Home » Pets & Animals » Livestock & Farm Animals » Donkeys

Care and feeding of a pet donkey.

Ranked #3,322 in Pets & Animals, #83,992 overall

What do you do if you don't have enough weeds to feed your donkey?

The donkey in this picture lives in Bulgaria. As far as I can tell, his owner takes him around to various weedy places during the day and he crunches away as fast as possible while his owner cuts more weeds with a scythe and puts them in the cart to be dinner later in the day!

Now, when I saw this, my crafty thought was: "I have a lot of weeds! And I know a lot of other places that are full of weeds! I'll be able to feed a donkey, no problem!"

What I didn't realize is that it takes an incredible number of weeds to feed one donkey for one day. If you think about it, that make sense - after all, the nutrition-calories to volume ratio is pretty low in a handful of grass. Donkeys can't eat a lot of high-calorie food, it would make them sick. So as a donkey-owner it is your responsibility to come up with a huge volume of the low-calorie, low-protein food donkeys should live on.

UPDATE: Jethro, who has been perfectly healthy for 3 years, developed an abscess in his hoof. I'll describe below how to care for a limping donkey.

Me and my donkey Jethro 

Now Jethro has a friend. Friend?

Introducing Superman the dwarf horse.

I got Superman as partial payment for a website I built for Sam Margulies - divorce mediator. Superman is short but he is wide as a barge, he's been overeating for years. He and Jethro have little tussles and Jethro is definitely jealous, but they stand near each other a lot during the day.

Jethro the donkey and Superman the miniature horse eat hay out of the same bathtub

Horse & donkey eating hay out of one bathtub 

In which I answer questions about donkeys and their habits

These are questions googled by people who came to this site.

Since people are finding this lens by asking about the following subjects, I thought I should address them.

"When donkeys stand in the rain"
"My donkey stands out in the rain"


Yes, so does mine. I built him a nice shed, a nice lean-to, and he never stands under either of them. He stands with rain pouring down on him, his only concession that he lowers his ears so the rain won't pour directly onto his brain.

When I built him a third living area, I refused to build another shelter since he won't stand under the ones he has. I just tied up a tarp to some trees. And look! He's standing under it! (It's pouring rain right as I write this and when I just took the picture.)

But usually, I'm sorry to say, he doesn't stand under the tarp either. My conclusion is that donkeys do not mind the rain. He also stands for hours when it's snowing, he stands in sleet and high winds. He just stands there, ears lowered, looking at his nice dry house.



"help my donkeys are obese"
"donkey eating peanut butter"
"liposuction on donkey"
"donkeys and peanut butter"
"can donkeys eat sunflower seeds"


I believe all these queries, from different people, are related. Not only will donkeys eat sunflower seeds and peanut butter, they are fond of wedding cake. And Almond Joy bars. They'll eat pretty much anything vegetarian - except mine won't eat broccoli, he drops it out of his mouth with a contemptuous look in my direction.

That doesn't mean they SHOULD eat peanut butter and wedding cake and candy bars. Then they will need liposuction (see above).



"donkey eat leaves"

That's more like it. Yes, not only do donkeys eat leaves, leaves are good for them. (They are called forbs.) Unlike horses, donkeys like eating the leaves right off your trees and will strip them if they can. Jethro also eats bark and has killed a few trees that way. (Some trees, like red maples, are poisonous to donkeys.)



Any other questions?

Remember - donkeys come from the desert!

They are built to eat scruffy, scratchy food.

Horses originated in a grassy area and they need a "high-quality hay" high-protein hay like alfalfa or clover.

Hay that rich will make donkeys sick. They should get meadow grass or orchard grass or timothy grass or something else which has a protein content not over 10 or 11%

However, donkeys are more picky and fastidious than, say, goats. For instance, it's a myth that donkeys eat thistles. Or anyway, my rather spoiled suburban donkey does NOT eat thistles, he avoids them completely.

And there are an awful lot of things growing in my field that he won't eat. I guess they don't grow in the desert where his ancestors lived...

I have to go out after a while and weed-whack down all the undesirable weeds. Then, it's amazing to see how he's gotten his prehensile, agile lips all the way down between the unwanted vegetation to nip his favored items right down to the ground.

Don't forget water and salt!

Your donkey needs lots of water, maybe 13 gallons a day, and he's probably picky about it. Jethro would rather be thirsty than drink stagnant water (don't ask how I know). So be sure to change the water every day, and keep the container clean.

If your donkey needs salt or minerals, he will start licking chairs and rocks! Be sure to keep a salt block or mineral block where he can get it. Keep it out of the rain or it won't last very long.

Warning: donkeys will eat as much as you let them.

Be careful or your little ass will look like he swallowed a watermelon sideways.

You really can't leave your donkey in lush pasture all the time, or let him eat as much as he wants, because left to his own devices, he will never stop eating. I have seen some donkeys so fat I don't understand how they can walk.

Obese donkeys get "fallen crests" - the wad of fat under their manes falls over - and that can never be reversed. Well, until somebody is willing to do liposuction on donkeys. Wait, if you pay enough, you can probably get somebody to do that right now, never mind...

Jethro waits patiently for his breakfast

He is doing "donkey yoga" designed to draw me out of the house by psychic magnetism

This picture illustrates several important points about feeding a donkey in suburbia.

  1. Everything in his corral is dead. Donkeys are restless, insatiable feeders. If permitted, they will eat everything down to the ground as quickly as possible. Then they will roam around looking for any blade of grass which has grown 1/8 inch since the last time they went by, and they will munch that blade down flush to the ground.

    They will also eat all the leaves off any tree which is not poisonous or distasteful to them, and then strip the bark. So a lot of the trees will die too.

    The only way to avoid this is to have a huge amount of space and practice very strict rotational grazing (see below). Otherwise, you'll have to have a designated area where the donkey hangs out, and expect it to end up looking like this. Then the donkey can have "field trips" into the areas that have grass, eat up, and then be returned to the corral.

  2. There is a tarpaulin strung up to keep the hay dry. I built my donkey TWO nice shelters out in the field but he won't stand under them when it's raining, he prefers to stand in the rain.

    However, shelter is critical for keeping his food in decent condition. It's not so much that his CURRENT dinner will get ruined - he eats it too fast for that - but you don't want it to be all muddy (or snowy) where you leave the food next time!

  3. His trailer is part of his corral. Donkeys and horses are notorious for disliking "loading" (getting themselves up into their traveling carts). The best way to get them over this phobia is to feed them in their trailers. Jethro loves his trailer now and hops right into it happily, and he can back out of it, or stand halfway in and halfway out. To think I originally thought he'd need a ramp! Hah!

  4. He's hungry and waiting for breakfast. I took this picture three minutes ago from my bedroom window. He stands there, starting about 6 am, and stares in the window waiting for me to get up. When he sees me stir, he gives a big honking "GOOD MORNING, IT'S BREAKFAST TIME!"

    Feeding your big animal is a big responsibility. Morning and night, day in and day out, you have to provide a whole lot of food.

The grass in your yard and "found" food in the neighborhood

This first section will describe managing the fresh food available for your donkey.

You probably have an empty lot or two, or neighbors with too many weeds, right in your neighborhood...

Donkeys LOVE crabgrass, for instance.

This is a picture of a Bulgarian donkey eating his own weeds out of his own cart. He and his owner go around the neighborhood cutting weeds and putting them in the cart. Then they take them home and the donkey eats them. As in "Blueberries for Sal," sometimes he must take a Tremendous Mouthful.

My neighbors cheerfully volunteered their weeds when they met Jethro as we went on our daily walks. Trouble is, I can't go away and leave him to munch at their houses, I have to stay with him while he eats. That gets a little boring. I guess I could take a book. You can also use a hobble, but still, I wouldn't leave him alone at somebody's empty lot!

You can't leave a donkey tied by his harness, but a tether is ok.

Never, never leave your donkey tied somewhere outside of your eyesight if there's any grass around. Donkeys are surpassingly stupid about their ropes. I tied Jethro to a post to clean his hooves and then realized I'd left the hoofpick in the house. I walked into the house and by the time I got back he had managed to get himself completely hog-tied and was lying on the ground immobilized, with all his legs tangled into a knot. It's a good thing he trusts me, I was able to get him untangled without either of us getting hurt even though he was in a panic.

A safer way to leave him for a BRIEF time is to hobble him. Put a hobble around one hoof, attach it to a chain, and attach the chain to a very heavy duty corkscrew dog tether. He can't tangle himself up that way, and as long as there's grass in the vicinity, he won't want to get away.

Food you buy for your donkey

This section will describe hay - where to find it and how to select the right stuff to buy.

How to get eighteen bales of hay in a little-bitty pickup truck.

I learned this trick from Frankye Brooks

Frankye runs Natural Horsemanship Only and she sold me the hay Jethro liked best of all the kinds we've tried! She lives pretty close by and so I can go pack 18 bales on my truck and save the delivery charge. Here's how to do it...

Stacking hay in a pickup truck.

Hay bales have three dimensions, they're usually 15 x 20 x 40 inches.

First, lower your tailgate. Then:

  1. Put three bales in the truck bed, squeezed between the wheel wells, the 15" sides down.
  2. Put two bales on top of those three bales, with the 20" side down and part of each bale sticking over the edge of the bales below.
  3. Put one more bale on top of those two bales, straddling the center. That's six bales.
  4. Repeat steps 2 and 3. Now the original 3 bales are completely covered, and you've loaded nine bales.
  5. Repeat steps 1-4 and you've got 18 bales in your truck.
Refer to the photo above and it will all make sense. Don't drive too fast.

Can you get a big round bale of hay in a little Toyota pickup truck?

Yes, you can! A 4x5 bale WILL fit in your truck.

Getting a round bale of hay in a small pickup truck.

Get the guy with the frontloader to put the bale in so you can roll it out at your destination (this guy wanted to put it in the other way, sideways, how would we ever have gotten it out???

He says this bale has as much hay in it as about 17 of the rectangular bales. How expensive is a round bale of hay? Well, I paid $35 for this one, which has been under cover. 17 similar rectangular bales would probably have cost me $85.

Success!

This round bale will be a lot less convenient than the square bales, though...

Can I get a big round bale of hay into a small pickup truck?

It was cheaper, no question. BUT I couldn't get it in my shed - I had to put it in the lean-to. And it will be more of a mess getting it pulled apart for each meal!

Breakfast time for Jethro

Please click on each picture for some info.

First, at the house I scrounge up some treats (banana peels, orange rinds, apple cores, etc) and then half-fill a bit peanut butter jar with "sweet feed," in this case, "Reliance Horse Feed" available at Southern States. Try to get one with 10-11 percent protein and not more.

First, at the house I scrounge up some treats (banana peels, orange rinds, apple cores, etc) and then half-fill a bit peanut butter jar with "sweet feed," in this case, "Reliance Horse Feed" available at Southern States. Try to get one with 10-11 percent protein and not more.

First, at the house I scrounge up some treats (banana peels, orange rinds, apple cores, etc) and then half-fill a bit peanut butter jar with "sweet feed," in this case, "Reliance Horse Feed" available at Southern States. Try to get one with 10-11 percent protein and not more.
This is the little shed where I keep his hay. I bought it cheap on Craigs List and had it hauled to my house on skids on a wrecker.
See, it's full of hay!
I have a hanging scale to weigh the hay, because some hay is fluffy and some is compact and he should be getting 10 percent of his body weight morning and night. He weighs about 550 pounds so I try to give him 5-1/2 pounds of food for breakfast and dinner. He would eat as much as I would give him.

Jethro gets his breakfast

Jethro gets fed
by PratieHeads | video info

1 rating | 603 views
curated content from YouTube

Some good donkey treats

Other than his usual treats - horse "sweet feed," orange peels, and banana skins - here are some things Jethro has particularly enjoyed:

Any kind of vegetable except broccoli
Peanut butter sandwiches with or without jelly
Watermelon rinds
Sunflower seeds!
Popcorn (popped or unpopped)
Lemon rinds
Lime rinds
Any kind of cookie
Failed wedding cake

If your donkey or horse steps on something sharp that punctures the bottom of his hoof, he may develop an abscess.

My donkey was limping. Diagnosis: hoof abscess

How to treat a donkey's limp

Abscess in hoof causes limpingJethro has been completely healthy since I got him a few years ago, but two days ago he suddenly began to favor a hoof. He was clearly protecting it from pain. I picked the dirt out (you should pick your donkeys' hooves every day) and didn't see anything. Pressure on the hoof itself didn't make him flinch, but pressing on the pad did. So I thought maybe he'd been stung by a wasp or bitten by a snake.

The next day, there was no swelling (which I would expect from a bug bite or a snake bite) but he was still limping so I called the farrier. He came out early this morning.

He cut away part of Jethro's hoof and found a puncture up into the hoof which was infected. He opened the hole to let it drain out. He even pressed on it with his other tool to express all the pus. The pus was a little brown - he says at first the pus is clear, so it's probable the problem began even earlier but we didn't notice it.

Now to take care of the wound while it heals he recommends:
  1. Dissolve epsom salts in hot water and put in a tub or pail. Have the donkey stand with the infected foot in the pail for twenty minutes a couple times a day.

  2. Turn the hoof upside down and let iodine run into the wound, then soak some cotton balls in iodine and use hoof wrap to keep them on the hole. Put duct tape around the hoof wrap.

He says I should do this for four days. Eeks!

Epsom salts - to soak the hoof in after treatment

Epsom Salt 16 Oz

Epsom Salt 16 Oz

Amazon Price: $1.60 (as of 05/31/2012)Buy Now

Dissolve epsom salts in a low bucket of hot water and soak your equine's foot while he eats. 20 minutes was recommended to me.

My friend feeds treats to the donkey as we make him stand in the hot water and epsom salts.

It's important to clean deep inside the puncture hole after the pus is gone.

Soak your horse or donkey foot in epsom salts and hot water.

For twenty minutes we fed Jethro tiny bits of sweet feed to keep him in one place while his foot soaked. His hoof needed to get clean before I swabbed it with iodine.

Hoof wrap is the same as equine bandage or vet wrap

Good for keeping medicine on a hoof

3M Vetrap Bandage Tape, 4

3M Vetrap Bandage Tape, 4" x 5 Yard Roll, Purple

Amazon Price: $1.69 (as of 05/31/2012)Buy Now

My veterinarian described this as "the cheap kind of Ace bandage" and suggests putting duct tape OVER the horse wrap, to keep it attached.

Next, clean the hoof, then soak cotton balls in iodine and cram them next to the hole.

Use vet wrap to keep your cotton balls in place, then use duct tape to protect the vet wrap.

Hoof wrapped in vet wrap with iodine on cotton balls saturating the wound.

It was very helpful to have my friend Paul there helping me!

Iodine - old-fashioned remedy still recommended for cleaning abscess wounds

SOLUTION, PREP, POVIDONE IODINE, 1 PINT

SOLUTION, PREP, POVIDONE IODINE, 1 PINT

Amazon Price: $15.69 (as of 05/31/2012)Buy Now

The farrier says, try to pour some of this up into the hole after the abscess has been opened, and then put some on cotton balls and wrap in hoof wrap. You can use iodine from the drug store but it comes in a pretty small container.

A boot to hold medication on your horse foot or donkey foot

Cleverly called "hoof wrap" like the bandage...

I think it wouldn't hurt to think ahead and buy one of these BEFORE you need it. Then, when your animal suddenly develops a problem, you have a way to keep the wound clean and the medication in place.
Loading

My other donkey lens... and welcome Superman the miniature horse!

Loading

What do you think?

  • virtuallymike Nov 29, 2011 @ 6:14 pm | delete
    Thanks so much for the information. It is helpful for novices like me. We got our first rescue donkey a few months ago (kind of unexpectedly), and fell in love with her right away. In about a week we will be getting 3 more (mini-donkeys) to keep her company. Look her up on Facebook by searching for Karma Acres Farm.
  • Andree Parker Jan 22, 2011 @ 12:11 pm | delete
    My friend's 3 donkeys never seem to eat hay but straw and grass. They love all sorts of vegetable and fruit peels. I discovered that all 3 love pineapple, they go crazy when I brling them some of the peels also they love melons but Herby loves leeks ouch.
  • NJS Oct 3, 2010 @ 4:40 pm | delete
    My donkey was favoring one leg last week, there was no swelling, now he is not favoring that leg at all and is favoring a different leg which also has no swelling. What could be the reason for this? Can anyone help me please? Thanks!!
  • Robbie Sep 6, 2010 @ 5:43 pm | delete
    Thanks so much for the information. I just found out our donkey Valentine has an abcess. This information is invaluable to a real novice like me. I thought he broke his leg. The Farrier cleaned it and started it draining today. I'm trying to figure out how I will be able to accomplish the remainder of these things myself. None the less I thank you. X-Carolinian now in Texas
  • Robin Washburn Jul 24, 2010 @ 1:18 pm | delete
    Beware: Avocado can be deadly to donkeys.
  • Load More
Show All

Some of my other lenses

Loading

by

ChapelHillFiddler

Musician in Chapel Hill with two bands: Mappamundi, a world music - klezmer - swing band, and the Pratie Heads, a Celtic - British Isles - early music... more »

Feeling creative? Create a Lens!

Explore related pages

Related Tags