Bone broth is an excellent source of important minerals, and can boost and strengthen the immune system. Bones from land animals are rich in calcium, magnesium, potassium, and phosphorus. All of these are extracted from the bones during the cooking process.
Bone broths are inexpensive to make. Many times, you can get free bones from your local butcher or at your local meat market, making your only cost the energy that goes into heating your crockpot.
Let’s take a look at three reasons why you should be making bone broth for your dog(s).
Bone Broth Can Improve Joint Health
Not only does bone broth contain glucosamine, it’s also packed with chondroitin and hyaluronic acid. All of these are joint protecting compounds that promote healthy collagen.
Glycosaminoglycans (glucosamine) stimulate cells called fibroblasts, which lay down collagen in the tendons, ligaments and joints (and even arteries).
Bone Broth Helps Detox The Liver
Even if your dog eats a raw, organic, grass-fed meat diet, never comes in contact with household chemicals, herbicides, pesticides, etc., their liver can always use a detox from natural heavy metal buildup.
And on the other hand, if your dog does in fact come in contact with everything previously mentioned and doesn’t eat an all-natural, raw, organic diet then their liver needs that much more help.
Bone Broth Promotes A Healthy Gut
Stress, a poor diet and bacterial overgrowth can cause the gut to become unbalanced and even damaged. This is how allergies and food sensitivities (among other complications) develop.
The gelatin in bone broth protects and heals the mucosal lining of the digestive tract and helps aid in the digestion of nutrients. It’s also loaded with glycine, which aids digestion by regulating bile salts and secretion of gastric acid.
Bone Broth Recipe
You can use raw or cooked bones, but be sure to include joint bones with cartilage and weight bearing bones (the ones that you shouldn’t let your dog chew on) full of marrow.
- Add bones to your crockpot.
- Cover the bones with water.
- Add a dash of apple cider vinegar (ACV). The acidity on the ACV helps pull out more minerals from the bones.
- Turn crockpot to low and cover. Cook anywhere from 10-24+ hours. Ideally you want the bones to become mushy to the touch before you declare your dog’s bone broth done.
- When finished, strain bones and toss them. Don’t feed them to your dog!
- Let the bone broth chill, then store in containers and refrigerate or freeze depending on how quickly you plan to feed it.
Bone broth can be fed as a nutritional extra on a regular basis along with your dog’s balanced raw diet.
Recommended: Braggs Organic Raw Apple Cider Vinegar