It isn’t unusual for older dogs to lose their appetite. Nevertheless, it can be distressing when it happens to your dog. Are they getting enough nutrients? Are they depressed? In pain? You want them to live the best quality of life possible through their sunset years.
While it can be stressful, you are not a bad dog parent. There’s lots of reasons that a dog eats less as they age. You should visit your veterinarian to rule out any serious problems (especially if your dog all of a sudden stops eating completely.
Once you know you are dealing with a normal phenomenon of dogs eating less as they age, just like people, then you’ll want to do everything you can to make sure your senior dog eats as much as possible.
The simplest way to encourage older dogs who are not eating to start gobbling up their food is to add bone broth to their diet. It eliminates the stress of trying to change their diet to a completely new food. And dogs absolutely love it!
Benefits of Bone Broth for Senior Dogs Who Don't Want to Eat
Bottom line: Bone broth is a nutrient-packed super food that dogs devour. Giving it to your pup provides additional nutrition AND encourages them to eat. Add bone broth to their diet and your senior pup will likely eat more -- without much effort from you.
Here are just a few of the nutritional benefits of bone broth for senior dogs:
Supports Joints
Bone broth is rich in glucosamine and chondroitin that can help ease pain of osteoarthritis, a common ailment affecting older dogs.
Decreases Inflammation
Chronic low-grade inflammation, which increases with age, is a risk factor for many diseases (heart disease, diabetes and cancer). Several amino acids in bone broth (glycine and arginine) have been shown to reduce inflammation.
Eases Digestion
The gelatin contained in bone broth supports a healthy intestinal lining which gets stressed with age. Also, since bone broth has been cooked for a long time, the nutrients are easily absorbed without much stress on the digestive system.
Increases Hydration
Bone broth adds nutrients and fluids to your senior dog’s diet. The amino acids also absorb water to hold more fluids in the digestive tract, so everything keeps moving nicely 💩!
How to Add Bone Broth to Your Senior Dog’s Diet
When your senior dog is not eating, you can add bone broth directly to their food. This is particularly good if your pup eats kibble because the broth softens it, making it easier to chew (older dogs often have a hard time chewing) and making the kibble easier to digest.
Simply warm up the broth for a minute or so in the microwave or in a pan. Then add to the kibble, stir and wait a few minutes until the kibble is soft and the broth is absorbed. Make sure it is not too hot.
If you serve dehydrated or freeze-dried food, you can use the warmed bone broth to rehydrate it. If your pup enjoys wet/canned food, simply add the broth to the food and stir.
No matter which type of food you are adding the bone broth to, a good rule of thumb is to use about 1 ounce for every 10 pounds with each meal.
You can offer bone broth in a bowl, as is. Often, the bone broth is enticing enough to encourage your pup to drink when they might not drink enough water. But remember bone broth is a supplement and not intended to replace your dog’s regular food.
What Makes a Good Bone Broth for Senior Dogs Who Won’t Eat?
Mountain Meadow Chicken Broth for Pets is a great choice for your senior dog - because of what we do and what we don’t do when making it.
Here’s what we DO:
- Use REAL,100% human-grade ingredients, sourced from the same ranches we use for our people broth.
- Make the broth the same “people food” processing facility with all the required health and safety protocols used when making food for people (NOTE - pet food facilities are not inspected and licensed by health departments!)
- Slow-simmered for 18 hours, just like our people broth, to ensure maximum nutrients.
Here’s what we DON’T DO:
- Use any “flavorings” to substitute for flavor from real meat
- Add any preservatives, hormones, or GMOs
- Include onions which are toxic to dogs (Most bone broths made for people are made with onions, including ours.) Our broth for pets do not include onions.