5 Reasons to Add Bone Broth to Your Pet’s Bowl

If you ask any NPP team member what they add to their pet’s bowl, you’ll undoubtedly get the same answer: bone broth. We’ve seen first hand how well bone broth can improve health from the inside out, so we swear by it!  This nutritional treat is packed with vitamins and minerals to boost your pet’s overall health and wellness. Our pets experience inflammation and metabolic stress just like we do. Feeding your pet a mineral-rich stock like bone broth can improve inflammation, promote a healthy gut, and improve their overall health.      

1. Improved Hydration

Bone broth is a great way to add additional hydration to your pet’s diet. You can easily add this to their food as a topper. Feeding dry kibble without added moisture can often lead to chronic dehydration as the body pulls moisture from surrounding organs to break down the food. If you feed kibble (dry food), this can significantly help keep them stay hydrated, ease digestion, and maximize nutrient absorption.    

 2. Joint Health

Glucosamine, chondroitin, and hyaluronic acid are nutrients packed into bone broth to help promote collagen growth. Collagen is essential because it cushions the bones, ligaments, and tendons, which means it is crucial for joint health. Just like in humans, collagen naturally deteriorates as your pet ages. Without it, the bones have nothing between them to ease movement, leading to pain and limited mobility. Therefore, adding bone broth to the bowl diet is an easy way to keep joints healthy.      

3. Liver Detox

Glycine, a vital amino acid, aids the liver in filtering toxins from your dog’s body. Bone broth’s high glycine levels support the liver’s most important function of filtering toxins from your dog’s body to detoxify its system.       

4. Healthy Skin and Coat

A healthy coat and skin are essential components of overall health. Vitamins B and C promote collagen formation and cell proliferation, yielding a thick healthy coat. In addition to a healthier, softer coat, this can also help to alleviate common problems with dry, itchy skin and excessive shedding.   

5. Better Digestion and Nutrient Absorption

Bone broth promotes overall gut health from glycine which helps to repair the intestinal wall and seal the gut lining. You may have heard of ‘leaky gut’, a condition in which undigested food particles can escape through an unhealthy gut – leading to a myriad of symptoms. Bone broth helps to seal this lining to prevent poor digestion. A healthy gut means better nutrient absorption, a more robust gut microbiome, and a stronger immune system.

Try serving your pet bone broth one of these ways:

• Serve as a food topper over any type of food
• Give to your pet as a stand alone treat
• Freeze bone broth in a lick mat or puzzle toy for a longer-lasting treat

FAQ: Is Bone Broth the same as soup broth or stock? 

In short, no. Avoid feeding your dog the broth you find on the shelves of the grocery store. Typically, the soup broth or stock we use in our own cooking is loaded with excess sodium, added flavors and ingredients that aren’t great for our pets. Instead, you can make your own bone broth at home or buy broth specifically made for pets. 

*This article is for informational purposes only. It is not meant to provide medical advice or replace the advice of a qualified veterinarian.