Bone Broth

Bone broth is a very nutritious supplement to add to your pets daily food or feed on its own when your pet is off its food. It is a great convalescence food when your pet is sick too as it is full of minerals extracted from bones. So if your pet is toothless and unable to chew bones then bone broth is a wonderful way to getting the minerals from bones into their diet. The following steps are how I make bone broth for my dogs.

Add bones to the saucepan or slow cooker. I have used a combination of chicken and beef bones as they contain different levels of nutrients so using a combination of bones ensures a nutrient rich broth.

Step 1:

Cover the bones with water.

Step 2:

Add 3-4 tablespoons of good quality apple cider vinegar (you can use other vinegar's but apple cider vinegar is a good source of nutrients too with their own health benefits which is why I like it). Vinegar helps draw the minerals out of the bones and is an essential ingredient for making broth. Use a raw, unfiltered apple cider vinegar (as it is more natural) where you can see bits of sediment floating in the vinegar.

Step 3:

Cover the saucepan/slow cooker with a lid and bring the water to a boil, then turn down and simmer for 24 hours (if using a saucepan turn off when you go to bed, and reheat the next day for the remaining hours).
After 24 hours a fair bit of the water has boiled off. What is left is a nutrient rich broth. Pour the contents through a sieve to remove the bones. Remember, under no circumstances should you ever feed cooked bones to a pet. Note: You can also add in some vegetables (carrot, broccoli, celery, spinach and even turmeric) in the last hour of cooking for some extra nutrients and health benefits.

Step 4:

Ideas for bone broth:

1: Pour into an ice tray and place in the freezer. Take one frozen cube to add to your pets daily, reheat to make it melt into a nice gravy for your pets food – or makes a nice cool treat in summer

2. Pour into containers (I used black containers that didn’t photograph well) and place in the freezer. You can add other food to these before popping into the freezer. These make a great frozen treat in hot summer weather

When cooled, you should see that the broth has a jelly like consistency. This means that the minerals have been successfully extracted from the bones. Also, when the broth cools a layer of white fat will rise to the top. Remove this fat and do not feed to your pet as it is now 'cooked' and cooked fat is not a healthy form of fat for your pet.

Animal Naturopath, Nutritionist and Veterinary Nurse

Bone Broth

Step 1:

Step 2:

Step 3:

Step 4:

Step 5: