Bone Broth, a Healthy Trend for Humans and Dogs

Bone broth is super trendy.  All the hot restaurants are selling steaming cups of it at a premium price.  Our local farmer’s market is selling it and our local butcher said the bone broth craze has chefs and butchers VERY excited!  Scraped bones have been given a second life and are now sellable.

I had read about the human health benefits of bone broth – everything from helping joints and digestion to reducing cellulite – yup, that’s the one that had me heading to the butcher for my first batch of bones!

Armed with my slow cooker and 2 pounds of grass fed, hormone free beef knuckle bones, I followed a very easy recipe –

 

1)      Season the bones

2)      Roast the bones – 400 for an hour

3)      Combine the following in a slow cooker

a.       Roasted bones

b.       2 chopped carrots

c.        2 stalks of celery chopped

d.       2 garlic cloves chopped

e.       I small/medium onion chopped

f.        A splash of cider vinegar

 

 

4)      Cover everything with filtered water and cook on high until it boils or bubbles

5)      Turn heat down to low and let it cook down for 24 hours

6)      After 24 hours, strain it and, refrigerate it or freeze it

 

 

I put kale in mine and have a cup as an afternoon snack.  For optimum health benefits, you’re supposed to have a cup a day.  It can keep in the fridge for 5 days, or you can freeze it.

If it’s healthy for us – what about dogs?  A quick google search and bingo – it’s good for dogs too!  Same health benefits, with the exception of  cellulite reduction, that wasn’t referenced.

I was especially interested to see if it would help Kacey’s joints.  She has a bit of arthritis.  I am always looking for ways to enhance her quality of life – bone broth seemed like a good bet.

Because I have read that dogs should not eat onions or garlic, and I figured they didn’t need seasoning – I opted for making their broth with just bones, cider vinegar and filtered water.

Here’s my recipe for Bone Broth for Dogs

1)      Roast 2 pounds of grass fed, hormone free beef knuckle bones

2)      Place in a slow cooker and cover with filtered water and splash of cider vinegar

3)      Cook on high until it boils or bubbles

4)      Turn down to low and let it cook down for 24 hours

5)      Clean any bits of meat off ones, discard bones, skim fat and save broth and meat bits for doggies.

I mix a healthy spoonful in with their food reach morning and they get a frozen treat every evening.  To say they like it is an understatement.  It’s too early to tell if the both is having an impact on their health, but if nothing else they are getting a healthy treat.

 

This is a great article on the health benefits of bone broth for dogs – note the entry on liver detox. 

http://www.dogsnaturallymagazine.com/reasons-your-dog-love-bone-broth/

 

 

Healthy Natural Dog Food - How to read a label

 

 

These are the scary little things that appear on the back of pet food bags.  Most of the time we want to avoid them since we really don’t want to know what is in most dog foods. And yes, they are written in English, but, unless you have a chemistry degree, you won’t understand half of what is written anyway.  However, be brave and realize that taking the time to figure it out,  may be the key to saving your dog’s life.

Pet food manufacturers list ingredients on the label starting with the highest concentrations first.  That means we want to see things like beef, chicken  salmon etc as the number one  ingredient.  The protein sources should be the number one listing for dog food.  Stay away from foods that are high in by-products.  These are also protein sources, but are of inferior quality to actual ’meat’.  You will see a phrase called “crude protein“.  This does not refer to the type of protein used. It refers to the method used to analyze the total protein.  The percentage of  nitrogen content is measured in a lab.  It is then multiplied by 6.5 to give the percentage of crude protein.

 The two most important factors are not measured. These are the biological value  and the digestibility.  Biological value refers to the amino acid composition.  Amino acids are the building blocks of proteins and need to be in correct balance to be useful to the body.  Digestibility determines how well the GI tract can absorb the protein.  It is very hard for the gut to break down the protein in meat by-products.   By-products are things like hair, feathers, feet, tendons - I’m sure you get the picture.

Meat and bone meal are other forms of protein listed on labels.  This is ground bone, gristle, tendons and anything not fit for human consumption that has been through the rendering process.  We discussed the wonders of rendering in the last article.  Anything on a label that says any kind of meal be it lamb, chicken, beef or fish is the cheapest and least nutritious form of protein. So we can see that the source of the proteins are not readily available on most labels.

Grains are other ingredients listed.  They are not all bad for dogs.  Some vegetarian forms of dog food contain lots of grains.  But overall, we would like to see these are secondary ingredients in most dog foods.  The grains used need to also be of good quality since the availability of nutrients is dependent on the digestibility of the grain itself.  We want to see whole grains not pet grade, inferior quality products containing mold and endotoxins.  Pet food manufacturers will also use a variety of ‘spent’ grains as fillers containing very little nutritional value  Spent grains include:

Ÿ  Rice flour- the end process of the milling of rice

Ÿ  Corn gluten meal- left overs from corn processing after the removal of the nutritious layers

Ÿ  Brewer’s rice- discarded rice from the manufacturing of beer

Additives are used to make commercial dog foods to extend shelf life and to make them attractive to the human consumer.  They can be added by the supplier and then again by the manufacturer.  The law does require investigation on the direct effects of additives and preservatives, but what about the combined effects?  We know very little about the synergistic effects of all these chemicals.

 

With four years of nutritional training and twenty years as a Doctor of Chiropractic for both humans and animals Dr. Janice Elenbaas is the founder and owner of Lucky Dog Cuisine.

My Journey On Expanding My Dog's Diet by Sarah Mahrle-Thomas

If you are like me you are a dog lover that wants to give your dogs the very best you can.  Finding a healthy diet that is cost effective can be quite the task.  Reading ingredients, checking out the dogfoodadivsor.com site along with keeping up to date with pet food recalls can be very time consuming.  Let’s just say if I was paid for the amount of time I've dedicated to finding the best food for my dogs I would be on vacation rather than living through the coldest winter in Wisconsin!  I don't have all the answers but I'm here to say I completely understand.  I was taught from a young age that you feed your dogs name brand kibble because the dog food companies know how to create a balanced diet that will keep your dog happy and healthy.  Not feeding dog food could result in your dog becoming diseased, obese or dying prematurely.  This teaching was fed to me through other dog lovers, commercials, pet stores and shows about dogs.  Just look at the bag, it shows you all the wonderful things that you are feeding your dogs AND it says it's a balanced diet!  The more money you spend the better the ingredients.  Chicken by product or Duck.  Hmmm...???  Plus when you feed your dog this bag of food they'll bounce around like a puppy and have a beautiful coat.  It's so easy, just open the bag and feed your dog the required amount.  It's how they sell the food.  Images, words and convenience.  Add a smidge of guilt in there since only people that love their dogs feed them the very best.  Kind of makes you feel empty now right?  Yeah, me too. 

Wonderful Rosie

I'm a mother of 4 young children.  My husband and I also have 3 dogs.  Zeus - 13 year old Australian Shepherd, Rosie - 13 year old Labrador Retriever and Bruce - 11 month old Boxer/Mt. Cur mix.  Our Rosie-girl was recently diagnosed with chronic renal failure.  It wasn't a surprise because we noticed she has really shown her age in the past year and having had cats with renal failure I knew the increased water intake was not a great sign.  There is no cure and the only thing a vet can recommend is that we put her on a vet prescribed diet.  I'm not going to knock that advice.  That's what they have in their tool box and they read the packaging that says this is a specifically balanced diet to feed dogs with this certain conditions.  Can you tell I'm a tad cynical when it comes to advertising?  It must be all my years in sales.  ;)  I get it though, this is a product they can offer the average person to feed their pet that is ill.  I let the vet know that I appreciate the offer but I would not be going the route of prescribed diet. 

My sister has fed raw for some time.  I honestly used to listen to the meals she was preparing for her dog and be totally grossed out.  Plus, how realistic is it to prepare these meals when you have a house full of kids?  She didn't even have one child at that time.  Since then she's had a child and even added another dog to her group and she's still feeding raw.  After getting the news about my Rosie-girl I needed to find out more on what kind of diet I need to feed her.  I had a support system, my sister.  I had a way of researching the diet, the internet and books.  Now I had to implement the change. 

 

I feed what I call an enhanced diet.  Basically I still feed kibble, just in smaller amounts.  Then I enhance it with dog friendly foods.  I use the term raw feeding because I don't cook most of the food they eat.  It's also a term most people immediately recognize.  Whereas if I said I feed my dogs a natural diet there would be some question as to what I meant.  I don't doubt that I will feed entirely raw at some point but for now this is what works for my family.   Since I have senior dogs I don't feed raw bones because I don't want any potentially cracked teeth.  Also I have to be very aware of the protein intake for Rosie because of her renal failure.  Since I do feed partial kibble I don't really have to add much protein at all.  Raw beef liver diced up is a favorite in my house.  Rosie also like plain greek yogurt as a midday snack.  Mostly the enhancements that I add are:  boiled rice, diced baked potatoes (sweet potatoes are awesome), shredded lettuce (skip the iceberg), diced apples, sliced bananas, steamed veggies (broccoli, green beans, carrots, etc.), strawberries, pumpkin puree (not pie filling), blueberries.  I use a lot of frozen veggies because I can buy those in bulk and it's more cost effective.

Really just keep it fun.  Familiarize yourself with foods that are dangerous for your dogs to eat so you avoid them all together.  I keep those types of lists handy on my smartphone and laptop.  Incorporate the family.  My kids often ask me for some of the foods like apples, carrots and berries when they see me getting them ready for the dogs.  I much rather my kids be interested in these things than grabbing a pop tart.  Plus my kids get to help pick out these foods when we go to the store.  Make shopping an adventure.  Next time there's a farmers market bring your dog along to go pick out some locally grown fresh produce. 



 

 

Feeding raw can be a scary thing for people.  Plus even my husband can agree that it's gross to watch someone prepare raw meat for future feedings.  You do have to do some work preparing things so the convenience factor is out.  I make it easier for our household by taking some time every few days to prepare the foods and put them in separate containers to keep them in the fridge.  That way each time I go to feed them I take out the containers and scoop out the servings.  Apples or bananas I dice fresh any time I feed them.  The key is remembering that when you feed raw it's balance over time.  It's fun to diversify my dog’s diets and they absolutely love it.  I think that is the thing that really made me stick with it.  They are so happy and loving their food.  They eat all of it and then come over for some hand licking as I pat them.  Even my seniors have great looking coats and are still very active.

 

I'm not knocking people that feed kibble and I'm not saying I'm a dietician.  I just wanted to share my experience with raw feeding.  It seems people either are raw or not.  I just would like to encourage people to learn about raw feeding and how cool it is.  If you need recipes to start from there's plenty available online.  Plus if you want to start small you can even find dog friendly treat recipes too.  Or if you are having a banana and can't quite finish it, don't hesitate to share it with your dog.  :) 

Sarah Mahrle-Thomas lives in Oshkosh, Wisconsin with her husband, four children and three well-fed and happy dogs.  Do you have a blog entry you'd like to share with pawsgo? Email us at mypawsgo@gmail.com, like us on facebook @pawsgo, send us a tweet @mypawsgo, or leave us a comment here!  We'd love to hear from you!