper.
• Press the bag shut after every handful.
• Fresh water down the whole time.
• Stay in the room while the dog eats.
• It is raw. Wash hands after handling it.
• Your vet's name and number, and yours.

That is the entire pet sitter treat routine. Anything longer will not get read.

Where should the bag live while you are away?

Pick one spot and name it on the note. The bag says: "Press the tripe bag shut after every handful and keep it somewhere cool and dry." A kitchen cupboard away from the stove or a pantry shelf does that. Our product page answers the refrigeration question with a no, so the sitter does not have to clear fridge space for a bag of treats.

Put it out of the dog's reach, and say which cupboards the dog has already worked out. A sitter in a new house does not know which door has a paw-shaped dent in it. You do.

If you are leaving treats with a pet sitter for more than a few days, think about what happens when the bag runs low. Leave the bag size that covers the stay, and tell the sitter it is fine to stop handing out tripe when it is gone. Nothing on the note depends on the bag lasting.

What does the sitter do after handling it?

Wash hands. The tripe is sold raw and freeze-dried, so handling it ends at the sink with soap and water, every time. Put that on the note even if it feels obvious. A sitter juggling a leash, a phone and a dog who has noticed the bag will skip the obvious.

Press the bag shut and put it back where it lives. Our listing is honest that an open bag announces itself, and a sitter who leaves it open on the counter will learn that quickly. If the sitter is using it as a topper, the bowl gets washed after the meal like any bowl.

Stay in the room. The label asks for fresh water at all times and for someone to supervise while feeding, and a sitter should hear both in your words at the handover, not only read them on the note. Your tripe instructions for a dog sitter are not complicated. They just need to be said once and written once.

When you are picking the bag to leave behind, the freeze-dried beef tripe page has the three sizes side by side.