Livestock Gaurd Donkey

[jackcreekcoyles]

I am on the lookout for a yearling gelding donkey (is that even the right way to say it??) in South Western Montana....I don't even know where to begin looking. Any advice would be greatly appreciated! We would also consider a rescue if he was a good fit for our small nubian herd. Thanks!

 

[goodhors]

You might check with the BLM to get one of their donkey's caught in the wild. I would suggest a jenny over a gelded one. Seem to be more successful, not want to "play with" the small animals and hurt them. Females are more business-like, where geldings are more playful, use excess energy being rough.

You can ask about temperment, to get a more cooperative one.

Do be careful, donkeys can be VERY fast with kick, need lots of working with to cooperate. And if they bite, they REALLY mean business.

Not all donkey's make the perfect guard animal. Some just don't have the right temperment. Others are superb. I know about 4 donkey's from BLM that are excellent sheep guardians, all jennies. And they have tamed up for being handled, cooperated pretty well in leading around. They are NOT ridden, just pet/guardians. They stand about 12-13 hands tall, so big enough to take on a fair sized dog or two. Minis are just too small to do a good job with larger dogs.

 

[llrumsey]

I have a regular size donkey female, daisy mae, very lovable but she likes to bite the goats to make them squeel sometimes, she also likes to carry my chickens around by their tail feathers so I have very bare butted chickens until they learned to watch out for her.

She is an excellent watch animal, she has even dug up a mole and killed it while I was watching.

I also have a minature gelding, he is very lovable but also very quick with his hind legs, I accidently put him in the pasture with my goats not knowing that one of the does had, had her baby he immediatly killed it by swinging it back and forth and stomping on it. I was sick because I was there and couldnt get to the baby soon enough, so back into the other pasture he went, later I had another baby get into the pasture with him, I still havent figured out how that happened and I found her dead the next morning. Her little body was so broken up.

I thought about getting rid of him but my companion said it wasnt his fault because he was doing his job, they were new animals in the pens that he didnt know belonged there. So if it had been a dog or other varmit he would have killed it.

You might check into McRobert's game farm, they are selling alot of there animals off, Walter is just what is called pet quality. Nothing special about him, he is just a real lovable burro.

 

[Genipher]

I know this is an older post, but I just had to say that the comment about the donkey carrying the chickens around by their tail feathers had me laughing out loud! I'd LOVE to see a picture of that!