How to Make Bone Broth Safely for Dogs (No Onions, No Garlic)

A 14-pound terrier mix, nine years old, three days off a dental extraction, won’t touch his kibble. His owner calls me asking about bone broth — she’s seen it recommended everywhere, and she has a stockpot and a leftover roast bone sitting on the counter. That’s the moment this conversation actually happens in practice, not as an abstract “should I feed my dog bone broth” question but as a specific decision made under a specific set of constraints: what’s already in the kitchen, what the dog will actually eat, and what she should absolutely not add to the pot.

My verdict, stated plainly: homemade bone broth is safe and often useful when you strip the recipe down to bones, water, and time — nothing else. The moment you start treating it like a soup, adding the aromatics and seasonings that make a broth taste good to a human, you’ve introduced the two problems that cause almost every bad outcome I see.

Why onions and garlic are non-negotiable, not optional

Onions, garlic, leeks, and chives are all Allium species, and they all contain thiosulfate compounds that damage a dog’s red blood cells. According to VCA Animal Hospitals, mild exposure causes vomiting, nausea, and abdominal pain, while more significant exposure damages red blood cells and produces weakness, elevated heart rate, pale gums, and red-tinged urine as the anemia progresses. The Merck Veterinary Manual covers the same mechanism in more clinical detail, and one detail matters more than any other for broth specifically: cooking doesn’t neutralize the compounds. Dried, powdered, and simmered forms are all still toxic, and simmering can actually concentrate them as water cooks off. A bouillon cube, a seasoning packet, or a pinch of onion powder left in a stockpot for six hours is not a diluted risk — it’s often a more concentrated one.

This is the single sentence I want an owner to leave with: there is no safe amount of onion or garlic in a dog’s broth, not “a little is fine,” not “cooked is different.” Leave them out entirely, including anything pre-seasoned like a store bouillon base.

The bones themselves are the bigger risk

Owners fixate on the onion-and-garlic question and, understandably, miss the hazard that actually sends more dogs to the emergency vet: the bones. Cooking makes bone brittle. The American Kennel Club’s Chief Veterinarian, Dr. Jerry Klein, is blunt about this in the AKC’s guidance on bone broth: cooked bones “are incredibly dangerous for dogs” and can splinter, lodge in the throat, or perforate the gut on the way through. The broth is the point — the liquid, the collagen, the marrow that leaches out during a long simmer — not the bone fragments themselves. Strain everything out before it ever reaches the bowl, and never let the actual cooked bone become a chew toy afterward, no matter how tempting it looks to the dog sniffing at the trash.

I had a case a few winters back that illustrates the tradeoff badly handled: an owner had read that bone broth helps joints, so she started leaving the simmered knuckle bones in her 62-pound retriever’s bowl alongside the strained liquid, figuring more bone contact meant more benefit. By day 10 he’d had two episodes of bloody stool and one bout of vomiting undigested bone fragment — nothing life-threatening, but avoidable. The broth wasn’t the problem. The leftover bone was.

Sodium is the third failure point, and store-bought doesn’t automatically fix it

Homemade, unsalted broth made from bones with no additives is genuinely low-risk. Where I see sodium problems is almost always store-bought. According to the American Kennel Club, commercial broths are often preserved and flavored with salt — and sometimes onion or garlic — that a dog food label wouldn’t allow in a complete diet. Even broths marketed as “low sodium” can carry more salt than a dog with heart or kidney disease should have in a day. If you’re buying rather than making, read the ingredient panel the same way you’d read one for yourself: salt should be absent or near the bottom of the list, and there should be no allium ingredient anywhere on it.

What bone broth actually does — and doesn’t do — for digestion

Bone broth is not a treatment. It’s a palatability and hydration aid, and for a dog recovering from illness, dental work, or a rough GI stretch, that alone earns it a place in the kitchen. Where I’d caution owners against overselling it is the gut-health claims that circulate online — broth is not a substitute for the things that actually manage a digestive condition. In dogs with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, for example, the real treatment is pancreatic enzyme replacement therapy, nutritional management with low-residue, moderate-fat diets, and cobalamin supplementation — a straight broth doesn’t touch any of those levers (Journal of the American Veterinary Medical Association). If you’re already using a fiber source like pumpkin for stool consistency, or a probiotic for a dog whose gut has been unsettled, broth is a nice add-on to the bowl, not a swap for either. Research on probiotic response in dogs has also found that gut microbiome diversity measured before treatment didn’t distinguish which dogs would respond to a probiotic and which wouldn’t — a reminder that gut support, broth included, tends to be trial-and-observe rather than predictable from the outside (Frontiers in Veterinary Science).

My actual method

This is the version I’d tell a client to use, no substitutions:

• Use raw or cooked bones you already have on hand — chicken carcass, beef marrow bones, turkey frame — with no seasoning of any kind.
• Cover with water in a stockpot or slow cooker. No onion, no garlic, no salt, no bouillon, no stock cubes.
• A splash of apple cider vinegar can help pull minerals out of the bone during a long simmer; it’s optional, not required.
• Simmer low for 12–24 hours on the stove, or on low in a slow cooker for the same window.
• Strain thoroughly. Every bone fragment, however small, needs to be gone before this touches a bowl.
• Cool, skim off any surface fat, and portion into an ice cube tray for easy single servings.
• Refrigerate for up to four or five days, or freeze portions for longer storage.

For a dog on a restricted-sodium or restricted-protein diet for kidney or heart disease, check with your own vet before adding broth to the routine — the liquid volume and mineral content can matter even without added salt.

There’s a scenario that changes this calculus and it’s worth naming directly: a 9-year-old dachshund, 22 pounds, diagnosed with exocrine pancreatic insufficiency, chronically underweight despite eating well, on enzyme replacement and a low-residue prescription diet. Her owner wanted to add homemade bone broth for palatability during a rough week. Nothing about a plain, unsalted broth conflicts with that diet — but the marrow and connective tissue in a long-simmered broth carries more fat than a moderate-fat EPI diet is built around, so I had her skim it hard and use it sparingly, a few tablespoons over food rather than a full bowl. The broth itself wasn’t the risk. Treating it as calorically “free” was.

When I’d skip it entirely

I don’t recommend homemade bone broth for dogs with a known history of pancreatitis unless it’s skimmed of essentially all fat and cleared by their own vet first — marrow-heavy broth is not the fat-controlled food that condition calls for. I’d also skip it for dogs on a strict sodium restriction until you’ve confirmed the bones you’re using and the added water volume with the prescribing vet, since “no added salt” isn’t the same as “sodium-free.” And I wouldn’t use it as a stand-in for actual digestive support — if a dog has ongoing loose stool, gas, or appetite changes, that’s a conversation for a gas remedy checklist or an actual probiotic evaluation, not something broth alone is going to resolve. A balanced gut microbiome supports overall immune function, and pumpkin fiber is a gentle, natural source of both soluble and insoluble fiber for dogs whose stool needs firming up — both are reasonable additions alongside broth, not replacements for it. If you’re weighing a human-grade probiotic blend for a dog with a sensitive gut, broth can make that supplement more palatable without doing any of the actual work itself.

Homemade bone broth earns its place in a lot of kitchens, and I expect it’ll stay a staple recommendation for recovery, appetite stimulation, and hydration for years to come — as long as owners keep treating the ingredient list, not just the bones, as the thing that determines whether it’s safe.