# New Donkey Owner (Need Advice)



## EstrellaandJericho (Aug 12, 2017)

Daw! Donkeys I love you them. Getting two in a few months. From what I understand you can leave them a mineral block and hay and they will be fine. They're easy keepers. Welcome!


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## cailynne (Sep 21, 2014)

I have a mammoth jennet, Rosie. All she gets is free acsess to prarie hay and a salt block. I take her to hand graze the new grass and weeds coming up...bonding time, she also gets the odd veggie everyonce and awhile. I also give her leaves to eat and tree branches too.
We feed the other animals an all stock pellet..she only gets a couple handfuls when we do trailer training or if we have to lock her up to keep the gates open for vehicles.


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## horselovinguy (Oct 1, 2013)

Love the donks but don't have any myself,_ yet!_

My understanding is hay should suffice to keep them in good weight.
Plentiful water to drink, salt blocks they can pick to choose to eat what and how much of it.
14% protein feed....no!
My horses do not even eat that much protein.
That is an awful lot of feed for a animal of their size and not doing anything but grazing all day long.
You may even be able to cut out the hay fed as pastures are returning to growth stage as of now.

Me, I would stop the feed completely, or only offer a handful..._just a small handful_ so they learn to come to their names as a reward.
I would far rather see you give a vitamin and mineral ration balancer for equines on pasture than a 14% feed...
I also prefer to feed my equines feed specific to horses not a all-stock mixture.
Many times a all-stock has omitted certain ingredients not able to be eaten by some animals and then some things added that are not the best for our equine animals.
Do not ever feed a ruminant feed to equine animals as some ingredients are deadly even in small amounts!!
*
WELCOME to the Forum!!!*
:runninghorse2:...
_jmo..._


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## horselovinguy (Oct 1, 2013)

OK...to expand some on my comments...

Your pictures show your donks appearing in good weight, still extremely winter coat laden...
Use these pictures as a guide to compare in a few weeks time to deciding the donks are maintaining, gaining or losing weight...then make food changes according to how they are looking.

The field the donks are in not much in grass, pretty sparse is accurate. 
I _would_ feed them that hay possibly 1 piece morning and another at night even though they are out "mowing" till the grass fills in and starts to really grow well.
When we feed "feed" it is important that the animal is fed it everyday so their body digestive enzymes produced are utilized breaking down the food everyday not just haphazardly fed.
So, say instead of a quart of feed fed every other day, feed 1/2 quart every day....I am _not _promoting feeding them the feed though but if you find it needed a daily feeding will work better in the digestive tract.
One of the largest issues of belly sick equines is a feed/grain overload...you are far from that but read a feed bag back and it references feeding everyday....
I know you said pelleted feed but what exactly are you feeding?
Giving that information those with donks will be able to help you better to feed and keep those donks healthy.
Also what kind of hay is it you are feeding?
So many choices and not knowing where you reside the list is overwhelming in choices...
:runninghorse2:...


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## koda2004 (Sep 2, 2017)

Our donkey stays fat and sassy just on free choice hay and grass. She also shares a little bit of 12% sweet feed with the horses although I really don't think she needs it. Before we got her she was living in the wild and looked very healthy with no human care at all.


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## Dustbunny (Oct 22, 2012)

They are adorable!
Personally, I would feed grass hay and no sweet feed, but rather a very small amount of pelleted feed that is low starch and low sugar, and just a handful to start. I always have a salt block available also.
You can always adjust the feed up if they don't maintain weight but it's tough to reverse a bad condition if it occurs.
Welcome to the forum. You will learn a lot here!


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