Dog’s Bone Broth Preparation and Benefits

Wondering why to make dog’s bone broth? When you are feeling under the weather, a bowl of well-prepared chicken soup will brighten your day and give you the juice to run your body. Bone broth also comes in handy when trying to improve your dog’s diet with some simple modifications. Here is everything you should know when it comes to dog’s bone broth:

11 Benefits of Dog’s Bone Broth

Bone broth is packed with benefits for your dogs, from nutrients and liver detox to gut health. Here are some reasons you should add bone broth to your dog’s diet:

1. Bone Broth is Nutritious for Your Dog 

This tasty liquid is jam-packed with vitamins which are great for your pup’s immune system and entire body. It’s a great source of glucosamine, glycine, collagen, and protein!

2. Keep Your Dog Hydrated 

If you add bone broth to your dog’s water will encourage him to drink more water, keeping him better hydrated.

3. Excellent Source of Essential Minerals 

Your dog’s solid food might be missing essential minerals necessary for sleep, muscle contractions, hydration, nerve signaling, heart health, and more. Bone broths contain essential minerals, including Sulphur, silicon, phosphorus, magnesium, calcium, and others.

4. Source of Protein

When you boil bones, collagen is released, forming gelatin when simmered. Gelatin is an essential protein component of tissues such as skin, tendons, ligaments, and cartilage.

5. Liver Health

The availability of glycine in dogs’ body limits the detoxification capacity of their liver, and bone broth has a ton of glycine.

6. Repairs Joints 

Bones are full of collagen/gelatin, a complex protein that helps form connective tissue (bone, skin, tendons, ligaments, and more). Collagen can help repair connective tissue that surrounds and cushions the ends of your pet’s bones, facilitating smoother movement, which decreases irritation and pain. Bone broth is an excellent source of glucosamine, a joint-protecting compound, and other substances like hyaluronic acid and chondroitin that help improve joint’s flexibility, strength, and elasticity. Glucosamine and chondroitin sulfate – the two popular joint-supporting compounds – are sold as pricey supplements to help reduce joint pain, arthritis, and inflammation. Both compounds are naturally found in bone broth!

7. Support Digestion and Gut Health 

Healthy gut does the following for your dog:

• Protects from infections and diseases
• Aid food digestion and absorption
• Regulates metabolism
• Produces hormones

Dogs’ overall health depends heavily on their intestinal tract. The gelatin in bone broth naturally attracts and holds liquids, which causes your soup to gel when you keep it in the fridge. Gelatin bind with water in your dog’s digestive tract, which helps foods move more smoothly. Glutamine helps maintain the intestinal wall’s function and prevents bacteria and toxins from leaking through the intestinal wall. Proline in bone broth helps form new collagen, absorb nutrients, prevent autoimmune responses to food. It also helps maintain the integrity of the cells in small and large intestines.

8. Weight Loss Friendly

Is your dog obese? When your dog eats soup regularly increases feelings of fullness which can reduce your dog’s consumption rate, helping decrease body weight and belly fat. Bones are high in gelatin protein, making your dog’s gut feel full. Dog’s digestive system needs time to rest and digest, so if your dog is constantly snacking, the stomach becomes overloaded with indigestion. This will help your obese dog eat less and, in turn, lower the gut fat and lose weight to the desired levels.

9. Help Kill Bad Bacteria 

Electrolytes in the bone broth helps your dog’s stomach acid kill harmful bacteria.

10. Appetite Encouragement 

Your dog finds bone broth delicious. Bone broth is a perfect meal for pets with no appetite, are picky eaters, have trouble eating, or have digestive problems. If your dog has a problem eating solid foods, he will usually lap up the broth!

11. Skin & Coat

Bone broth is excellent for your dog due to gelatin from collagen. Vitamin C in the broth helps your dog produce collagen, which gives your pup healthy fur, claws, and skin. Bone broth has B-1, B-2, B-6, and B-12, which promotes cell growth and division giving your dog a healthy coat.

7 Simple Steps to Come Up with A Great Dog’s Bone Broth

Don’t let the long boiling process intimidate you; the broth making process is simple to follow and inexpensive.

Step 1:

Add your bones to the cooker! You can use any bones, including beef marrow bones, chicken frames, turkey necks, lamb, chicken feet, etc. You can use cooked bones, but raw bones are preferred since they contain all the nutrients.

Step 2:

Add water in a ratio of 1:2 (1Kilo of bones/2 liters of water).

Step 3:

Add garlic and any other ingredient that is good for your dog.

Step 4:

Boil at 98^oC when you are around to ensure it doesn’t spill over the pot. When away or sleeping, leave the heat at 95^oC. Skim a foamy bit every 20 minutes for the first hour to remove impurities, foam, and fat. You are good to go after that!

Step 5:

Boil the bone broth for 10-12 hours for chicken bones and 16-18 hours for beef bones. Check the broth occasionally, and add more water if it dips below the top of the bones!

Step 6:

Strain the broth when done cooking. Note: Please don’t give cooked bones to your dog as they brittle during the boiling process, which could be very dangerous for its digestive system.

Step 7:

Allow the broth to cool and then refrigerate it for 3 hours; scoop the fat at the top and throw it away. You can now serve the bone broth to your dog!

Things You Get Wrong When Preparing Dog’s Bone Broth

1. Lead Toxic Level

Depending on their degree of lifelong exposure, the animal bones could harbor lead particles that can affect your dog when transmitted to the broth.

2. Glutamine Acid 

Glutamine acid is considered a safe supplement for dogs when taken at recommended dosages. However, bone broth has a high concentration of glutamine acid, which has been linked to some neurological concerns.

3. Allergic Dogs 

Some dogs do have allergic reactions to some types of meat, which could make some particular types of bone broth unsafe for them to consume.

Things Not to Do When Making Dog’s Bone Broth

4 Things every supposed expert and websites get wrong about making dog’s bone broth:

1. Apple Cider Vinegar 

Has someone advised you to add cider vinegar before heating your bones when making bone broth for your furry friend? Or do they take it a bit further by asking you to allow it to sit for around 30 minutes before turning the heat? Many believe this will help draw nutrients from the bones even before heating, which is invalid according to study. There is no significant effect brought about by adding apple cider vinegar!

2. How Hot Should You Boil Your Broth?

If someone told you, to look for a perfect low simmer with an occasional bubble when preparing the bone broth for your dog, don’t. That is the perfect recipe if you want to prepare soup without gelatin! The mission is to harvest gelatin and collagen from bones, and for this, you need the hottest temperature you can comfortably cook the broth without spilling over. Try around 98^oC if you are in the house to watch the whole process; if you are asleep, then 95^oC is recommended. It should take 10-12 hours for chicken bone broth and 16-18 hours for beef bone broth!

3. Bones to Water Ratio

A ratio of 1.4:2 bone to water is recommended for chicken bone broth, but if a mixture with chicken feet, then the ratio can be 1:2 (1 kilo of bones per 2L of water). For beef and other ruminants’ animal, the ratio is 1:2.

4. Poor Skimming Practices

The first 1 to 2 hours are crucial to the quality you achieve, don’t neglect skimming impurities, foam, and fat as they rise. Skim the foamy bit every 20 minutes for the first hour, and you will be good to go after that!

6 Misconceptions About Bone Broth

1. Bone Broth is a Replacement of Bone

Even if you give your furry friend bone broth, he still needs his raw bone from a raw diet. Bones satisfy the dogs’ chew drive, clean their teeth, and provide phosphorous and calcium. Try green tripe if you’re looking for a replacement for bones in a dog’s diet. Green tripe offers the perfect balance of phosphorous and calcium, and dogs love it.

2. Bone Broth Must Gel

If the soup doesn’t gel, the collagen stays as a liquid but not as a gel, and broth is still of high quality.

3. Keep the Meat

Some people throw away the meat when they want to make a bone broth for their dogs. Just let your dog enjoy the meat.

4. It is a must Use Joint Bones

While joint bones are preferred for making bone broth, you can even use Thanksgiving Day turkey carcass to make dog soup.

5. Add Garlic in Dog’s Broth Makes It Poisonous

Garlic is only poisonous in large quantities. It has many benefits, including lowering cholesterol, helping the body to naturally repel fleas and ticks, fighting off infection, boosting liver health, and supporting a robust immune system. So, you should add garlic to your dog’s bone broth! Onion is toxic to dogs, so please don’t use it in the bone broth.

6. Raw is Better

We always feel that raw food is better for maximizing nutrition, which could be accurate, but the opposite is true for bone broth. How long would your dog take to gnaw away bones that you use to make the bone broth? That means dogs consuming soup will get the same amount of nutrients they could have gotten eating the bone. For a bone broth, dog consumes it within minutes, but it takes days to consume the bones that make it.

Frequently Asked Questions

What Kind of Bones Are Best for Dogs’ Bone Broth?

Beef bones are lower in common allergens that your dog might have compared to pork, turkey, or chicken.

How Much Is Bone Broth Good for Your Dog?

½ a serving or a sprinkle daily. Start with a lower dosage since dogs have delicate digestive systems. Then observe how they poo, feel and look. You can gradually incorporate more as you see fit.

How do I serve bone broth to my dog?

Add bone broth to your dog’s regular food, stirring it like gravy.

Is chicken bone broth good for my dog?

Yes, chicken bone broth gives your dog protein, improves the digestion system, and improves the taste of their food.

Is readymade stock beef or chicken good for my dog’s bone broth?

No, stock comes with additives such as artificial flavors, onion, salt, and other substances your dog should be avoiding. The bones could also be from animals fed antibiotics! You should work with bones that you source yourself to control the quality of the bone broth. Stock is also cooked at high temperature for a short period; you need simmered broth for several hours only with bones, water, and anything good for your dog. Learn how, to train your dog at home.