Sustenance Herbs

Joyce Belcher is a certified herbalist who spent years studying under respected teachers — Amanda McQuade Crawford and David Winston among them — before she started blending supplements for animals. In 2008, she launched Sustenance Herbs from Kittery, Maine, with a simple idea: apply the same principles of traditional herbal medicine that work for people to the dogs, cats, and horses living alongside them. The company operates under Herbs for Life, Inc., and Joyce still formulates and produces every product.

Each blend is handcrafted in small batches at their Kittery facility. Joyce sources certified organic herbs and designs formulas to support specific aspects of animal wellness — joint health, digestion, skin and coat condition, calming, immune function. The ingredient lists are clean and readable. No synthetic fillers, no artificial preservatives, no mystery powders. If you flip over a bottle, you'll see plants you can look up and understand.

Sustenance Herbs holds the National Animal Supplement Council (NASC) Quality Seal, which means the facility has passed a rigorous independent audit covering manufacturing processes, labeling accuracy, and adverse event reporting. Not every pet supplement company goes through that process. The ones that do take the work seriously.

What separates Sustenance Herbs from the bigger pet supplement brands is the depth of herbalist knowledge behind each formula. Joyce isn't a marketing team picking trendy ingredients — she's a practitioner who understands how botanicals interact, what dosages are safe for different species, and which traditional uses hold up under scrutiny. That expertise shows up in thoughtful product design. The Joint & Mobility blend, for instance, combines turmeric, devil's claw, and yucca root — herbs with documented anti-inflammatory properties — rather than throwing glucosamine at the problem and calling it done.

The company ships nationwide from its Kittery location and maintains a retail presence in independent pet stores across New England. Joyce lives in Kittery with her husband and their two poodles, Aja and Darius, who serve as willing product testers.

Products

• Herbal joint and mobility supplements for dogs
• Digestive support blends for dogs and cats
• Calming herbal formulas
• Skin and coat support supplements
• Immune support blends
• Equine herbal supplements
• Topical herbal preparations

Why We List Them

• Founded and operated by certified herbalist Joyce Belcher since 2008
• NASC Quality Seal — independently audited facility
• Handcrafted in small batches in Kittery, Maine
• Certified organic herbs with transparent ingredient sourcing
• No synthetic fillers or artificial preservatives
• Species-specific formulas based on traditional herbal medicine expertise