Here are my Top Five tips to achieve optimum natural wellness and holistic health for the animals in your care.
- Nutrition! Getting nutrients right is key, in fact I would say it is everything!
- It is vital to understand that this is one area of your animals life that will change throughout its lifetime.
- Take a broad view over one to two weeks to ensure your cat or dog receives all of their macro and micro-nutrients from their food, daily for your horse and exotics are more unique to each breed so do your research.
- Join a Facebook group, follow a thought leader on twitter, or connect with others who look after the same animal you do on Instagram. Use the Internet and Google to look for guidance or visit your local library or second hand bookshop and read up. It really doesn’t matter how you learn about your animal and their dietary requirements, what is important is that you do!
- In my opinion, natural is best. Try wherever possible to give your animal close to what they would eat in the wild.
- So if your animal is a meat-eater or carnivorous like a cat then feed them real meat, not processed meat filled with preservatives or worse, by-products or meat derivative.
- If your animal is an omnivore like a dog then feed them a mix of meat, vegetable and grain, remember while dogs do have canines and love meat they will equally scavenge and eat pretty much anything including cake or sandwiches.
- If your animal is a herbivore ensure they receive a variety of vegetation suitable for their breed.
- Kibble has its place however not all kibbles are made the same, some are ‘prescription’ foods and others from the supermarket, it does not mean it is the best food for your animal, only it is a type of food for your animal. Read the ingredients, and remember that grains are not meant to be fed to cats or dogs in large quantities. Doing so can lead to all sorts of health problems such as allergies, gingivitis – leading to tooth decay, heart problems and ongoing health concerns to name but a few. Many kibbles are grain based, packed with grains like potato, corn or rice flour and preservatives, additives and flavourings. Many of which are not very close to their natural source and have been through a tenuous processing procedure.
- Provide clean drinking water for your animals every day. If you won’t drink it from your tap I ask you to consider why you’ll give it to your animal. It isn’t always practical to give our animals’ filtered water however it is really important to clean out their drinking bowls and refresh often.
- Exercise and play!
The need varies for all animals as they all have very different requirements to achieve optimum natural wellness and holistic health. However, one rule is true – keep it varied and look to YouTube for new ideas.
- A horse for instance benefits from regular school, hacking and competing 5 or 6 times a week and a monthly massage to keep it in tiptop shape.
- A young dog benefits from 2 walks a day and perhaps some agility or sniffer training on top, where a senior dog is happy with just a 10 minute stroll in the garden 3 or 4 times a day and bath and brush once a month.
- A cat prefers to sleep 23 hours of the day and then demand attention, be it a piece of string, a catnip mouse, the laser pen or a mad moment hooning around the house.
- A rat likes things to shred up and hide in and free play time to explore a safe space outside of its home.
- A bird likes company, space to fly and scratch and hide and eat.
- Training!
Training is a great way to cohabit with your animals, for example, it makes life so much easier if your dog will sit when you ask, your horse will wait for you to get out of the gate, or your cat knows not to jump on the worktops. I’m not talking circus training here, I’m talking manners and safety.
- Kindness is crucial to training in my opinion. I try to bring out the best of my animals by training them their way rather than my way. Look to kind, positive reinforcement, hands off trainers and experts in the field to support you, after all we were not born with all the knowledge we need to look after our animals the right way. If you aren’t sure then ask join the private facebook group run by Talk To All Animals where you can get answers to these sorts of questions, about your animals natural wellness and holistic health.
- What you learn during the training is only the beginning. The rewards come when you consistently follow through on using the training technique repetitively, over and over again with your animal. A bit like teaching a child good table manners, eventually it comes right.
- Find a way to invest in training you and your animal, even if you have always had horses, cats, bearded dragons, there will always be something new to learn or someone inspiring to follow.
- Sleep and rest!
These are crucial components to your animal having a sound disposition and mind. Being sleep deprived has been used as a form of torture – it affects the natural wellness of our animals too.
- Make a safe and quiet space for each one of your animals to go, especially when they feel scared or are not well. If your animal has come from rescue they are likely to be chronically sleep deprived because of all the noise in the rescue, not just the animal noise – people coming and going too – and ultimately not feeling safe, secure or settled in their environment.
- Give your animal its own bed and ensure that everyone in the house respects that. Apart from the cat, as cat’s don’t respect much.
- Clean the bed covers more regularly than you think! Put them and any animal towels through a hot wash and hang on the line to dry. Remember to use kinder more eco-friendly products; animals can be highly sensitive to any chemicals in their environment.
- Last but not least, is LOVE!
Love, affection and attention are crucial components to your animal receiving optimal natural wellness and holistic health – humans and animals alike love to be loved!
- Share your love with your animal, don’t be shy about it you will be rewarded enormously for it over the coming days, weeks and hopefully years to come!
- Express your love with words of encouragement and love, gentle tender touches and look after them when they are ill or frightened. Hug, brush, bathe and touch your animals to let them know how much you love them as appropriate for the tolerance level of course!
- Spend time being still with yourself and your animal. Drop your attention to your heart, place your hand over your heart and focus on feeling its beat. Really feel your hearts energy, now look at your animal and beam love to them, can you feel them sending love back to you?
- Share fun activities together with your animal, tell it you love it and stroke it or pat it gently, or firmly! Depending upon your animal. Find out what it loves to do and do more of that.
To learn more about natural wellness and holistic health come and join our friendly and private Facebook group where you can talk with other like minded animal lovers and ask all the questions you’d like as well as receive tips about natural wellness and holistic health.
