Bone Broth

Bone broth is a stock made by simmering animal bones and connective tissue in water for many hours, usually with a splash of acid to help pull minerals out of the bone. What ends up in the liquid is gelatin, free amino acids, and a modest amount of dissolved minerals. For pets it is used almost entirely as a topper — poured over food to add moisture, flavour and a little extra nutrition — rather than as a supplement given for a specific target.

What Is Actually In It

The signature component is collagen, which breaks down into gelatin during cooking and delivers the amino acids glycine, proline and hydroxyproline. Bone broth also carries glutamine, arginine, and small naturally occurring amounts of glucosamine, chondroitin and hyaluronic acid from the cartilage on joint surfaces. On the mineral side you get calcium, magnesium, phosphorus and potassium, though in far smaller quantities than the marketing usually implies.

The honest framing matters here: broth is a dilute liquid. A cup of it contains a few grams of protein, not a therapeutic dose of anything. It is a useful addition to a complete diet. It is not a complete diet, and a dog fed broth in place of meals will be short on protein, fat and essential nutrients within days.

Why Owners Give It

• Picky eaters and appetite. This is the most common and most defensible use. Pouring warm broth over kibble makes it smell stronger, and for a dog or cat who has gone off food it often restarts eating.

• Hydration. Animals who do not drink enough water will often take flavoured liquid readily. Cats on dry food in particular run chronically low on water intake.

• Recovery from stomach upset. Plain broth is gentle, and vets frequently suggest it as part of a bland reintroduction after a day of vomiting or diarrhoea has settled.

• Senior dogs. Older animals lose interest in food and prefer softer, moister meals. Broth addresses both at once. Our senior dogs entry covers the wider picture.

• Joints. This is where claims outrun evidence — see below.

What the Evidence Supports

There are no controlled canine trials on bone broth itself. The joint claim is an inference: broth contains collagen, and collagen peptides have been studied in dogs with some positive mobility findings, therefore broth must help joints. The problem is concentration. A collagen supplement is dosed in grams of peptide; the collagen in a serving of broth is a fraction of that, and it is not hydrolysed into the low-molecular-weight peptides those studies used. Treat broth as food that happens to contain collagen, not as a joint supplement. If joints are the actual goal, the ingredients with real canine data behind them are green-lipped mussel, fish oil and MSM, and we lay out what the systematic reviews found in our glucosamine entry.

How Much to Serve

Body weight · Daily amount

• Under 15 lbs — 1 to 2 tablespoons

• 15 to 25 lbs — About 1/4 cup

• 26 to 50 lbs — 1/4 to 1/2 cup

• 51 to 75 lbs — About 3/4 cup

• Over 75 lbs — Up to 1 cup

• Cats — 1 to 2 tablespoons

Start at roughly a quarter of the figure above for the first few days. Broth carries calories and fat, and a sudden switch to a rich topper is a common cause of loose stool. Keep all toppers and treats inside ten percent of daily calories so you are not quietly overfeeding a dog who is already at a healthy weight.

How to Give It

Pour it over food at room temperature or slightly warm, add a splash to the water bowl, or freeze it in an ice cube tray for a hot afternoon. Refrigerated broth keeps three to four days; frozen it keeps for months. If a layer of fat sets on top in the fridge, skim it — that fat is the part most likely to cause trouble in a dog prone to pancreatitis.

Store-Bought Broth: the Real Risk

This is the single most important thing on this page. Most human bone broth and stock contains onion and garlic, both of which are in the allium family and genuinely toxic to dogs and cats, causing oxidative damage to red blood cells. Human broth is also heavily salted. Read the full ingredient panel every time, and if it lists onion, garlic, onion powder, garlic powder or "natural flavour" without clarification, do not use it. Buy broth formulated for pets, or make it yourself.

Making it is simple: cover raw bones with water, add a tablespoon of apple cider vinegar to help draw minerals out, simmer low for twelve to twenty-four hours, cool, then strain out every piece of bone and skim the fat. Add no salt, no onion, no garlic.

Choosing a Pet Broth

If you buy rather than make it, a few checks separate a good pet broth from an expensive bottle of salty water:

• Made for pets, with a full ingredient list and no onion, garlic or their powders. Chewy’s vet-reviewed guide makes the same point for cats.

• Bones and meat near the top of the list, not water and “flavour”.

• No added salt, and few preservatives or additives.

• It gels when chilled. A broth that sets to a soft jelly in the fridge carries real gelatin from the collagen; one that stays thin is mostly flavoured water.

Once a shelf-stable carton is open, follow the label — the AKC notes most need using within about a week. Warm it slightly rather than serving it hot. For homemade batches, dog-safe vegetables such as carrot and celery are fine for flavour; onion and garlic never are.

You will see bone broth credited with liver detox, immune support and healing the gut lining. Those are reasonable-sounding extensions of what is in it, but as above, there are no controlled trials in dogs or cats — enjoy it as food.

Never Feed the Bones

Cooked bones splinter. A bone that has spent a day in a stockpot is brittle and can fracture into sharp fragments that perforate the gut or lodge in the throat. Strain thoroughly and discard every piece. This is the failure mode that turns a harmless kitchen project into emergency surgery.

Dogs, Cats and Horses

Dogs and cats are both well suited to it, cats arguably more so given how little water they drink voluntarily — see cat safety for how feline needs differ generally. Horses are a different matter. Horses are herbivores and hindgut fermenters, and an animal-derived broth is neither appropriate nor useful for them. If you are looking for palatability or hydration support in a horse, the answers are soaked feed, salt and electrolytes, not broth.

Cats and Kittens: Extra Checks

Cats get the same rules on onion, garlic and salt, and the same one-to-two-tablespoon serving. Chewy adds that broth should stay under 10 percent of a cat’s diet, that kittens should have no more than a tablespoon a few times a week, and that cats with kidney disease, hyperthyroidism or food sensitivities should only have it with their vet’s approval. A cat with food allergies needs a broth made from a protein it tolerates — check the animal source, not just the flavour name.

Side Effects and Cautions

• Loose stool from the fat content, especially if you start at a full serving.

• Pancreatitis risk in dogs with a history of it, or breeds predisposed to it. Skim the fat and keep servings small.

• Phosphorus is a real consideration in animals with kidney disease, who are usually on a phosphorus-restricted diet. Bone-derived broth is not low in phosphorus. Ask your vet first.

• Sodium matters in heart disease. Homemade unsalted broth is fine; most commercial human broth is not.

• Weight gain if you add it on top of a full ration without adjusting anything.

When to Talk to Your Veterinarian

Before using broth in an animal with kidney disease, heart disease, a history of pancreatitis, or on a prescription diet. Also before relying on it during an illness — an animal who will only take liquid and has stopped eating solid food needs a diagnosis, not a topper. Loss of appetite lasting more than a day or two in a cat, or two to three days in a dog, is a reason to make an appointment.

How It Fits With Hemp

Broth and hemp work well together for a straightforwardly practical reason: warm broth masks the taste of oil. If your dog turns away from hemp seed oil dosed straight onto kibble, mixing the serving into a spoonful of broth usually solves it in one go. Because cannabinoids are fat-soluble, giving them alongside food — and broth is food with some fat in it — also improves how much your animal actually absorbs. Our serving guide covers the amounts, and every batch of our hemp seed oil is third-party tested so you know exactly how many milligrams you are mixing in.

Frequently Asked Questions

Can dogs drink bone broth every day? Yes, at the amounts above, as part of a complete diet. Daily use is how most owners give it. Watch calories in a small dog and skim the fat.

Is store-bought bone broth OK for dogs? Only if it contains no onion, garlic or added salt. Most human broth contains at least one of those. Read the full panel or buy a product made for pets.

Does bone broth help dogs with joint pain? Not at the concentrations found in broth. It contains collagen and trace glucosamine, but far less than a supplement dosed for joints. It is good food; it is not a joint product.

Can bone broth replace a meal? No. It is not nutritionally complete. Used as a sole food it leaves an animal short on protein, fat and essential nutrients quickly.

Can cats have bone broth? Yes, one to two tablespoons, and it is a genuinely useful way to get more water into a cat on a dry diet. Same rule on onion, garlic and salt.

Is bone broth safe for puppies? In small amounts as a topper, generally yes, but puppies are on carefully balanced growth diets and toppers displace that balance faster in a small animal. Keep it minimal and ask your vet.

For a veterinary overview of bone broth in canine diets, see the American Kennel Club's guide to bone broth for dogs. For why onions and garlic are dangerous, the ASPCA maintains a reference list of people foods to avoid feeding pets.

Can dogs have chicken broth?

Yes, if it has no onion, garlic or added salt — the same rule as bone broth. Plain chicken broth is thinner and carries less gelatin than a long-simmered bone broth, but it works as a topper or hydration aid.

Can kittens have bone broth?

In small amounts. Chewy suggests no more than a tablespoon a few times a week, since kittens need their complete growth diet to do the heavy lifting.

How long does bone broth keep once opened?

Follow the label on commercial broth; the AKC notes most shelf-stable broths need using within about a week of opening. Homemade keeps three to four days in the fridge and for months frozen.

Can I add vegetables to homemade bone broth for my dog?

Dog-safe vegetables such as carrot and celery are fine for flavour. Never add onion or garlic in any form, and skip salt and stock cubes.