# Mini Donkey Questions



## Mulefeather

Rather than grass hay, look for good-quality barley straw. Mini donkeys tend to get SUPER fat very easily, and their bodies are meant to squeeze every ounce of nutrition out of very poor forage. Donkeys are extremely easy keepers most of the time, and a pet donkey not in any work shouldn't need much over that. If you need more calories, you can give them grass hay stretcher pellets, with a little corn oil, and many people also give their donkeys a ration balancer. 

As far as psyllium is concerned, I wouldn't worry about it unless you are feeding the donkey off the ground. Again, they're desert animals and very well-suited to dry, arid environments. Even a small hay feeder or a slow-feed net would work well to keep their forage off the ground. If you want to do it just to be safe, that's always an option and as long as they are drinking enough water, it can't hurt. 

There are some different opinions from breeders and big-name folks out there as to a proper donkey diet - try searching on Facebook and there are a LOT of very active donkey groups there.


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## DraftyAiresMum

I think the OP will have a hard time finding barley straw...or any kind of straw that isn't slightly moldy, for that matter. Don't forget, we live in the desert southwest (I'm about two hours north of the OP). If it ain't alfalfa or Bermuda, most folks either don't feed it or don't know what it is. We can get some orchard and timothy up where I am, but it's usually ridiculously expensive. Don't know about where the OP lives, but I'd assume it's even worse.
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## SlideStop

I think your best bet is hay nets (doubling it if you have to!) and exercise. Donkey get ridiculously fat in no time AND I find its much harder to get the weight off of them.
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## ThunderingHooves

In our area Alfalfa and Teft hay is the most common, although bermuda isn't hard to find either. To be honest I have never really heard of the barley straw before. Personally we have always just fed alfalfa, however since mini's are known for getting overweight easily I don't think that will be best for the mini donkey. 

I haven't decided if I should feed him in a hay net or just in a tub. I do have a slow feed hay net that I have used for Jinxx or I have noticed that they make mini hay nets that I might be able to use and double up on, like mentioned. 

Turns out the donkey is coming sooner then I had planned... as in tomorrow. So tomorrow I will have to get a bale of hay and then I will have to put up a temporary pen. I was planning on putting him in with our goats and supervising them. I have read that they can be a bit aggressive and if this is the case I will serperate them. One goat is a big boer wether so I don't think they will have too much of an issue, but like I said I will seperate if I need to. 

Thank you all for your responses so far.


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## nrhagirl09

Congrats! I previously owned 2 mini donkeys and loved them  Make sure to post pictures when you get them!


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## ThunderingHooves

So mini donkey is finally here! Currently have him in the pen we use to separate the goats for feeding. Tomorrow we are going to go get the fencing and finish off the rest of the pen. 

He is super sweet and loves attention. The lady originally named him Banjo, but ended up just calling him Donkey. The name may stay or I might change it. I'm not sure yet. Definitely does need a bit of training, but overall this should be a very fun adventure. 

Here is a pic. He does have a white blaze, but he wanted to be right up with me so it was hard to get a good pic.


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## DraftyAiresMum

Oh, that face!!!
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## thecolorquest

No alfalfa for donkeys. Grass hay, no extra feed except a handful of oats as a training aid... Once fat a donkey is fat pretty much forever, it is far harder to thin down a donkey than a horse.


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## ChitChatChet

Teft hay works well for donkeys. That what I fed our 2 while living in CA for 2 years.


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## ThunderingHooves

I ended up getting him the Bermuda. He seems like he might be just a tad underweight right now, nothing bad though. 

I've found out pretty quickly that he likes to talk.. and he has a pair of lungs on him! I'm sure our neighbors are going to love this. :lol: I've also found out that he likes to nip a bit :icon_rolleyes:

I took him out while I fed the crew and it seems like he hasn't really had much training. From talking to the lady that I bought him from it seems like she didn't really work with him and when she did she kinda babied him. Not a big deal, just something to work on. 

On a side note hopefully with those ears he won't be able to get the fly mask off as easily


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## Mulefeather

Is he gelded? If not, you will want to get him gelded ASAP. Intact jacks tend to bray more than jennets and geldings. If you do wind up having to do so, just be aware that mature jacks need a different procedure for gelding, otherwise they can bleed out. 

If you're interested, there is a great DVD called Training Donkeys by Crystal Ward. Unfortunately Ms. Ward died about two years ago, but the DVD is chock full of information about training donkeys from the ground up. GiddyUpFlix has it if you want to rent it instead of buying it. I own it and it's been a great investment!


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## ThunderingHooves

Yes he is already gelded. Thank you for letting me know about the dvd. I will have to go pick it up. I've been looking around for books, but for some reason never thought to look on giddyupflix..


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## 4HHORSEMOM

Ungelded jacks are also the ones that tend to be aggressive.


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