My donkey Jethro
Ranked #1,741 in Pets & Animals, #46,019 overall
Life with a big, opinionated donkey.
Nobody believes it when I say I have a pet donkey. Donkeys are rare and unpopular pets, at least where I live (Chapel Hill, North Carolina). I haven't seen another donkey closer than 45 minutes away. Jethro has not seen another donkey since he came to live with me. All his friends are dogs, people, or chickens.
I had to make twenty phone calls over the course of a few weeks to locate somebody with a standard donkey for sale. I finally located him - he was living in Iredell County, a couple hours west of here.
The first time I saw Jethro, at the very moment I got out of my car and watched him having a little disagreement with his then-owner Craig far off in the field - at that moment, I knew from his bearing that he had a poor attitude and was a proud and capricious beast (Jethro, that is, not Craig).
On the other hand, I innocently imagined that living with me would cause his disposition to mellow. How could I be so wrong? It doesn't work with guys, why should it work with a donkey?
My daughter came with me the second time I visited my future donkey and she took this picture. Jethro was in a very bad mood because - on my request - he had recently been gelded. He wasn't inclined to be friendly.
However, when Craig gave me a bucket of "sweet feed" to use as a bribe, Jethro deigned to come towards me and we began to make friends. Jethro's sweet tooth is a major stake-holder in his brain.
Over time I have come to realize Jethro's character is exactly the opposite of what you're looking for in a donkey. Brave and obedient: five stars. Cowardly and bossy: fail. That's Jethro. Oh well, I love him the way he is.
OK, you kibitzers, rest easy! Jethro now has a "friend."
Or is Superman an annoying younger cousin he wishes would go home!?
I tie Superman's lead line to Jethro's bridle and we promenade through the neighborhood. Superman (who lives to eat) has figured out that if he hustles ahead on his little legs he can grab a bite of grass by the side of the road and munch it as Jethro and I walk past and then, when he's at the end of his rope, he trots forward again and repeats the process. This irritates Jethro.
Why did I get a donkey?
Everybody asks me that. I was in Bulgaria with my daughter, watching these guys amble down the road in their rickety home-made donkey carts. They were passing the day going along stealing weeds by the side of the road for their donkeys' dinners. My two thoughts were: (1) "I don't need to live any faster than that;" and (2) "I know some great places to steal weeds." That's how I knew it was going to happen, I was going to own a donkey.
Donkeys of Bulgaria
Pictures I took when I visted Bulgaria in 2007. That's when I decided to be a donkey-owner.
This donkey was spotted in a gypsy village.
Jethro takes a dirt bath
I didn't know that donkeys hate to be clean. He paws the ground to make some dust and then - rolls.
He makes little grunting noises just after he scratches up the dirt and as he heads for the ground.
Things Jethro was afraid of when we first went on walks. He still doesn't like them with one exception (see next module).
Where donkeys come from, they are dinner, and they still think they're everybody's favorite meal. Therefore most things look like predators to them.
Strollers with babies
One thing Jethro once feared but now loves: recycling bins
I started making Jethro go over and look at the recycling bins, and he started sniffing them, and then he discovered something: they have beer bottles in them. Jethro LOVES beer. If I let him, he will always suck on them and if possible he picks them up hoping to get a few precious drops.
I have Jethro merchandise for sale at Zazzle
Wonderful searches which brought people here this week...
Donkey enthusiasts are wonderful people
why is my goat walking sideways
beautiful fat woman and horse and donkey picture
why don't own a donkey
chicken for my donkey
“Did you know a donkey can hear another donkey hee-haw from seven miles away?”
Work I've tried to get Jethro to do (with informative captions).
The biggest problem is, he doesn't necessarily stop when I yell STOP.
My friend Bob (he's the other half of my British Isles duo the Pratie Heads) built this collar for Jethro out of hickory. I'll do a module on it later.
Some things your donkey needs
Tip #1 about donkey training
You must discourage the bad THOUGHT. Don't wait until your donkey has bolted or bitten you! Watch his ears and know the "bad" positions. If he lowers his head - or raises it intently - he may be having a "bad" or frightened thought. Deal with it while it's a thought! 550 pounds in motion - too late!
How the "fertile crescent" turned into a desert.
Jethro did it to our place, too.
They say if you have an acre of pasture you can keep two donkeys on it. So you'd think half an acre would suffice for one donkey. Not so unless your grass is very lush and you know how to do rotational grazing. This is a picture of "overgrazed" land but it's not my place.What happened here: I got Jethro in October after a summer of terrible drought. Where he had been living, there wasn't a scrap of green to be seen, it was like a desert. When he saw the green grass at his new place, he went crazy. He ate 24 hours a day until it was all gone, I was too dumb to stop him. Then, since it was still a drought and the grass wasn't going, he went around checking every blade of grass in every inch of his pasture. Whenever it grew 1/64 of an inch, he would eat that 1/64th of an inch. Consequence: his new pasture was soon a desert.
It took me a year to get the grass growing there again.
Now, he lives in three separate areas. The pasture he wrecked which is coming back. A pasture which adjoins that one, but is further from the house, so he can't monitor our activities, and he hates that. We call that pasture "Siberia."
Then, there's the area where he spends most of his time. It is a long area directly across from the house. He has reduced it to a wasteland, but he can see everything that's going on inside the house. When we get up in the morning, he hears my son and me if we talk or turn on the water or walk from room to room, and he brays. It could be, "good morning!" or it could be "get my hay!," it's probably both.
Stuff for feeding your donkey
You can't buy "sweet feed" on the internet either - that's low-protein (the cheapest) horse food. Again, if it's too high protein it will make a donkey sick, ask at your local Southern States or horse supply store for their cheapest, low protein stuff.
Rotational Grazing
How to keep your donkey (or cow or goat or sheep) from turning your place into a desert.
The idea is, instead of your animal roaming all over the place ruining everything, he eats everything in the small area thoroughly. He eats his favorite stuff first, of course, but then - theoretically - he eats the less-favored plants too. He doesn't have time to go again and again to chew on the last 1/64 inch of his favorite plants, thereby killing them.
When he's had "first bite" on everything in the area, then you move the fence and move him. That gives the first area a chance to rest and regrow. If you have enough land to do this, eventually the grass in the first area is good again and he goes back in there.
If you don't have enough land to cover all his needs, then you need an area you can let him turn into a desert, and he lives on hay while he's there and the other land is growing back.
UPDATE: For more on feeding your donkey properly, see my other donkey lens, How to keep a donkey in the suburbs.
Having fun with your donkey and a clicker.
The idea is: I have treats in a fanny pack and a clicker in my hand. The clicker is an instantaneous sign to Jethro that he's done the right thing and a treat is coming. The reason the clicker is so helpful: animals don't have very long memories and a quick click helps them make the connection between their actions to the "good job" idea. It takes a little longer to fish out some fruit loops from the fanny pack.
The first thing is, don't let your animal "mug you" for treats. Donkeys are very focused on rewards and will rush you unless you train them not to.
The main thing I use clicker training for is to get Jethro over his various unreasonable fears, for instance getting into his trailer or letting me put fly-spray on him.
Other people train their equids to walk sideways, or rotate on pedestals, or all kinds of things (see youtube for some ideas).
Donkeys are extremely focused on treats...
From the donkey list: "My daughter thought it would be fun to try jumping our mule (half-donkey) and the mule was willing, and she clicked just as the mule was over the jump. Murry came down instantly, straddling the pole, wanting the treat! I don't know how Murry did that, it was out of a canter, there was forward momentum. .."
Clicker training a donkey: links
- Clicker Training Nino The Mule
- Clicker Training Nino The Mule
- ClickRyder--Clicker Training for Horses, Mules, Donkeys
- Clicker Training for Horses. You can become your horse's best trainer--easy to learn, no equipment necessary.
- Clicker Training Little Man (Donkey)
- This blog chronicles, in great detail, one owner's work calming a donkey who had previously been abused.
- DonkeyClick | Yahoo! Groups
- Wow! A Yahoo group devoted to training donkeys with clickers. Very helpful folks.
Stuff for clicker-training your donkey
Donkey treats
- Cookies
- Orange, grapefruit, and lemon rinds, with or without the fruit
- Banana peels, with or without the bananas
- Peanut butter crackers
- Watermelon and cantelope rind
- Pears, apples, grapes
- Froot Loops
- Failed wedding cake (see bake your own wedding cake, page two)
- celery, parsley, and of course
- carrots
I loved this book: "Travels with My Donkey: One Man and His Ass on a Pilgrimage to Santiago"
This is a picture of Tim Moore, a very funny travel writer, with Shinto, the donkey he bought or rented to carry his gear while he walked across northern Spain with oddball fellow travelers on a centuries-old pilgrimage. Everything he said about Shinto is right. I read this before I got Jethro and it cracked me up completely.
Two books about guys on long walks with opinionated donkey companions
DIY! Make your own donkey gear.
Use Brian Beck's instructions for pack saddle, harness, and other fun toys for donkeys.
As you know from my other lenses, I'm a big "do it yourself" type, so I was willing to spring for the money and send away for Brian Beck's book on a cd; it's called Make Your Own Working Donkey Harness and Gear. See next module for info, because Beck does not have a website.The cd costs AUD$49.00 including shipping and handling and has clear instructions, illustrations, patterns, and dimensions for donkey gear used in training, packing, riding, snigging and driving. It has full instructions for making a pack saddle, including the "Equine Back Profiler System" and swivel bars to ensure the shape and angle of the bars can be exactly fitted to an individual animal. Kate and Brian Beck can be reached by email at brian-kate@bigpond.com. See their description of the cd book below.
Visit (unrelated to above) Wildex.com: good pictures and an exploration of donkey pack saddles for explanation of the packsaddle gear and terminology.
The picture is of a pack saddle rig built using Beck's instructions by Allen Threadgate: Make Your Own Pack Saddles And Get Started Trekking With Donkeys. Allen writes:
One knows that if you own one donkey then this donkey attracts other donkeys and if you are not careful you will eventually own a whole string of donkeys. (To cut a long story short ) We finished up owning three donkeys. Three is a good number to take trekking as they can carry all your gear plus a bottle of port.
Working Donkey Gear CD from Brian Beck
Australia seems to be the teeming hub for people trekking with donkeys.
Since the picture isn't searchable or cut-and-pastable, here's the text (note change of email address):
The designs on this CD include driving harness, donkey cart, donkey dray, pack saddle tree, packsaddle, pack saddle bags and other packing accessories, snigging gear (pulling a sled etc.), sled and accessories, riding saddle, long-reining gear, bridle, halter, martingale drop noseband and a 'Donkey Back Profiler System' for shaping the pack saddle and riding saddle for any particular donkey. Available from Kate and Brian Beck, 3204 Ipswich Boonah Road, Boonah, Qld, Australia, 4310. Phone 07/5463-5106. Email: brian-kate@bigpond.com $49.00 Australian includes post and packaging.
Mr. Beck accepts PayPal and will answer questions via email (he answered me via bpdexters@spiderweb.com.au).
I have built a few things from Brian's cd and am very satisfied with it. Totally worth the money. You'll need to find some strong polyester webbing (though he also gives instructions for using leather); I bought mine on the web.
Donkey resources on the web
- How to Care for a Donkey - wikiHow
- Yahoo group: Clicker-training the donkey
- Fabulous information from very knowledgeable people.
- Yahoo group: Donkey Burro Packing
- The guy who runs this group is a riot and regularly takes his donkeys out on the trail. I'd love to do it with Jethro but he broke his trailer so he isn't going anywhere.
- Yahoo group: Donkey and Mule info
- Email list for the exchange of information about donkeys and mules, run by Vicki Abbott who knows everything about donkeys.
- Vicki Abbott's Donkey Training Information and more
- This might be the best resource out there. She knows everything
- Yahoo group: Donkeys
- This one is so chatty I had to stop getting its mail in my inbox, but if you want a sense of what life is like with donkeys (most subscribers have more than one), this is the place.
- Harnessing Guidelines for Single Donkey Carts
- I poured over this article many times. I do take Jethro driving but I didn't make his gear myself. This articles shows practical gear for developing countries, where using donkey power can really make an economic difference.
- Let's Drive Our Donkeys
- Teaching your donkey to drive - part one of four
- Rotational Grazing
- This publication introduces the concept of rotational grazing for livestock, managing stocking rates to improve forage.
- The Proper Diet for Donkeys: A dietary Guidline for Optimum Health
- Donkeys need to be on a low protein and high fiber diet. If donkeys are fed the wrong diet, they can develop severe health problems and even die.
- A Donkey Diary
- I continue to be amazed and enchanted by donkeys, since I got my first two in May, 2002. I'm not sure why! I mean, why not llamas or pot bellied pigs for instance? For awhile I thought maybe it was because of some connection to an ancient time, a past life, a wandering through desert lands ... maybe I knew a donkey way back, maybe the donkey and I shared some amazing experiences ...?
... it hasn't always been easy! I've been kicked, bitten, knocked over, jerked around, bullied and intimidated sometimes. Stepped on... did I mention "stepped on?" Other times I have been charmed and amused, delighted and totally absorbed...
To send me an email click the "contact" button:
The 2010 "Surrounded by Asses" calendar.
Somebody sent me this link! It's a tired old joke but the pics are funny.
You can visit the calendar site.
Donkeys in children's books by Katherine Dunn
and one by Nancy Munger...
Somebody wandered over to my site here looking for "donkey goat low-hanging fruit." I got curious about that, so I googled it. I didn't find any fruit, and in fact this goat looks like a sheep to me, but I think maybe this book illustration is what they were looking for. It's from a book called "Farm Holiday" or "Holiday Tree," by Katherine Dunn.Katherine Dunne also wrote "Grandmere Mouse," with this picture of a cute donkey and mouse:
This one is from her "Pie Party" -
Here's one from the book Donkey by Nancy Munger:
From the children's book "Political Circus" by Brian Ajhar
My other animal lenses
Finally Jethro has a four-hooved companion.
I gave in to peer pressure and found him a friend: "Superman" the miniature horse.
Sam Margulies, the best divorce mediator in Greensboro, gave me Superman as partial payment for the website I built him. Superman is astoundingly fat (you can't tell from this picture but he's as wide as he is tall) and very peaceful, but he has stood up to Jethro's bullying very well. He was living with several huge horses, so he knows how to take care of himself and competes very effectively (obviously) for resources. I'm glad Jethro is not an only child any more.
Some of my other lenses
Comments? Or do you have a question about owning a donkey?
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Paperclip
Feb 26, 2012 @ 7:56 pm | delete
- Jethro is a very handsome fella. Donkeys are wonderful creatures. I absolutely love them. I have 3 mules myself and no donkeys at present. Longears teach a lot about yourself. Great lens.
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Lindrus
Feb 16, 2012 @ 3:46 pm | delete
- What a great lens! Donkeys have so much personality - and though they can be both self-willed and grouchy, they are still adorable! Understand that you came to like donkeys in Bulgaria, they have donkeys all over there. Thumbs up to your lens!
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Sarah
Jul 22, 2011 @ 5:28 pm | delete
- What a cutie! I rather adore the long eared ones myself. There is a half mini, half standard, very round, donkey that lives just a few miles from you in Durham at the Museum of Life and Science. His name is Lightning, he's almost 13 years old and his personality seems similar to Jethro's. Lightning gets tons of enrichment, training and long walks daily(as well as many games of fetch and tug-of-war with jolly balls) but he has retained every ounce of his donkey personality. I should know, I'm the one training him! I'm happy to know there's another donk not so very far away. Do you have favorite games to play with Jethro or favorite tricks he's learned?
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MamaBelle
Jun 14, 2011 @ 10:33 am | delete
- I love Jethro! I wish I could have a pet donkey, they seem like such cool pets.
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Beas
Mar 9, 2011 @ 7:55 am | delete
- Wonderful lens this is! Great topic and story, interesting and fun facts, beautiful photos. I like it a lot! Oh and your donkey loves beer, what a magnificent animal. I want one too!
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