About Honeyvale Herbs

We strongly believe that one of the greatest values of feeding herbs and spices routinely to animals is the role that they can play in preventative medicine, and helping pets to achieve optimal health. Feeding health maintenance herbs increases nutritional variety in a pure bio-available form, and will help to fulfil your pet’s natural requirements for highly beneficial phyto-nutrients (otherwise known as plant nutrients). These phyto-nutrients are typically overwhelmingly deficient in the modern “balanced” processed diets available for pets. Our modern world of monoculture farming has created a stark absence of diversity in pasture, and Jennie van der Byl grew up seeing first-hand the incredible benefits of adding herbs to her animals diets which boosted their nutritional variety and helped to counteract this. It became a passionate interest for her since age fourteen. Her interest in herbs sprung up from when she watched one of her talented young showjumpers self-medicate on herbs, after he’d suffered a potentially career ending leg injury. Over the next decade she studied extensively into animal herbalism and qualified in traditional herbalism, and thereafter founded Honeyvale Herbs and pioneered registering equine herbal blends with the Department of Agriculture in South Africa in 2003. From there, happy clients soon also requested herbal blends for their dogs, cats and poultry, and the Honeyvale Herbs team expanded in order to meet the demand. Word spread countrywide and abroad, and Jennie was requested to formulate specialist blends for many species; including baboons, elephant, camels, giraffe, buffalo and various types of antelope! Provided the herbal blends are adapted to suit the animals differing physiologies, providing them with a wholefood diet with wide variety (which is increased by adding herbs) is safe and greatly benefits ALL types of life. Later Jennie qualified as an Equine Herbalist and Iridologist in France. Having qualified previously as a Permaculture Design Consultant, it further reinforced how all things need to be kept in balance with each other and working together harmoniously… be it diet, training, environment or medical treatment…the aim is always to provide the body whatever it needs to heal fully and completely, and not just to treat the symptoms. The body is truly incredible at healing itself, provided you feed the organ systems and tissues with what they NEED in order to heal. The Honeyvale Herbs Team spends a great deal of time providing free advice in order to ensure animals are on the most appropriate herbs and best managed in order to facilitate complete healing. Over and over again it’s been an absolute joy to see the transformation in animals who’ve been given a second chance in life to do that – through the incredible healing power of the wide variety of phytonutrients that herbs provide – both safely and effectively!