Many of us know the great nutritional benefits of bone broth. I make it monthly for myself—and now for my pet family too.
I can honestly say I’ve seen real changes in my pets’ health after incorporating bone broth into their regular diet. I alternate between chicken and beef, since each offers slightly different health benefits. Today, I’m sharing my go-to chicken bone broth recipe for dogs, and I’ll follow up with a beef version in a future post.
Why Bone Broth?
Bone broth is packed with nutrients that support joint health, digestion, immune function, and hydration. And while it’s delicious for humans, this version is tailored specifically for pets. You can always customize it, but be cautious—never include ingredients that are toxic to dogs, like onions or garlic.
For the ingredients below I list the benefits
INGREDIENTS
| 2 – chicken carcasses | Note you can use most chicken bones, I save some over time in the freezer. |
| 8 Chickens feet | Excellent source of glucosamine and chondroitin for joint health. I tend to use more then traditional recipes as it can make a difference. |
| 4 tablespoons apple cider vinegar | This is important to extract the nutrients from the bones |
| 10 quarts of water | Low calorie crunchy treat with vitamins |
| 2 -3 Carrots chopped but Coarse | Great for dogs. High in fiber and beta-carotene |
| 1 teaspoon Tumeric | Has anti-inflammatory benefits – Note don’t exceed 1tsp |
| 1 Red Bell pepper chopped | Note this is optional, my dogs love it but its only safe in small amounts. |
| 2 tablespoons Fresh Parsley, chopped | |
| 1/4 teaspoon Dried thyme | Has antimicrobial properties |
DIRECTIONS
1. Place bones in a pot of water and boil them for 15 minutes to remove the impurities before using them.(optional).
2. Place the chicken bones, chicken feet, and apple cider vinegar in a large stockpot. Cover with water until the bones are submerged and covered by 1″ of water.
3. Bring the pot to a boil over medium-high heat. Immediately reduce heat to the lowest setting and simmer for a total time of 23 hours. Note, it is important to let it simmer and not continue boiling otherwise the broth will evaporate and the we did this all for nothing.
3. After simmering 23 hours, add vegetables and any optional herbs and spices, then continue to simmer again total cooking time 24 hours.
4. Remove large parts of bones and vegetables from the pot.
5. Pour the bone broth through a fine-mesh strainer into another heat-proof container, pressing down on the bones and vegetables to really get the liquids out. Place the bowl of hot stock in another bowl that is filled with ice water to quick-cool the bone broth. When the ice has melted, drain some of the water, and add more ice. Do this a few times until the bone broth is cool enough to touch.
6. Ladle the cooled bone broth into to storage containers, and refrigerate overnight to allow fat to rise to the top and solidify.
7. After fat has solidified, remove, discard.
8. Store bone broth in refrigerator, should last 2 weeks.
There are many ways to feed it to your pets, here are some of the ideas I have used.
Note you can also freeze it and it will keep for a couple of months, I would not recommend keeping it for longer then a month personally but its safe.
- Frozen – some in a ice cube try and then I place a ice cube in their bowl with other food.
- Topper – I pour over some hard kibble to enhance the flavor.
- Soup – I feed it to them in a dog bowl like a soup, note one of my dogs loves it, the other cant figure out what to do and hasn’t yet enjoyed it this way.
Cost
Lately I have had a lot of questions about how much I spend to make a batch of bone broth and compare it to drinking bone broth available at a grocery store.
So here is a breakdown from my last batch
2 whole chickens – $6 ea/ = 12
8 Chicken feet – $3.50
Vegetables – ~$5.00
This will make about 8 16oz containers for about $20
Compare this with store bought, the typical price is 7-9 dollars per 16oz, so your getting quite a good value.
Well thats it, please share your thoughts and here’s to your pets health.
Phil is an avid dog lover, amateur chef, Dog dad and dad to his amazing son.