Advice On Donkeys

[cletus99]

Most have probably read my thread on our goats being killed. We're considering a donkey to keep our livestock safe. I'm looking for everyone's inputs on raising a donkey. I know to get a Jenny. What do we need to look for when purchasing a donkey? How young or old? Health issues to look for before buying? I see ads around here all the time for people selling real cheap or even giving away donkeys for free. This makes me ask the question why, is something wrong with it. Why so cheap or free? So what do I need to know before getting one? Thanks for your advice.

 

[lockhaven]

free donkeys and horses are not inferior many people think of them as pets and want a good home only. If the animal looks healthy as in well fed and is in a clean environment it could be the best you could get. One thing to be sure of is why the people are getting rid of it, it could be nasty as in biting or kicking. You should have a vet check for equine virus's and also take a close look at the feet. Long curled up ridge lined feet are a sign of founder, a farrier could determine this for sure.
As far as a guard, none better. A friend has one for her sheep, dogs beware.

 

[rsallen]

Are burros as good?
I think there's many that have been captured from the wild in need of homing.

As a dog person I don't know squat about burros or donkeys.

 

[foreman Etexas]

Free cause not worth the feed for most. I have watched donkeys watch coyotes chase a calve around pasture,i ended up chasing them off,i told the landowner next time i seen him,he said yeah great guard dogs they are,my wifes animals. My in-laws have lambs,they use the big white dogs,never had one killed in 20 years, they also have 4 worthless donkies,folks have dropped off,cause she thinks they are cute. Go with the K-9...

 

[buickanddeere]

Donkey has to have a bond with the other herd animals or they don't care. They don't chase coyotes because they don't like coyotes.

 

[foreman Etexas]

They have the Great Pyanees

 

[Bird]

Our nearest neighbor in Navarro County had a jack and 4 jennies with his cattle and everything was fine for years, but then he decided there was no reason to feed hay and grazing to donkeys, so he sold all of them. Then when the coyotes started getting his newborn calves, he realized he'd made a mistake and bought another pair of donkeys. That jack chased calves and even attacked grown cows if they came close. He was worse than nothing.

And I bought a young gelding and put it in with my goats in a relatively small pen. He could see and hear other donkeys off in the distance, paced up and down along the fence, then went berserk and attacked the goats, breaking one's neck. Donkey AND goats went to the auction barn the next day.

 

[DennisArrow]

Besides the questionable usefulness of burros for guarding pasture animals, they must also be fed and maintained. One cannot just turn them loose on whatever grass you have and be expected to thrive, let alone stay alive. Wondering, for the op's information, what would be the maintenance needs and supplemental feed???

Feet, worms, flies, parasites?????

When we first got into goats many years ago, we tried a burro.......She did fine with the goats; but ate their feed and hay, wollowed several places in a pasture ruining those places, and destroyed grass as a plant by pulling the plant up by the stem and destroying the root system. Not so very great for pasture maintenance.........God bless........Dennis

 

[RichZ]

I have llamas that protect my goats and sheep. Llamas naturally dislike predators. My llamas have chased off coyotes, foxes, dogs and even raccoons. Most predators are intelligent, and when they see a large animal like a llama chasing them, while giving a war cry, they don't ask questions and take off. If a predator stands his ground, llamas will kick to kill, and they are very good at it. They can pretty easily kill a coyote or a wolf, but it's rare that they have to. They have bonded with our goats and sheep, and play with them all the time. In this cold weather, they even sleep curled up with the goats and sheep. They even let goat kids play king of the hill on them. The llamas eat what the goats and sheep eat, and just need shearing in the spring, hoof trimming and worming if necessary.

 

[weldingisfun]

Cletus99, I responded with this same information in your, goats being killed, thread, but I see some folks here are somewhat against donkeys as guard animals. We have used donkeys as guards for our goats for nearly 15 years now. During that time we have only had one dog problem. In 2005, we lost 21 of 28 goats to a pack of five feral/wild dogs. After analyzing this we determined that the donkeys, we had two (both jennies) at the time, were simply overwhelmed by the number of dogs. Also, we determined that the two donkeys were really bonded to one another rather than to the goats. We sold one of the donkeys and the remaining donkey very quickly bonded to the goats. She actually would allow the young kids to climb up on her when she was lying down. Since that change we have not had any dog/coyote problems.

Unfortunately, we lost that donkey and have since replaced her with another. This brought about another discovery. The new donkey had been bred and foaled, the previous donkey was barren. The new donkey, while protective of the goats, has not really adopted them. Our conclusion is the best guard jenny is one that has never been bred.

To address your question about what to look for in a donkey, the first thing would be to determine if she has ever been bred. Next, and very important, do not buy or take a donkey that you have not actually seen running with goats. Lots of folks will tell you their donkey is good with goats, but see it for yourself. Have you ever seen a donkey bite into the back of a 220 lb buck and lift him off his feet? That donkey is now running with cattle. If the donkey looks healthy and acts normal she probably is healthy. No one is going to give a donkey away or sell one for $100 and allow you to take it to a vet for a check up before accepting or buying it. Use your good judgement and follow Lockhaven's advice about the feet. Keep in mind, one donkey only.

Our donkey eats the same thing the goats do. Occasionally, we will give her some sweet feed as a treat and she really loves peppermints.

Yes, they do make a wallow for their dust bath, but on 35 acres a 10 foot diameter wallow is nothing to be concerned about. If you are keeping your goats in a small pen, meaning one acre or less, then forget all of this and get a guard dog to patrol around the outside of the pen.

Good luck with your decision.

 

[farmgirl19]

A few things:

A donkey should be raised with the animals it is to protect. I have known some raised with sheep, and when goats were introduced, they killed the goats. If you check around, there will probably be someone not wanting to feed a donkey anymore, and you could get it for free. The auctiuon barns around here quit accepting donkeys, due to the fact you couldn't give them away, when folks began selling off cattle and giving away donekys because of the extended drought. If I went that way, I'd want one that is gentle, and halter broke, and that was with the same sort of livestock that you will put it with. I wouldn't take one from cattle and place it with sheep, for the above mentioned reasoning.

I have a gelded donkey. I don't have cattle at this time, sold last fall due to lack of rainfall, but keep him, as they are CHEAP to feed (I feed mine a complete, low starch feed, and a $12, 50 pound bag lasts a month, he is on pasture, and he is halter broke, and will do anything for a carrot, including holding his feet up for the farrier to trim them 2-3 times a year.

Our local feedstores have bulletin boards and people place notices of available on them, and some are trying to get them decent homes, so will be honest with you, about the animal and what it has been run with. One posted recently here, the kids could handle the gelded jack, he was used to halter break foals, and also ran with cattle. He was free to a good home.

Normally, you would not want 2 males together, (they can disagree), but you can have one or more jenny.

 

[todd walker]

What about just a hot wire.
I raise ducks and pheasants things were always trying to get in one day still not sure how
it got in but shot a coyote in the pen one wire 3-4'' off the ground and another about 2-3'
to keep my cows from trying to get in. never had another problem in 3 years. Problem with
stopping thinks from getting in is they will try 24 hours a day to get in and only thing that works
24 hours a day is a electric fence. Most critters know what a electric fence is, but every now and
I think a young coyote will be on its own and will give it a try. Agree 100000% with above..

 

[todd walker]

What about just a hot wire.
I raise ducks and pheasants things were always trying to get in one day still not sure how
it got in but shot a coyote in the pen one wire 3-4'' off the ground and another about 2-3'
to keep my cows from trying to get in. never had another problem in 3 years. Problem with
stopping thinks from getting in is they will try 24 hours a day to get in and only thing that works
24 hours a day is a electric fence. Most critters know what a electric fence is, but every now and
I think a young coyote will be on its own and will give it a try. Agree 100000% with above..

 

[cletus99]

Cletus99, I responded with this same information in your, goats being killed, thread, but I see some folks here are somewhat against donkeys as guard animals. We have used donkeys as guards for our goats for nearly 15 years now. During that time we have only had one dog problem. In 2005, we lost 21 of 28 goats to a pack of five feral/wild dogs. After analyzing this we determined that the donkeys, we had two (both jennies) at the time, were simply overwhelmed by the number of dogs. Also, we determined that the two donkeys were really bonded to one another rather than to the goats. We sold one of the donkeys and the remaining donkey very quickly bonded to the goats. She actually would allow the young kids to climb up on her when she was lying down. Since that change we have not had any dog/coyote problems.

Unfortunately, we lost that donkey and have since replaced her with another. This brought about another discovery. The new donkey had been bred and foaled, the previous donkey was barren. The new donkey, while protective of the goats, has not really adopted them. Our conclusion is the best guard jenny is one that has never been bred.

To address your question about what to look for in a donkey, the first thing would be to determine if she has ever been bred. Next, and very important, do not buy or take a donkey that you have not actually seen running with goats. Lots of folks will tell you their donkey is good with goats, but see it for yourself. Have you ever seen a donkey bite into the back of a 220 lb buck and lift him off his feet? That donkey is now running with cattle. If the donkey looks healthy and acts normal she probably is healthy. No one is going to give a donkey away or sell one for $100 and allow you to take it to a vet for a check up before accepting or buying it. Use your good judgement and follow Lockhaven's advice about the feet. Keep in mind, one donkey only.

Our donkey eats the same thing the goats do. Occasionally, we will give her some sweet feed as a treat and she really loves peppermints.

Yes, they do make a wallow for their dust bath, but on 35 acres a 10 foot diameter wallow is nothing to be concerned about. If you are keeping your goats in a small pen, meaning one acre or less, then forget all of this and get a guard dog to patrol around the outside of the pen.

Good luck with your decision.

Thanks for your advice. We don't want to get any more goats until we are fairly sure our pasture is as secure as possible. I do plan to put in a hot wire too. Just can't afford to do everything at one time. So it brings another question to mind. If we find a jenny that has been raised with goats and don't get any goats until later on, how do we introduce the new goats to the donkey to be sure it's not going to harm the goats? Should we pen up the goats in the pasture for a while for the donkey to get used to them? Same goes for my two American Guinea Hogs. They're in the pen in the pasture for now until they get a little bigger. How do I introduce them to be sure the donkey won't harm them?

 

[DennisArrow]

Really GOOD stuff and advice Lee (Welding is Fun). A a very realistic description of picking out and keeping a burro. We, have 28 acres of oak and hickory forest land with 3 acres of what could be called pasture, a large clearing without trees. Yes, on a 15 to 20 degree slope but with work and care we have a good stand of fescue/clover/lespedeza growing and thriving. Guess where our burro decided to wallow???.......Yes right in the middle of the grass area which caused erosion of everything down-slope..........after the 3rd one.....SHE HAD TO GO and we became owners and breeders of livestock gurard dogs, LGD.
Now, 14 years later, we still have not had coyote nor dog attacks. Yes, most of our fences are goat/sheep wire with electic about shoulder high to a young goat to keep the goats from stretching and bowing the fence as they scratch themselves or remove their winter coats. Perhaps 8 to 10 acres is just 4 or 5 strands of electric wire. These are in the woody type areas where the goats gorge themselves and get fat in the fall and early winter on acorns and falling leaves. Yes, we keep at least 2 dogs with the goats in whatever pasture or series of pastures that are in use by the goats............
So, for you, Lee, burros work well with the country and land you have there in Texas and for us in N.W. Ga with hills and woods, the dogs are, for us, the way to go.............May we both just have healthy critters and many little kids on the ground in the next few months.......God bless.......Dennis

 

[weldingisfun]

Thanks for your advice. We don't want to get any more goats until we are fairly sure our pasture is as secure as possible. I do plan to put in a hot wire too. Just can't afford to do everything at one time. So it brings another question to mind. If we find a jenny that has been raised with goats and don't get any goats until later on, how do we introduce the new goats to the donkey to be sure it's not going to harm the goats? Should we pen up the goats in the pasture for a while for the donkey to get used to them? Same goes for my two American Guinea Hogs. They're in the pen in the pasture for now until they get a little bigger. How do I introduce them to be sure the donkey won't harm them?

When we introduce a new animal to the herd, one of us will stay in the pasture with them. The donkey has to know that the stranger is okay. If she approaches the new critter, with her ears laid back (the ears being laid back is a sign of aggression), we step toward her to let her know all is okay. Sometimes this can take an hour or two, but eventually she decides all is well. This is especially true if the new one looks different than the others. i.e., a black goat coming into a herd of brown and white goats. If you have adjacent pastures, you can put the pigs in one and the donkey in the other. Watch them interact. Eventually, the donkey will get used to their smell and may be more accepting when they are put together. But, to answer your last question, there is no sure way. You just have to watch them and be prepared to come to the rescue, if needed.

Dennis, don't get me wrong. LGDs are great guard animals. We chose to go with donkeys primarily because of the feed issue. We have a very good friend who uses Great Pyrenees (GP). To watch them work is just amazing. The female GP has been seen licking the newborn goats clean after they are born and one time she sheperded a doe with her newborn twins back to the barn when she found them out in the pasture under a tree. The male GP stays up all night patrolling the fence lines while the female sleeps with the goat herd. The dog attack back in 2005 still gnaws at me and makes me leery of dogs. Also, just recently we had one of our bucks badly injured by a friend's dog while it was at the friend's home. The vet bill was over $300 to sew him back together. The dog was a border collie. The only harm to our goats has been from dogs.

 

[farmgirl19]

I have a neighbor with a Great Pyrenees for his goats. That dog barks ALL NIGHT LONG. I don't know how they sleep through it, as it keeps me awake, and I am 100 acres away. I think the dog barks at the moon, a much as at coyotes, etc. Been doing it for several years.

I'm a believer in LGDs, but one needs to know there can be a downside.

 

[foreman Etexas]

I have a neighbor with a Great Pyrenees for his goats. That dog barks ALL NIGHT LONG. I don't know how they sleep through it, as it keeps me awake, and I am 100 acres away. I think the dog barks at the moon, a much as at coyotes, etc. Been doing it for several years.

I'm a believer in LGDs, but one needs to know there can be a downside.

My in-laws have 4 (GP) and I never hear them barking,when they see something they just run at it but no barking while doing it. I don't even care for the big dogs and had one jump on my wifes new truck door,when they had them in yard but to pick out the two,dog all the way,ever tried to get a donkey to listen to commands

 

[JESSE1]

I bought two jennys and a jack back in '98 when you still had to pay for them. I had the jack gelded when we got him, he was about one year old. One jenny was five and the other was one year old. A year after I bought them both jennys foaled, one day apart. They weren't supposed to have been bred. The younger jenny wouldn't accept her baby so I bottle fed her. Lost the oldest jenny from pneumonia back during the summer. I feed grain once a day during the winter, the rest of the time they eat what the cows eat. I have seen them chase dogs but I've also seen them ignore a coyote that walked right between two of them. Right now our donkeys are basically pasture ornaments and pets, I don't think they scare off anything but if I wanted to try donkeys for predator control I believe Welding Is Fun's method would work best.