# Mini Donkeys-how are they?



## Southdown (May 24, 2012)

What are miniature donkeys like?  As a *pet*?  As a guardian?  As an eater/amount of grass it consumes?


----------



## HiddenOaksMoms (May 26, 2012)

Hi there mini donkey wanter.  These little guys are awesome.    Extremely friendly most of the time unless they have been abused.  They can sometime take a long time to overcome any problem that has occurred.  Most of the time they are easy to handle, easy to feed and easy to house.

VETERINARY CARE: Having a good horse vet on hand and one that knows donkeys really well is an absolute must.  Donkeys are very rarely ill and are pretty disease resistant.  However they can have similar issues, like colic and founder and bloat.  Skin issues from lice/mites and scabs from biting persistant insects.  Make sure that their feet are maintained every 5-8 weeks to keep them balanced and healthy.  Yearly innoculations and worming a must.

HOUSING:  A nice weather free , waterproof, barn is the best.  Donkeys do not do well getting soaked in the rain.  They are also suseptible to frost bite on their ears.  Ours wear ears covers in the winter.   Make sure you have proper fencing to keep them in.  Electric is fabulous at knee height and at waist height.  These little ones are smart.  They can get down and crawl under the electric so its important to remember this and put the electric where it will do the best work. Bring them in at night so preditors don't get them.  Yes they deter or even kill coyotes and foxes, however, one little donkey against a pack...........        the outcome is not great.   If you are in an area that does not have preditors, then all the better.

HANDLING: If you are raising a baby, then the earlier they are halter broke and leading and loading is the best.  It is never too early to teach the basics of common manners.  Teach them to stand, be tied, get their feet up off the ground every day, brush them and make sure you touch them EVERYWHERE so they are used to you getting in their face for everything.  You never know when you might have to treat a wound that need daily care.  The more they are handled and taught basic manners the better for the donkey and for you.
If you are starting with an already grown donkey, then start slow and calm and gain their trust and then the rest should be as listed above.  Donkeys are like elephants, they remember who has harmed them or who has loved them and treated them with respect and kindness.  Don't spoil them rotten until they have learned all their manners first.

HANDLING A JACK:  NEVER   NEVER   NEVER, NO MATTER HOW GOOD THEY ARE WITH EVERYTHING ELSE, TAKE YOUR EYES OFF HIM.  They can be unpredictable and SERIOUSLY DANGEROUS.  Having said this, our two jacks are a delight to work with.  This is because they have all the ground manners that they can possibly have.  Taught to them first before we integrated them with the herd.  THEY WILL ALWAYS WANT TO BREED THE MARES.  UNLESS YOU HAVE MINI HORSES, THIS SHOULDN'T CAUSE TOO MUCH OF A PROBLEM IF YOU HAVE TAUGHT HIM TO BEHAVE HIMSELF WITH EVERYTHING ELSE.  We love our jacks and they run loose with our herd of horses.  They alternate with half a day each until I get an 8 foot stallion/jack pen made for each of them.  NEVER  NEVER  put two jacks out together.  They can and most likely will fight each other to the death for the girls.  Preventive maintenance and just being SMART, will save you a lot of heartache and tears   over your jack.  I love my jacks, and I love their personalities.  They are so different from each other, each having a definite and unique personality that is all their own.  They actually have me in stitches most of the time.  They are so funny and such a joy for me. 

FEEDING:    THE MOST IMPORTANT OF ALL IN LOOKING AFTER DONKEYS

                             DONKEYS  ARE  NOT  HORSES  !! !! !!
REMEMBER, Donkeys come from arid, desert like terrain. They subsist on low protein, scrub grass, nettles, dry grass, some pine nuts and needles .  We in this country don't have a lot of those items.  However we can mimick some of them in order to keep our donkeys healthy.  When feeding hay, make sure it is a grassy hay.  Don't feed super rich, clover, alfalfa and other high protein hays. THEY WILL FOUNDER.  THEY WILL GET LAMINITIS. If you have a rich hay, mix it with a good quality straw.  This creates the proper amount of roughage needed to balance the higher protein  of the hay.  We feed ours our regular horse hay for low activity horses, and mix in a flake of straw with it.  They love it and clean it all up and they look wonderful.  Lets face it, we all want to spoil them to bits, me included.  We treat with carrots, dandelions, and horse treats of the exuded/cooked kind.  Sometimes we give them a HANDFUL of sweet feed as they dearly love it so much.  We feed black oil sunflower seeds for their skin and coat and they love them.  Lots of fibre and good oil for skin and hair.  They get a CUP of seeds per day.
Make sure your donkey is in good flesh, not too thin and to see their ribs but certainly not too fat.  Donkeys store fat in their bodies and along their necks.  If they accumulate too much fat on the neck, the actual fat well break and cause an ugly disfigurement.  These breaks of fat tissue , once stored in their bodies is almost always permanent.  You can't fix it.
RULE OF THUMB...............DON'T OVERFEED YOUR DONKEYS.  KILLING THEM WITH KINDNESS IS NOT SMART OR HUMANE. 

I certainly hope this has been of help to you in your research of these wonderful creatures.  We love ours to pieces and would never be without them.  We are actually trying to get a wonderful breeding program going here with our donkeys.  We have our minis, standards and hopefully will be aquiring mammoths soon.  We have our first baby mule on the ground as we speak.  He is 8 weeks old now and he is halter broke, imprinted, leads, ties, loads on a trailer, a ramp and step up version.  He also has had his feet trimmed and our farrier couldn't be happier with his ability at such a young age to do what he is capable of.  When he is ready, he will start his training to be a wonderful riding mule.   It's never too early to teach good stable manners.  Your donkey of any size will love you for it.

ANOTHER NOTE FOR YOU (to add to my novel) please look up on the internet, Meredith Hodges and her mules/donkeys/horses.  She does amazing things with her mules and donkeys.  Trail rides, parades, jumping, and dressage.  She is also an amazing reference guide to learn from for anything you need to know about them.

My sincerest wishes and blessings to you,                 Michele 705-438-8900


----------



## CochinBrahmaLover=) (May 26, 2012)

HiddenOaksMoms said:
			
		

> I certainly hope this has been of help to you in your research of these wonderful creatures.  We love ours to pieces and would never be without them.  We are actually trying to get a wonderful breeding program going here with our donkeys.  We have our minis, standards and hopefully will be *aquiring mammoths soon. *


Sorry, not trying to high-jack your thread but.

Where are you getting the mammoth's from, and PLEASE if your willing to post pictures. I'm doing the mamoth donkey breed page and i NEED more pictures, so if your willing too i would post them on the page and give you credit. 

The reason i ask where your getting them from, (if you have an actual place and not just browsing through places still) is cause I've been e-mailing breeders about info on them and pictures, and new breeder to pester (Joking ) about mammoth's would be great!

Sorry to highjack


----------



## fairview610 (May 27, 2012)

I have a mini donkey running with my goats and absoultely LOVE him! He is a great pet and great with my other animals! I have to agree with HiddenOaks about one taking on a pack, but they are a great deterant. I can turn mine lose in the yard while I am out and he follows me like a dog. I got him when he was real young and had him gelded, and never had a problem with him. Every once in a while he will try ans act like a stubborn donkey but for the most part he is very easy going


----------



## Southdown (May 27, 2012)

How are the minis around trees?  Do they eat the bark and leaves a lot?  Do they do o.k. on pasture grass in the midwest because we do have clover growing in our grass?


----------



## fairview610 (May 27, 2012)

My guy doesn't mess with the trees much unlike the goats. He will eat some leaves if they are easy access, but he will not work hard for them. He will scratch him self on the trees but never saw him mess with the bark.  The ones I have now and have had do great in the pasture, I do have some clover in their yard. He really is more concerned with the grass more so than the trees or clover.


----------



## Genipher (Jul 27, 2012)

I have a question: Do donkeys eat like goats? Would they clear out blackberry bushes, etc or would that be bad for them?


----------



## DellD (Mar 26, 2013)

Miniature Donkeys as guards are not quite big enough to protect other animals.
You should use the Standard size.  Miniature Donkeys make great pets
and are good with kids.  The 30" to 34"  make great cart donkeys and don't 
have a lot of foaling problems.


----------

