Bone Broth For Ferrets
Introduction: Why Bone Broth?
Bone broth is an amazing superfood to add to your ferrets meal; whether you feed kibble, Freeze-Dried Raw, or Raw food! Bone broth can help naturally reduce inflammation, has liver detoxifying properties, can help with arthritis and joint pain, as well as aids in good gut health and the immune system; and making bone broth at home is easy!
Homemade bone broth ensures you are in control and know what ingredients are in your pets bone broth, allows you to add different types of bone and proteins, and is a lot cheaper than buying it already made! If your ferret has digestive issues, if you’d like an immune system booster or joint supplement, give homemade bone broth a try!
What is Bone Broth? And what does it help?
Bone broth contains various vitamins, minerals and amino acids that make it a superfood great to add to your pets meal. This broth has the ability to help strengthen your pets immune system, making it a good food to feed when your pet is ill. It also aids in joint health, skin and coat health, digestion, and the immune system. How exactly can bone broth help with so many ailments? The answer is simple; the way the bone broth is cooked and the nutrients drawn from it.
When bone marrow is cooked down, it aids in transporting oxygen to the cells in the body; which in turn also helps your pets immune system! Bone broth is known to help a ferret, cat, or dogs digestion and improve their overall appetite. The long process of simmering the bones is what ultimately gives bone broth all of it’s amazing nutrients and makes it different from broth stock; that, and using apple cider vinegar to break down the bone and draw all of the nutrients from it! One should note, bone broth is only good if the bones you use are good. Many animals are pumped with antibiotics and hormones and fed low quality feed resulting in poor quality meat which add antibiotics and hormones in the bone broth you make; this is something we don’t want!
Quality bone broth has the power to help your pets so sourcing good meat is crucial. How does bone broth get these nutrients? Bone broth is made by boiling the bones of animals, including joints, ligaments, meat, tendons, over a long period of time; extracting the nutrients and vitamins from the bones. This is why bone broth is an amazing superfood to add to your pets meal; especially if they are aging! Aging pets can benefit greatly from consuming bone broth from its various vitamins and minerals; like Collagen.
Bone broth can be used frequently to maintain everyday health and prevent ailments and illnesses. Also, if lots of toxins are used in your environment, ie. chemical cleaners, air toxins, pesticides, etc., these easily build up toxins in your pets liver; bone broth luckily healthily and safely detoxifies the liver and flushes it out of the body.
Bone broth has many different benefits when using different kinds of bones to prepare it. For ferrets I recommend poultry like chicken, and beef bones. Poultry bone broth is higher in fat, helps with joint health, bone health, and immune system health whereas beef helps with cardiovascular health. How exactly does bone broth help with so many issues?
What is Collagen ? And how does it help?
Collagen is a protein often referred to as the “glue” of the body and is what holds us together. In the body, it is what is used to make connective tissue. It is found in tendons, ligaments, meat, bone, cartilage, etc. and can be extracted by the simmering process and apple cider vinegar as one is making bone broth. There are 5 main types of collagen that help support different ailments in the body. Chicken supports the immune system, joint & cartilage health, the gut lining & digestive health, as well as bone formation; containing two types of collagen. Beef supports cardiovascular health and arterial walls (the walls of arteries). Fish primarily supports skin, hair, coat, and nail health. While egg shells support cell membrane strength.
For ferrets, I generally use Beef, chicken, and other poultry bones that are all good quality meats with no added hormones or antibiotics. The best you can source the better.
In terms of what collagen actually helps with, the list is vast. Collagen aids in digestive health, joint health, skin, coat and nail health, liver detoxification, and immune system health. How exactly does collagen help prevent or help an animal with these ailments? With digestive health, collagen has an amino acid that helps strengthen the digestive tract lining, overall improving your pets digestive health by preventing leaky gut and allowing proper nutrient absorption. With joint health, consuming bone broth helps your body get more collagen and produce more collagen, leading to less inflammation, stronger joints, and protecting the integrity of cartilage via GAGs; collagen is great for animals with arthritis. In terms of liver detoxification, collagen contains glycine which helps neutralize toxins and safely flush them from the body! Our environment contains a lot of toxins that unfortunately build up in our pets system, so liver detoxification and using less toxic materials/supplies will help your pet tremendously!
As far as the immune system, collagen contains amino acids that work as an immune system booster; this immune system booster has antiviral properties and helps build antibodies. With skin, coat, hair and nail health, collagen helps with a fuller & stronger coat, more elastic skin, and strong nails. I find this very helpful for older pets who have more brittle nails and sparse coat.
Overall, collagen has an immense amount of positive reactions in terms of preventing and treating certain illnesses and ailments in our pets. It is highly concentrated in bones, ligaments, tendons, etc. and is richly found in bone broth by the long simmering process of preparing bone broth and using apple cider vinegar.
Collagen isn’t the only protein, vitamin, or mineral that Bone Broth has that’s immensely beneficial.
What Else Does Bone Broth Have That’s Beneficial?
Bone broth has Minerals such as: calcium, magnesium, phosphorus, sulfur, and silicon; Amino acids like glutamine, cystine, and arginine, which are the building blocks of synthesizing and processing proteins for proper bodily functions and processes. Bone broth also has Glycoaminoglycans (GAGs) which help maintain tendons, cartilage, and other connective tissue.
Calcium and phosphorus are crucial in a ferrets diet and must meet a 1:1 ratio in their diet to be healthy. Bone broth is luckily a perfect 1:1 ratio of calcium to phosphorus allowing it be to easily added without other supplements to balance out the calcium to phosphorus ratio. Calcium and phosphorus are also crucial in strengthening teeth and bones in the body; a lack of calcium can lead to weak bones and teeth. A deficiency in calcium can cause rickets in younger ferrets [rickets - a term used to describe calcification and/or abnormal development of bones due to low calcium intake, low vitamin D, and/or a high phosphorus intake] and makes bones weaker for adult and especially older ferrets. Although, bone broth contains these nutrients, it is not a sufficient replacement for bones in a raw diet for adequate calcium and phosphorus needs; but is certainly a great addition to diets with these needs.
Different Ways to Feed & Use Bone Broth
Bone broth can be used as a kibble topper to add more fresh and healthy foods to a pets diet. It can also be used to rehydrate kibble.
Bone broth can also be used as a topper for Freeze-Dried Raw food or used to rehydrate Freeze-Dried Raw.
Bone broth is great to add to egg meals, if the bone broth is frozen into ice cubes it can be used to keep the eggs cold and fresh longer.
Bone broth is also a great addition to organ meals in a frankenprey or other raw diet, or any diet that makes your ferrets poops a liquid consistency.
Bone broth can be frozen into ferret safe popsicles on hot days for a cool treat
Bone broth can be frozen into ice cubes and added to raw grinds/raw food to keep the food cold and fresh longer.
Bone broth is also a great addition to raw meals instead of using water if your pet likes their raw food in a soupy consistency.
Bone broth is a great food to add to entice your ferret to eat certain foods they may not like, such as fish/shellfish meals in a raw diet, or trying a new food.
Bone broth is good to feed to some ferrets who are sick and/or using antibiotics.
Bone Broth is good to feed to ferrets with GI upset and frequent GI issues or chronic GI illnesses.
There are a plethora of other ways to feed and use bone broth! These are just a few.
What you’ll need to make bone broth
Bones : Great bones to add are chicken feet or poultry feet/neck as these contain chondroitin which helps with joint pain as well as increases the fat content which is good for ferrets who require a higher amount of fat in their diet, this also helps give the bone broth a more jelly like consistency. Other good bones to add are bones ferrets can’t eat like beef marrow bones, heads, or other weight bearing bones.
Apple cider vinegar : organic raw apple cider vinegar with the mother is the healthiest for our pets. This ingredient is crucial to get all of the nutrients and minerals from the bones and properly break down the bones and adds additional health benefits. This is what aids in making the gelatin like consistency of bone broth. If raw, organic apple vinegar is not feasible to source for you, regular apple cider vinegar will do the trick, but is not as beneficial health wise as raw, organic apple cider vinegar with the mother.
Water : tap, filtered, or bottled water is fine. Whatever water you give your pet is okay to use. Filtrated water is best for consumption for any pet, but is not feasible for all pet owners.
Slow cooker or pot : I recommend a slow cooker since bone broth needs to be cooked for over 24 hours. Any size slow cooker should do depending on how big the bones are, how many bones you want to add, and how much bone broth is wanted.
Containers to store the bone broth : mason jars are great, but any container you can put in the freezer will work; I personally use plastic Tupperware containers with screw on tops for larger quantities of bone broth I would like to feed in a short period of time, or ice cube trays for small amounts to add on top of raw food to keep it cool and easily pre-portioned.
*optional* A Mesh or very fine strainer to get all pieces of meat and bone out of the broth and cheese cloth.
Steps to make Bone Broth
Place selected bones in a slow cooker and add water until all of the bones are completely submerged; have about an inch(≈3cm) to a 1/2 inch (≈1.5cm) of extra water above the submerged bones.
Add 2 Tablespoons (1Tablespoon = 15mL) of apple cider vinegar per gallon (≈4L) to 1 1/2 gallons (1/2 gallon ≈ 2 L)of water into the slow cooker with bones and mix well. (if bone broth does not come out jelly like in consistency add more apple cider vinegar next time). I personally add 2 tablespoons for a small slow cooker.
Cook the bones on high, covered, for an hour. Stirring is not necessary, but I personally will stir at least twice while cooking on high to make sure all of the bones are mixed well.
Stir the bones after the hour, cover the slow cooker and reduce the heat to low. Leave them like this for 24-28 hours; stirring is not necessary but can be done to ensure all of the bones are breaking down. Any froth on top of the bone broth can be disposed of throughout the simmering process.
After the bones have finished simmering, turn off the heat and remove any cooked bones as these cannot be consumed. Straining the broth with a fine strainer and cheese cloth is also an option and highly recommended to get all of the bones and meat out of the broth.
Let the strained broth cool at room temperature for 1-2 hours after removing the bones and properly disposing of them.
After this place the cooled broth into the fridge for 5-7 hours.
After cooling in the fridge the broth should start to become jelly like and have a layer of fat at the top, this layer of fat can be removed and disposed of. This layer can also be kept on the bone broth in containers that will be frozen for later consumption to keep the bone broth fresh—this layer should be removed before the bone broth is ready to use. If the broth is not jelly like, it is still good to feed; just be sure to add more bones and/or apple cider vinegar to the next batch of bone broth made.
Portion the bone broth into whatever sized container you need. Freeze and defrost to serve when you want! Bone broth should be okay in the fridge for up to 5 days.
Bone broth is my favorite food to add to my ferrets diet and as you can see there are many reasons why; below is a google doc list of some of the many references used for this post.
You can watch a video on how to prepare bone broth on my Instagram linked here: How To Make Bone Broth for Ferrets Reel
