other mini donk owners...a couple of questions

[WthrLady]

My two girls are not ones to play with toys. I don't know what kind of life they had in the 6 years years before I had them. But they live like princess' here.

They HAVE toys and chews available to them. As you know there is precious little information out there about donkeys beyond the generic. I need specific.

I have full sisters. One is 6 and one is 7. They were over weight when I got them, and are now perfectly balanced and back on track. They see the farrier every 3-4 months depending on growth and wear. I clipped them in May and are growing their winter fluffies nicely.

We have had 9 inches of rain in the past 2.5 weeks. We are muddy. No way around it. As you know donks don't like to be wet or walk in wet, so they are staying inside. One of the buggers has started cribbing. It's like having a 300ish pound beaver.

like I said, they have toys, salt chews, blocks, balls, cones etc. They get fed straw and hay twice a day (pasture if they haul their butts outside). I started them on vitamins and mineral pellets this week in case that was the issue.

So besides cribbing concoctions and sprays, any ideas?

I think they're just bored standing inside watching the alpacas roam their field.

Also, does anyone suppliment hay/straw with commercial pellets , soaked or not?

Straw is hard to find here and $$$$

Keeping alpaca and donkeys together is a royal Pain, I'd like to add. Donkeys want the alpacas delicious high sweet feed. I can't use straw to bed the alpacas as the donkeys will eat it until they explode. I have to keep the donkey minerals away from the alpacas due to the selinium levels.

Just ugh.

OH, and donkeys EAT alpaca poo. :::banging head on keyboard:::

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

I have found donkeys to be super easy. They are hardy and best let outside daily. Donkeys don't really play with toys. Mine do like chewing on wood and eating it.

The rain won't hurt them. Mine get pasture a mixed grass hay during the winter. No rations because they don't need them. Donkeys evolved to eat a lower quality fodder all through the day. Mine graze most of the day. I can't imagine withholding food. It isn't normal.

For mineral we use a cattle mineral block. I think you are over thinking keeping donkeys.

 

[WthrLady]

Thank you. So far I've been doing the same. They can come and go as they please in and out.

It's the destructive wood chewing that needs to stop.

 

[Folly's place]

A couple of my horses like to chew wood (not crib, a different behavior) and they don't like the taste of green oak boards. At least for a few years, green oak is left alone, so consider using that in your run-ins and stalls. It's also possible to cover edges with metal, but be careful that the metal can't be ripped up!
Outside, electric rope or wire keeps them away from any wood fencing or posts.
Mary

 

[Folly's place]

Creosote probably would work too, and I miss it!
Mary

 

[oldhenlikesdogs]

Thank you. So far I've been doing the same. They can come and go as they please in and out.

It's the destructive wood chewing that needs to stop.

Unfortunately my donkeys have always eaten the fences. It's pretty normal for them. You could try the creosote. Donkeys will eat stuff that you would think they wouldn't so they may still chew it but it's worth a try. Electric fencing would definitely keep them off or wrapping the wood in hardware cloth is another option.

 

[Shadrach]

My two girls are not ones to play with toys. I don't know what kind of life they had in the 6 years years before I had them. But they live like princess' here.

They HAVE toys and chews available to them. As you know there is precious little information out there about donkeys beyond the generic. I need specific.

I have full sisters. One is 6 and one is 7. They were over weight when I got them, and are now perfectly balanced and back on track. They see the farrier every 3-4 months depending on growth and wear. I clipped them in May and are growing their winter fluffies nicely.

We have had 9 inches of rain in the past 2.5 weeks. We are muddy. No way around it. As you know donks don't like to be wet or walk in wet, so they are staying inside. One of the buggers has started cribbing. It's like having a 300ish pound beaver.

like I said, they have toys, salt chews, blocks, balls, cones etc. They get fed straw and hay twice a day (pasture if they haul their butts outside). I started them on vitamins and mineral pellets this week in case that was the issue.

So besides cribbing concoctions and sprays, any ideas?

I think they're just bored standing inside watching the alpacas roam their field.

Also, does anyone suppliment hay/straw with commercial pellets , soaked or not?

Straw is hard to find here and $$$$

Keeping alpaca and donkeys together is a royal Pain, I'd like to add. Donkeys want the alpacas delicious high sweet feed. I can't use straw to bed the alpacas as the donkeys will eat it until they explode. I have to keep the donkey minerals away from the alpacas due to the selinium levels.

Just ugh.

OH, and donkeys EAT alpaca poo. :::banging head on keyboard:::

@oldhenlikesdogs is right ime, donkeys chew!
Maybe eight years ago the donkeys here got a new shed, very nice it was too.
I did mention that all the posts and particularly the horizontal rails would get chewed and needed covering......the shed looks a wreck now.

 

[Bunnylady]

The rain won't hurt them.

I'm not sure about this. Mind you, Betsy is only half donkey, and my observations are based mostly on her, but I've been told that she has donkey hair. When I bathe my minis at any time when they aren't summer slick, it takes forever to get the horses wet - they shed water like sheep. Betsy, the mule, wets to the skin with the first pass of the hose. People who raise mini donkeys and mules have told me that this is because the miniature donkey comes from a part of the world where rain is infrequent, so they never developed the rain-resistant coats that are so common on the northern pony breeds (like the Shetland). Mini donkeys can get very fluffy in the winter, but they lack the hard outer coat that sheds water; this is why they hate getting wet. I have occasionally had to deal with rain rot on my animals when we get into really wet periods, so the preference for not getting wet makes sense to me.

Boredom is a big issue in intelligent animals that don't have work to do. We get so involved in giving equines a safe environment that we forget how dull that can be for them. Too often, boredom results in what we consider destructive behavior. Are you familiar with the paddock paradise idea? Basically, it is trying to create a more stimulating environment by moving food, water, and resting places to different areas, meaning that they can't spend their lives just snoozing, munching, slurping, and pooping within the square footage of a jail cell. Doing what you can to break up the area they live in, creating different surfaces to move over and different types of habitat to move through, can help give their minds and bodies something to do besides being destructive. Any training you can do will help, too - miniature donkeys can be driven; just creating an obstacle course to work them through will engage their brains and give them something to channel that energy into.