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I add golden paste to Rodrigo and Sydney's meals daily – both meals.  Someone recently asked me if it's safe to feed golden paste daily and this reminded me of a discussion I had with a brand several years ago.  The brand representative warned me about using products with turmeric, stating that they would mask our dogs' pain, keeping us from seeing if their joint issues became worse.

Well, I can't speak to supplements that contain turmeric as an ingredient, however, I can share that golden paste hasn't masked Sydney's joint pain and when it got worse, I was able to see that she needed more support and her veterinarian recommended that we start her on a different, stronger joint supplement for dogs.

In my experience, golden paste has only had one negative side effect – adding too much too fast results in soft stool or light diarrea; not the end of the world and these are easily cleared up by not adding as much golden paste and gradually increasing to the suggested dosage over time.

So, let's go back to the basics.

What is Golden Paste?

Golden paste is a natural supplement made with turmeric, an Indian spice that has been used for thousands of years in food and has been shown to promote immune system health.  When I started feeding raw, I would see discussions about golden paste in the raw feeding groups.  At the time, I thought that you could get the same benefit by just adding turmeric powder or a turmeric supplement made for humans.

I was wrong.

The reason people promote golden paste for humans, dogs, and horses instead of telling us to take turmeric or curcumin supplements, is because the black pepper and coconut oil used to make golden paste makes the turmeric (and curcumin) more bioavailable.  By making the spice more bioavailable, it is easier to absorb into the system through the intestinal walls.

Black pepper contains an alkaloid (an organic compound) called piperine which is said to enhance bioavailability of curcumin (the component of turmeric that gives us all the health benefits we crave).  By also adding oil (I use coconut oil), we improve the digestion and absorption of golden paste while also helping the body disperse the benefits.  This is great for our dogs because they have a shorter digestive system, we don't want to see the golden paste disposed of as waste (aka pooped out) before our dogs can enjoy the benefits.

Benefits of Golden Paste

There are many benefits of golden paste; I add it to my dogs' diet because it's a natural anti-inflammatory and offers pain relief.  The other benefits are a bonus:

• Natural antibacterial
• Natural detox
• Supports heart and liver health
• Supports a healthy digestive system
• Prevents cataracts
• Easy allergy symptoms
• Used to treat epilepsy
• Reduces tumor size and may prevent cancer

We can't talk about the benefits without talking about the drawbacks. Turmeric is a natural blood thinner, so if your dog is on a medication that thins their blood, then speak to your vet before adding golden paste to your dog's diet.

Making Golden Paste for Dogs

Golden paste is crazy easy to make (takes about 15 minutes) and I mix up a batch every other month.  I have posted a recipe on my blog before, but to save you an extra click, here is the recipe for making golden paste for dogs that I took from Dr. Judy Morgan's blog.

Ingredients:

• 6 cups of water
• 3 cups of turmeric powder
• 1 cup of coconut oil
• 1 cup of bone broth
• 3 tablespoons of fresh ground black pepper
• 2 tablespoon of Ceylon cinnamon

Making Golden Paste:

• Bring the water to a boil; turn the heat down and slowly add the turmeric powder.
• Stir until a paste begins to form (the turmeric becomes thick).
• Add coconut oil, bone broth, black pepper, and cinnamon – one at a time slowly mixing into the paste.
• Once everything is mixed in thoroughly, set aside until the paste cools.
• Transfer the paste to Rubbermaid containers and freeze until ready to use.

I prefer 3-cup Rubbermaid containers or smaller.  I store one container in the fridge (it lasts a couple of weeks) and the rest in the freezer.

Golden Paste Dosage

When adding golden paste to a dog's diet, I recommend working your way up to the traditional dosage is 1/4 teaspoon for every 10 pounds of body weight.  Rodrigo gets 1-1/2 teaspoon per meal and Sydney gets 2 teaspoons per meal.  However, I learned quickly that it's not a good idea to start with this dosage – instead, I started with 1/4 teaspoon, adding more golden paste each week or every other week until I reached each dog's dosage.

While Rodrigo and Sydney did great on golden paste from the start; Scout and Zoey developed diarrhea because I started with too much, so they only get 1/4 teaspoon when I add it to their meals (which isn't daily).

Introducing My Dogs to Golden Paste

Because golden paste has a strong scent, I worried that my dogs wouldn't be interested – they won't eat golden paste from a spoon, but they have no trouble eating it when I mix it into their ground raw dog food.  My dogs eat a combination of whole and ground raw dog food.  If their meal is 100% whole, I'll add a little bit of ground to act as a carrier for golden paste.  For Rodrigo and Sydney, I've seen the best results when they are fed golden paste in all of their meals; I'm still easing Scout and Zoey into golden paste.