Home Made Dog Food Supplements
If you browse this website, you’ll notice a variety of natural supplements that I have found to be helpful in keeping my Shelties healthy.
In the beginning there were only one or two things I used but the more I researched, the more I found that I wanted to add to their raw food diet. After all, it's about OPTIMUM health.
I measured each ingredient out into each bowl on a regular basis. That quickly became really annoying.
A quarter teaspoon here, a half teaspoon there; multiple bowls and multiple supplements multiple times during the week. YUK!
So I figured out how to pre-mix it up, divide the portions to single serving sizes and freeze them.
Now I don’t even have to wait for a day where they get their meal in a bowl. I’m always looking for an easier way. ;)
Ideally, these are the dog food supplements I like to give my pups on a regular (though not necessarily, daily) basis:
Recipe for Dog Food Supplements
- Ginger 1/2 tsp (for heartworm prevention)
- Olive Leaf 1/2 tsp (antibacterial, antifungal)
- Seaweed 1/4 tsp (for iodine, thyroid function, dewormer)
- Probiotics 1 tsp (for gut health and good digestion.)
- Coconut oil 1 tbls. (For giardia and coccidia). It is also an antifungal, antibacterial food.
- Pumpkin seed 1 tbls (for tapeworms)
- Larch Arabinogalatan Bark Powder 1 tsp (prebiotic and anti-cancer)
You can see why I started pre-mixing this all up. Not to mention the powdered dog food supplements can billow up when using them dry and breathing them in is not fun.
It was a tougher job than I thought, with the blender causing the pumpkin seeds to heat up as they were ground. Smaller batches make for an easier job and a finer powder which is better for the Shelties to be able to digest.
Not to mention those little pieces of pumpkin seed look white in the mix and if not digested would look like little tapeworm segments. UGH! So try to grind well.
All my Shelties eat the dog food supplements without any fuss.
Mixing My Dog Food Supplements
OK, so first thing I did was convert everything to a ratio so I could mix in mass quantities:
- 1 part Ginger
- 1 part Olive Leaf
- 1/2 part Seaweed blend ( 1/8 kelp, 1/8 dulse, 1/8 Irish moss, 1/8 spirulina)
- 2 parts Probiotics
- 6 parts Coconut oil
- 6 parts Pumpkin seed
- 2 parts Larch Arabinogalatan
Use the “parts” as any measurement you wish, tablespoons, cups, whatever.
Grind the raw pumpkin seeds in the blender 'til fine. Add to the coconut oil, Add Olive leaf powder and Ginger powder. Oh, OK, I'm not sure why I'm specifying, just dump everything in a bowl and mix!
 |
 |
 |
 |
You don't have to measure anything, just glop the supplement on silicone mold trays, or use those cute mini-scoops to get the amount you want.
Refrigerate for about an hour, pop them out into a zip lock bag and repeat til you are done.
Bone Broth For Shelties - Another Awesome Dog Food Supplement
Let me show you an easy-peasy way to make this for your pooch.
It was one of those epiphanies I get as I’m drifting off to sleep at night. Feeling grateful for the general health of my Shelties made me think of the less fortunate Shetland Sheepdogs out there. Having watched enough of the videos on rescued dogs, I wondered; if I had to care for a Sheltie that wasn’t mine for whatever reason, would I be prepared?
Thoughts of comfort food such as chicken soup came to mind. I remembered from years ago how bone broth was touted as “good for what ailed you”.
What could this broth do to help your Sheltie? If you are not feeding a raw food diet, at least she can get some benefits from whole bone by using the broth concentrate.
Or, even if she is on a raw diet but for some reason is not eating, has diarrhea or recovering from surgery, it is a food easy to ingest and tempting with its flavor and aroma.
Understand that a dog fed a raw food diet is making his or her very own bone broth in the digestive tract. Whole bones are crunched and enter the stomach where gastric acid leeches out all the good stuff listed below which is then digested. The remains exit the south end as unneeded material. So as a general rule, bone broth wouldn't be a necessary dog food supplement if your sheltie is healthy and fed a raw food diet.
What's Bone Broth For Shelties Good For?
Bone broth is known to have the following:
- Glycine - which aids digestion, helps the liver detoxify the body
- Gelatin - which can reduce the amount of protein needed by the body substantially and reduces leaky gut which has been known to lead to food allergies
- Minerals – something the modern diet is woefully lacking
- Glucosamine, chondroitin and hyaluronic acid – you know these as great joint repair substances
So being a “belt AND suspenders” kinda person, I thought it might not be a bad idea to be prepared… just in case…
Bone Broth Recipe
The recipe below is incredibly simple. So simple, I’m not sure you could even call it a recipe. Julia Child has nothing to worry about.
- Take bones left over from your roast chicken, or other meat such as lamb, pork or beef. If you don’t many, save them in the freezer til you get a crock-pot full. Or buy beef soup bones.
- Fill the crock-pot with water; add about 2 tablespoons of vinegar (I like to use the organic Apple Cider Vinegar). The vinegar makes the water acidic enough to leech the minerals and gelatin out of the bone.
- Turn the crock-pot on high to get it simmering, then turn it down and leave it to cook for at least 24 hrs.
- Strain all the bones and meat out of the broth.
Pour into these handy silicone trays and freeze. Once frozen pop them out and into a zip lock bag ready to use at a moment's notice.
I don’t know about you but I may join my dogs in a bone broth cocktail now and again. May keep my joints moving for another 30 years or so…
