Making a Bone Broth Helps Save Time and Money and Adds a Great Nutritional Punch to Your Dog\’s Pet Care Rotational Diet
Splash and Dash Groomerie & Boutique are avid fans of the rotational diet which maximizes nutrition for pet care. We believe if you have diverse options for nutrition in your diet, so should your pet. Pet owners who use the rotational diet vary their pet food into four categories: kibble, cans, fresh, and raw.
Dog broth falls under the category of fresh because it maximizes nutritional benefits with minimal cooking and no synthetic processing. Broth is prepared not quite raw and the cooking process actually adds to how healthy the food can be for your dog.
You can make it yourself easily.
What are the Health Benefits?
Great for the Joints
Bone broth is excellent for the joints! Some dog breeds are extra susceptible to joint problems like Golden Retrievers and Labrador Retrievers, but preventative pet care is a good exercise for all animals.
Joint health depends on collagen health.
Collagen is located inside the body\’s ligaments and tendons and is part of the larger family of biomolecules called glycosaminoglycans. These are what keeps joints healthy and protected. Bone broth is stocked full of these glycosaminoglycans like glucosamine, chondroitin, and hyaluronic acid.
Pet care experts explain that these compounds act like hormones when ingested–stimulating cells called fibroblasts which lay down collagen in joints, tendons, ligaments, and arteries.
Using bone broth as part of the pet care rotational diet can help dogs with osteoarthritis or joint problems that seriously impede a dog\’s comfort and health.
Detoxifies the Liver
The liver is the master organ when it comes detoxifying the body.
This is especially important for dogs who lie on carpets and floors that are treated with harsh chemicals, walk on grass that has been sprayed with poisonous weed killer, and consumes foods with synthetic ingredients. Some dewormers, flea and tick medication, and vaccinations also have harmful elements that need to be filtered out of the body.
A liver\’s capacity to detoxify is contingent on the availability of the amino acid glycine. Bone broth is rich in glycine. Topping a dog\’s food with broth adds even more supplemental nutrition to dry food that may be lacking in glycine and other important minerals.
Healthy Gut
A pet\’s digestion is also reliant on the intestines. The lining of the intestines contain millions of tiny holes that allow the passage of various compounds to enter the body–the process absorption.
Stress, poor diet, overuse of antibiotics, or a bacterial overgrowth can cause Dysbiosis, or what is more commonly referred to as leaky gut. When the holes in the lining of the intestines become too large this allows undigested food, toxins, and yeast to pass through.
The body begins attacking these substances that pass through which leads to allergies and irregular food sensitivities.
Bone broth not only regulates the lining of the intestine, but can help improve GI tract functions
too.
Healing Sick or Underweight Dogs
Gelatin from bones can help reduce the body\’s need for protein. Some pet care experts state that with sufficient amounts of gelatin in a dog\’s diet, protein ingestion can be reduced by 50 percent.
Protein is naturally a dog\’s most needed nutrition and is mimetic of a dog\’s ancestral diet. For pet care of an animal that needs to gain back weight, eating broth cubes or kibbles topped with broth can help to pack on the pounds needed to heal and get an animal back to optimal weight.
How to Make Bone Broth at Home
Making broth at home is great because it will be more natural than store bought broths that could contain fillers or preservatives. Cooking the broth yourself also helps save time and money. It takes a lot less effort than you would think since it is cooked in a slow cooker.
Use an Acidic Acid
When slow cooking bones to make a broth, the best way to draw out the nutritional minerals and amino acids is to use an acidic acid. Herbalists advise adding either lemon juice or raw apple cider to extract the highest amount of nutrients.
Slow Cook
The best bones to make a dog-friendly broth for pet care are the joints of a turkey with lots of collagen. Turkey wings and legs are the best.
Place bones in the slow cooker and completely cover with water, filling to about two inches over the bones. Try not to add more water than this to get a thick consistent broth. Depending on the size of your slow cooker, add two to four teaspoons of the acidic element.
Initially, set your slow cooker to high. After an hour, switch cooker back to low and let it simmer for about 24 hours. If you\’re in a rush you can simmer the broth for six hours, but for best results give it the whole 24 hours to extract the most nutrients from the bones.
As it cooks you can add other pet care benefiting ingredients like:
- Kelp
- Nettles
- Dandelion root
- Sage
- Rosemary
- Thyme
- Oregano
- Basil
- Fennel Seed
- Astragalus Root
- Burdocks Root
- Shitaki Mushroom
Do not add salt or pepper. While these are tasty additions for humans they can be harmful for pets.
After cooking, strain the bones and other ingredients from the broth. While still warm, skim the excess fat from the top of the broth. It is normal for there to be very little fat when using turkey bones. Beef bones often yield more fat.
If you used bones with meat attached–once cooled–you can strip the meat from the bones.
Look for a jelly-like consistency when cooled and if it coagulates then you know the broth is cooked properly for pet care. You can use the broth in gelatinous cubes or warm to a soup to pour over your dog\’s kibbles.
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