How to make Bone Broth for your dog!

Bone Broth is a nutritious, flavorful recipe your dogs will love. It is an easy way to boost the vitamins and nutrients of your dog's diet. The broth smells so good that our dogs jump around excitedly when we are about to serve it.

Bone broth for dogs is a great source of collagen, glucosamine, protein, and amino acids like glycine. All of which contribute to your pups living a long and happy life. Specifically, collagen can improve your dog's mobility, skin, coat, and digestion. Glucosamine can improve joint health and help slow the progress of arthritis. Finally, protein and glycine build your dog's muscular strength and prevent the breakdown of muscular tissue.

How to make Bone Broth for your dog!

I'm always looking for ways to give my Bella and Muki nutritious extras that complement their current diet. A fantastic way to do this is to make Bone Broth! (or if you don't have time, buy dr ELK Bone Broth here.

Bone Broth is very simple to make, I love that I can chuck it all into my slow cooker and literally forget about it for 24 hours whilst it simmers away. I then portion it into ice cube trays and give my samy and Muki one per day with their food.

Why would you want to make bone broth for your dog?

Helps maintain a healthy gut, especially for dogs with digestive issues

Supports your dog’s immune system and detoxes his liver

Helps protect his joints

Is full of minerals, including calcium, silicon, sulphur, magnesium and phosphorus

Step by Step Recipe

Step 1 First, I fill my slow cooker with bones (if you don't have a slow cooker you can use an ovenproof dish with a lid and cook on very low). Because I like to make sure there’s lots of healthy, joint protecting gelatin in my broth, I use bones with a lot of joints in them and a marrow bone or two if I have them. Don't worry if you haven't got these - for this batch I just used a load of chicken wing bones left over from my boys teatime favourite (roasted chicken wings). You can use ANY bones leftover from your own meals, just ensure you wash any sauce or gravy off before putting them into the pot.

Step 2 Fill the pot with hot water so the bones are covered plus an extra inch (we want to make plenty of broth). I then add three tablespoons of Apple Cider Vinegar (ACV). ACV helps to pull the minerals out of the bones and creates a nutritious, gelatinous (jelly-like) broth. Broth made without ACV will not be as thick or nutritious.

Then put your slow cooker on low (or pop the pot in the oven) and cook on low for 24-36 hours. You can leave it a little longer but I find it starts to overcook and dry out after this time.

Step 3 Strain the bones out! Your dog cannot eat the bones as they are cooked so strain them out and put them in the bin and leave your broth to cool on the side.

Step 4 Once cool enough, pop the broth into the fridge. You need to leave it long enough for any fat to form on the top and go hard. I usually leave mine overnight but a few hours will suffice.

Step 5 Get rid of the hard fat from the top with a spoon and throw it away. What you are left with underneath should be a clear, jelly broth. The jelly means you’ve got lots of gelatin in there, and that’s what helps with your dog’s joints and the leaky gut that can cause allergies and digestive upset. That gelatin plugs the holes in leaky gut that can cause allergy symptoms, so the more jelly-like, the better! If your broth doesn’t look like jelly, don’t worry … it just means you didn’t add enough vinegar. Next time just add a little more vinegar and your next batch will be just fine. But first use the broth you have because it will still be packed with healthy goodness!

Step 6 Decide how you want to store your broth. I put mine into ice cube trays and freeze. I then give Bella and Muki one ice cube a day. You may prefer to store yours in a kilner jar in the fridge (especially if you have a larger dog or more than one dog) and give them a spoonful daily. The broth will happily keep in the fridge for three days.

Step 7 Feed it to your pooch!