Bone Broth For Your Cat Or Dog
Bone broth for pets
Achy knees? Arthritis? Leaky Gut? Or do you just want to give your cat and dog (and yourself) a highly nutritious food?
Well, then have some homemade bone broth!
This past weekend I made some broth from beef marrow bones (grass-fed, hormone-free & antibiotic-free, of course!). I pulled out my three-quart Crock Pot, packed in about 2.5 pounds of bones, poured in enough purified/distilled water to cover the bones, turned on my Crock Pot to low, and let it simmer for 24 hours. Some folks like to slow-cook the bones anywhere from 6 to 48 hours, but I figured about 24-hours is sufficient to pull out all the good stuff like glycosaminoglycans, collagen, calcium, magnesium, amino acids, chondroitin sulphate and glucosamine. All these great nutrients may help heal a leaky gut, IBD, and other digestive problems. Plus, help reduce joint inflammation, too, especially if you (and your pet) consume bone broth on a regular basis.
One other thing: Don’t forget to add 1 to 2 tablespoons of white vinegar to the mix. This helps to extract the amino acid rich-gelatin from the bones into the soup.
After 24-hours, I turned off my Crock Pot and allowed the broth to cool. All the marrow from inside the bones have loosened and released itself into the broth. Then I poured the broth into Mason Jars and allowed it to cool further in the fridge. Once completely cooled, I spooned out all the fat that has solidified at the top. At this point, you will notice that the broth has turned into a gelatin.
Beef Bones and a Crock Pot is all you need.
When it’s time to cook with my broth I simply let the Mason Jar sit in a bowl of warm water, and in a short while, the gelatin turns into a liquid. Now, you can make your gravy, soup, or add to your beef stew recipe.
Bone Broth For My Cats
Since I don’t feed beef to my cats, I instead make their broth from chicken, turkey, and rabbit bones—it’s their favorite meats (Many cats can’t tolerate beef or bison, but some cats can. So, I suggest you use bones from a meat source that you know your cat or dog doesn’t have an allergy or a low tolerance to). I also like to add some chicken feet to the broth.
For an additional health benefit add a few dried Astragalus Root slices to your broth. This herb is best known in Chinese Medicine to help boost the immune system. Plus, Astragalus restores in the body depleted bone marrow and stimulates the production of interferon (interferon is a protein produced by our immune system in response to an infection).
For a dog or cat that needs Kidney support, you may want to add a teaspoon each of marshmallow root, parsely, and dandelion leaf/root while the broth is slow-cooking.
I’ve found it isn’t necessary to slow-cook chicken, turkey, and rabbit bones longer than 10 to 12 hours. Since these are smaller and more delicate bones, they seem to break up—especially the rabbit bones—into tiny pieces. So, I only slow cook between 8 to 10 hours.
I usually like to add a spoonful of the gelatin to my cats’ dinner. They love it and lick it right up. If I want to give a medicinal herbal tincture to my cat I can sneak a few drops in the gelatin.
Bone broth is good to give to an ailing cat or dog. If your cat is self-fasting due to an illness you can syringe-feed them some bone broth. It’s easy on the stomach, hydrating, and full of nutrition. In cases of IBD, where you are starting a food trial as a diagnostic tool to eliminate possible food sensitivity, feeding bone broth is an excellent empirical treatment.
24 hours later…it’s done!
Bon Appetit!
