SEASONAL FEEDING - Making the Most of Fresh Ingredients

Spring, Summer, Autumn and Winter, seasonal feeding at its freshest and finest. Featuring Hedgerow Hounds seasonal herbal blends.

 The majority of people have lost their connection with the land, nature and the changing seasons.

Natures larder provides us with a huge variety of produce at the perfect time when it will be of most benefit to us nutritionally. With a few small changes we can all benefit from eating seasonally which is better for us, our dogs and the environment.

We can utilise herbs and vegetables in the Spring, which are a perfect cleansing tonic to gently ease us out of the long winter months, where we have no doubt been overindulging and less active.

To the cooling and hydrating bounty of Summer, followed by the real bumper harvest of Autumn, which gives us all the foods we need to help boost our immunity and general health in preparation for the cold Winter months ahead.

Here at Hedgerow Hounds, we are passionate about seasonal ingredients, and if you really want to embrace seasonality, then we have a seasonal range of handmade herbal blends.

What`s so special about seasonal food?

Eating more seasonally ourselves and by including some of these foods in our dogs’ diet, we can benefit in so many ways.

. We can reconnect with the cycles of nature and really appreciate the food that is available for a short period of time.

. It is better value for money as well as kinder to the environment, to buy ingredients when they are in abundance locally and haven’t travelled halfway round the world before they even get to our kitchen.

. We can support the local communities, such as small producers, farmers’ markets, organic growers, and game dealers.

. The produce is fresher and therefore more nutritious as it is harvested when ripe or at its best, and has minimal travelling time before we can purchase it.

Could we survive without sugar snap peas from Egypt, asparagus from Peru, and eating Strawberries in January? These have travelled thousands of miles, are harvested unripe, and sprayed with chemicals, gas, or wax to stop them from deteriorating in transit.

Or could we wait until they are ready to eat locally and benefit from much more flavour and far higher nutritional value, while enjoying so many other foods in the meantime?

 How does incorporating seasonal food benefit our dogs?

If you feed raw or home-cooked food to your dog, then it is important to offer a good variety of foods over the coming months. If you feed dried or tinned food, it is also possible to start incorporating a small amount of fresh ingredients into the bowl at feed times.

By offering variety, you can ensure your dog gets a broad range of nutrients and avoid the intolerances that can occur if the same protein and carbohydrate are fed continuously.

A wide spectrum of fresh ingredients, either animal proteins or of plant origin, nurtures a healthy gut microbiome, which is vital for a healthy immune system and overall optimal health. The more diverse the diet, the less you will have to rely on supplementation.  

By feeding what is in season, you are providing food at its very best. This often means that you don’t need a large amount to benefit from the superior nutritional value.

A few local, handpicked ripe blackberries added to the food will be far superior to a larger number of blueberries that have covered many air miles. Including some free-range, wild, or organic meat whenever you can will also provide your dog with superior-quality ingredients.

Depending on your location, there is generally a good range of proteins available from Spring to Summer, but when Autumn comes, there is suddenly a whole new larder available to the raw feeder or home cook.

The game season varies by the species, but generally partridge and pheasant are available from September until February. Venison is dependent on breed, but around November to March, and Duck from September until January.

If you have been relying on beef, lamb, chicken, and fish from March until August, then this addition of free-range, often organic and minimally farmed protein is a huge bonus. You can either use in addition or temporarily replace the proteins you regularly use until the availability ends.

Putting a small amount of vegetables aside for your dog when preparing your own is a good practice. It will soon become second nature to save a broccoli stalk, steam a little extra courgette, cut off a small slice of pear or apple, or lift out the couple of squashed raspberries that are in the bottom of the punnet for your dog’s supper. You will also start to look out for seasonal bargains at the butchers’ or farmers’ market.

If you can forage for ingredients such as blackberries, dandelion leaves, cleavers, and either keep a few hens or find a local organic supplier of eggs, then that is a big win.

Adding a little fresh, local, and seasonal produce even two or three times a week will help to gradually improve your dog’s overall diet. If your dog is new to fresh ingredients, start off with very small amounts and include one new addition at a time, until they adjust to a different way of eating.

As a rule, although each dog is an individual, the majority of the meal is made up of animal protein, with anything from 5% to 15% being provided by vegetables and berries that are suitable for your dog.   

Spring

Spring ingredients offer a gentle tonic to cleanse and wake up the system after less active months and a diet of heavier, warming meals. Many of these ingredients that come into their own now offer support for the kidneys, liver, and lymphatic system that can often get sluggish over the Winter months. You may observe that your dog seeks out the fresh grass shoots as they appear, which are full of energy, sweetness, and moisture.  

The Nature’s Skin Tonic is perfect for a gentle Spring cleanse after the long winter months and also great for dogs that are itchy and suffer from seasonal allergies at this time of year.

Incorporate some of the following into your dog’s meals:

Spring nettle tops, Cleavers, Dandelion leaf and root, Asparagus, Watercress, Milk Thistle, Spring Greens, New season Lamb, Rabbit & Free range eggs.

Summer

Summer ingredients are cooling, hydrating, and uplifting, and we are spoilt for choice at the range of produce available. If you can grow a few vegetables yourself, such as courgette, cucumber, spinach, salad greens, chard, and parsley, then these will be bursting with flavour and goodness, and you can add a little of these freshly picked ingredients to your dog’s food. If you grow blackberries and raspberries, you will find that the dogs often help themselves to the fruit from the lower branches.  

Nature’s Bounty appears on the shop in February and covers the Summer months until early November. It is a nutritious blend that contains an organic seaweed, and Bounty’s main task is to naturally repel fleas and ticks, which it has successfully done for many years.

Incorporate small amounts of the following:

Fennel, Melon, Spinach, Celery, Blueberries, Bilberries, Raspberries, Dandelion, Seaweed, Sorrel, Courgettes, Mint, Parsley, Calendula, Cucumber, Green beans, Carrot tops, Lettuce, Rabbit, Free range eggs.  

Autumn

Autumn provides nourishing produce to prepare for the colder months and are typically rich in antioxidants and high in vitamin C. Many of these vegetables, fruits, and berries also lend themselves to preserving by the process of dry storage, freezing, and fermentation, which would traditionally be used to ensure a supply of nutritious foods through the lean months of Winter that lie ahead:

Incorporate small amounts of the following:

Squash, Blackberries, Rosehips, Beetroot, Pumpkin, Apples, Pear, Burdock root, Chicory, Nettle seeds, Fennel and Dill seeds, Almonds, Pumpkin seeds.

Game meat to include: Partridge, Pheasant, Grouse, Pigeon, Guinea fowl, Quail, Venison, and Duck.

Fish, including Pollack, Mackerel, Coley, and Haddock.  

Winter

Winter provides us with comforting food for warmth and sustenance.

Incorporate small amounts of the following:

Ginger root, Turmeric, Kale, Celeriac, Thyme, Ruby Chard, Brussels sprouts, Winter Squash, Jerusalem artichoke, Pear, Russet apple, Turkey, Duck, Venison, Mussels.

 Caroline Hearn MICHT, Dip ICAT. MIAAT

Equine and Canine Sports Massage Therapist and Canine Holistic Health Specialist

Find out more at www.hedgerowhounds.co.uk

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Feeding Vegetables to Dogs

Should I add vegetables or not? If so which type?

So should we bother feeding vegetables to our dogs and will it even benefit them?

There are many benefits to including some fresh vegetables to our dogs diet. It is important that they are prepared in a way that our dogs can digest them either through cooking, steaming or blitzing to a smoothie. We should all be including more veg in our diets so maybe the easiest way is just to prepare a bit extra when you are preparing your own meals and then set it aside for your dog.

Phytonutrients

The term ‘phytonutrients’ is a name for a variety of compounds only found in plants that have a vast array of health-giving properties. They are covered in far greater detail in the vegetable and fruit section and are a useful way to provide additional micronutrients and antioxidants to your dog’s diet. If the inclusion of fruit, vegetables and seeds is a new experience for your dog, then start off by incorporating tiny amounts until his system adapts and you find the ingredients that suit your particular dog.

Probably the best known of the phytonutrients are carotenoids and flavonoids.

Carotenoids are plant pigments responsible for the vibrant red, yellow, orange and green hues found in vegetables, fruits and plants that can play an important role in protecting cells against harmful effects of light, air and pollution. Beta-carotene, lycopene and lutein are all different types of carotenoid that can easily be included in the diet. They act as anti-oxidants which protect cells from free radicals, which are substances that work to destroy cell membranes and DNA.

 Foods that are rich in carotenoids are:

·        Lutein: collard greens, Swiss chard, lettuce, spinach, kale and dandelion greens.

·        Lycopene: red/orange bell peppers, watermelon, pomegranate, apples, mint and blackberries.

·        Beta-carotene: carrots, sweet potato, broccoli and romaine lettuce.

·        Flavonoids: These give berries their red, blue and purple colour and can be included in the diet in the form of blueberries, blackberries, raspberries and bilberries.

So, what does the inclusion of veg and fruit have offer to our dogs?

They provide a wealth of vitamins, minerals, anti-oxidants and fibre, including vitamins A, B, C, E and K, and minerals such as calcium, potassium and magnesium.

Anti-oxidants protect against many diseases due to the aging process, and for a degenerative condition such as progressive retinal atrophy a diet rich in anti-oxidants is the only known way to slow down the deterioration of this eye disease.

Fresh vegetables also encourage enzyme production and offer a gentle cleansing and balancing effect on the ph. levels of the body.

Depending on the type of vegetable, they provide soluble and insoluble fibre, which benefit the gut bacteria, and can bind to and remove certain toxins as well as adding bulk and moisture to the faeces.

With intensively farmed animals and soil depletion becoming a concern, our food is lacking in the level of nutrients that it provided many years ago, so the addition of vegetables, herbs, berries and some grains is a way to try and fill any nutritional gaps. The more variety we can add into our dog’s diet the less we will have to rely on dietary supplements.

An ideal herbal supplement in the Hedgerow Hounds range is Nature’s Boost, which combines vegetables, herbs, seeds & superfoods.

How to prepare and feed.

Due to the fact that dogs cannot digest the cellulose in vegetables, the best way to serve is to blend in a food processor to break down the plant’s tough cell wall, until they resemble a thick smoothie consistency, which also mimics the partly digested contents of a prey animal’s stomach.

Other options would be to lightly steam them or finely grate them into the food.

If you want to make larger batches up or you are lucky enough to grow your own veg and have a glut in the summer, then the pureed, pulped veg can be frozen into ice cube trays or pots for convenience.

If they are served whole many dogs just lift pieces of veg out, eat around them in the bowl, or pass them out the other end undigested, to make full use of the nutrients they need to be broken down.

A good feeding guideline would be 7% vegetables and 3% berries, although if you are looking to reduce the overall cost of home-prepared food, or if the dog needs to lose weight, then more veg can be added to make up a quarter of the meal.

The addition of vegetables will change the overall percentages, so subtract from the muscle meat and not the bone or offal which provides the calcium and vitamins. So, for instance a usual 80-10-10 ratio would become 70% (meat) 10% (bone) 10% offal and 10% vegetables.

Start off with a small amount and then monitor how your dog is handling the inclusion of vegetables in his diet.

It is not essential to feed vegetables every day, but even three times a week will be beneficial, rotating different types and changing with the seasons where possible

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