Bone Broth
by the honest kitchen
Most of Jay's snacks are made in our kitchen. He prefers them to store-bought, and I feel better about the ingredients and nutritional values. One ingredient that seems to be ubiquitous in almost all dog cookie recipes is chicken broth. Prepared broth available in grocery stores is NOT suitable for dogs. Whether it's the powdered type, cubes, gel packs, canned or carton versions, all, even reduced sodium products, have too much salt for dogs. Dogs can tolerate a salt overload much less readily than humans, and almost all processed human foods will cause an electrolyte imbalance in dogs. A single potato chip can wreak havoc in a Yorkie tummy. The other dangerous ingredient in most prepared stocks is onion, which is toxic to dogs. For these reasons, I make stock at home for dog consumption without salt or onion, and freeze it for use as needed. Jay is also allergic to chicken, so this allows me to use beef or turkey as substitutions. Preparation is a time commitment, but the really inconvenient factor is quantity. Often a recipe may call for only two tablespoons of broth, but I have to defrost an entire block of broth, and then figure out what to do with the remaining tub of valuable liquid.
I am over the moon to discover the honest kitchen's Bone Broth. Ingredients are beef, pumpkin, parsley and turmeric - nothing else! It's powdered, so I can use however little I need, with no defrosting! Bone Broth is marketed as a treat itself - a warm drink on a cold day, or a moist topper for dry kibble. But for me it represents the ultimate in convenience food as a cookie ingredient.
I've seen Bone Broth in a number of pet stores, including some Global and Tail Blazers locations, but I most often find it at Pet Planet.