Chicken Broth

[Beachbum1]

For those of you who have added chicken broth in a box to dry kibble, have you ever had any concerns that it contains onion juice or onion concentrate? 

[Jerilyn]

Broth was a big part of Lila's homecooked diet and I never worried about onion, I was more concerned with salt. I would buy whatever unsalted product was available. But she was super sensitive so I switched exclusively to Swanson's unsalted STOCK, not broth. It has no onion/celery/carrot and no added salt.

[HeyRunDog]

I make my own by putting a whole chicken in the slow cooker with nothing else. After a few hours the meat falls off the bone. I have the good meat, the pickings get frozen on a tray then bagged for dog treats and the juice gets frozen in ice cube trays ready to add to Grace's kibble with some hot water.

[kudzu]

Jerilyn, thanks for the tip on Swanson’s stock. I had not been using the broth for the reasons BeachBum1 mentioned. Su loves the stock, for now. To me it smells so much better than the broth. Good stuff.

Edited January 30 by kudzu

[Jerilyn]

1 hour ago, kudzu said:

Jerilyn, thanks for the tip on Swanson’s stock. I had not been using the broth for the reasons BeachBum1 mentioned. Su loves the stock, for now. To me it smells so much better than the broth. Good stuff.

Oh good! I used to switch Lila up between the chicken stock and beef stock.  And I agree that it does smell better. 

[AlexNillson89]

It seems to me that the most unpleasant thing about it is salt, it needs to be eradicated from the dog's diet and I don't know why it is needed there at all

[cleptogrey]

i use trader joe's low salt stock and dilute it. also, the organic kirkland chicken stock is great- that too i dilute, even when i'm using it for my dumpling/veggie soup. 

[GreyhndHomecare]

No, but I super-diluted it - I put a tablespoon into 6 oz water sometimes, to get Lily to drink more water. 

Questions like this are always a dilemma - How much is too much? Or none?  And then some greys are more sensitive, and to different things, than others.

I wrote a helpful article on foods that aren't good for greys, where I get specific about exactly what is the offending substance or problem with each food:

https://greyhoundhomecare.com/what-foods-are-bad-for-my-greyhound/

[Hubcitypam]

Don't overthink it.  The amount of onion in what you would wet kibble with a box of broth is probably FAR less than if you dropped a slice of onion on the kitchen floor.  Been there and dogs that snarfed it up lived.

Along the same line garlic is supposed to be a huge no no but I have known people that fed their greys garlic for flea control.

Edited Tuesday at 05:17 AM by Hubcitypam

[RaineysMom]

I second the suggestion to make your own broth.  You can use boneless cuts (trimmed of fat) or pieces/whole chicken.  I add a chopped carrot or 2 to the broth to add a little flavor then those are toppers (yum, chickeny carrots!) on Rick's food.  I do use a "soup sock" (or you can use cheese cloth) to put the carrots in so I don't have to worry about getting any bones in with the carrots.  I also save the meat (carefully picked of any bones!) for snackies and toppers too.

I'll reduce the resulting stock down a bit to concentrate it (so less room to store in the freezer) and add some water to it in a measuring cup before nuking it to warm up and put on his kibble to soak.

I too have been somewhat concerned about the onion and garlic in the box stock so I avoid it (why give them something that might be bad if you can easily make your own safely  ).