High Calcium Chicken Broth
This might seem like work the first time
you make it, but once you hear the great happy lapping sound they make when they drink it, it's all worth it, and one chicken
can make a dozen or more 1/2 cup meals. If freshly caught raw prey takes the most effort to catch and digest, this broth is
the absolutely easiest to digest, and can really turn around even a very sick animal.
This is good, high
protein, easy-to-digest food for the ill, declining, or picky eaters, or as a treat any time. Warm to at least room temperature,
not too hot or cool, before serving. No spices are necessary. I have seen this broth save and extend lives and
dramatically improve the quality of life for many animals. It is something like a fast for the digestive tract
(because it gets a break from more difficult-to-digest food) while thoroughly hydrating and nourishing all the body systems.
Also, in cases where the nervous system is strained by chronic or intense pain, the calcium can be very soothing.
High
Calcium Chicken Broth:
This is a modified short version - see Anitra Frazier's New Natural Cat for
the full word on it. (Her book is so full of wonderful tips to help your cat or dog in many ways. I strongly advise
you to buy this book.)
Main
Yellow Broth
Get the largest
organic chicken you can fit in your largest stock pot. Have the butcher quarter it if necessary to fit. Wash it well inside
and out, and set aside organ meat. Cover the whole chicken with as much water as will fit, and simmer for at least 2 or 3
hours.
[You can save the
organ meat as a treat for well animals, not more than one or two servings a week (not daily - too intense for many animals'
livers). You can freeze the organ meat in individual portions. It will last about 3 or 4 days in the refrigerator, up to a
month or two in the freezer. (You'll need to either cook the organ meat or treat it with grapefruit seed extract
or food grade hydrogen peroxide. NOTE: this is not drugstore hydrogen peroxide, look for it at health
food stores or online from a reputable seller. Please refer to Pat McKay for excellent advice on converting to raw diets.)]
Plus
White Milky Broth from Meat
After boiling the
whole chicken for 3 hours in your stock pot, mash chicken meat off bones (a manual potato masher works well), and remove chicken
meat to another large bowl. Add enough cold water to cool the meat a little (1 or 2 cups) and then squeeze the meat all through
the water. Then squeeze the milky liquid out of the meat a handful at a time, discarding the meat as you go. Add the milky
liquid that remains to the other broth in the stock pot.
Plus Red Tomato Broth from Bones
Remove the bones
to a small pot, breaking them up as much as possible as you go. Try to expose the marrow at least once in each bone. Add just
enough water to cover the bones (a small compact mass) and add one quarter cup of tomato juice (or 1 or 2 fresh tomatoes cut
up) to leach out the calcium. Simmer covered for about an hour, then strain off the liquid and add it to the rest of the broth.
Be sure to strain the liquid thoroughly so no little bone chips get into the broth. Chill the whole broth (yellow, white,
and red) together, then skim the fat off (when cold, it's easy) and decant it into small containers (1/2 or 1 cup each) and
freeze.
How
to Serve the Broth
Defrost just what
you need, in a pan in the sink or in a pot on the stove, not in the microwave, which strips out some of the nutrition. Serve
either in a small bowl, or if necessary use a dropper or syringe to gently serve by mouth a little bit at a time (think of
it as hand feeding rather than force feeding). When dropper feeding, get the dropper inside the mouth about a half inch or
so and squirt toward the side of the mouth, not the back of the throat. Rest a bit after every 2 or 3 droppers. An animal
sick enough to need dropper feeding can tire easily, and need to catch their breath. Often brief, frequent feedings can work
better than large feedings less frequently. You could try 2 or 3 droppers every hour or two until the animal either can drink
broth on their own, or they are feeling better enough to say 'no, I don't want any more right now'.
Bon Appetit!
Denise Schultz
