6 Things Donkeys Like To Eat Diet, Care & Feeding Tips

Their stomachs easily break down foods so that they can absorb the maximum nutrition from what they do eat. Therefore, it’s important to feed them the right type of foods, otherwise your donkey could easily become overweight, as well as facing a higher risk of laminitis. They have a highly efficient digestive system that allows them to utilize rough, fibrous plant material more effectively than horses.

Baby donkeys need supplements that are high in fiber and can be quickly eaten. Access to fresh and clean water is essential for the health of these animals and must be available at all times. To ensure proper development and minimize stress for both the foal and mother, it’s crucial to keep baby donkeys, or foals, with their mothers until they are at least 8 months old.

The Donkey Sanctuary has found barley straw to be the best choice for healthy donkeys. Wheat straw is more fibrous and difficult to chew, making it less suitable for very young donkeys or donkeys with poor dentition. The best quality proteins, those that contain the greatest proportion of essential amino acids in the protein, are the animal proteins such as fishmeal. The legumes are the roughages which contain the greatest amounts of protein. The mature cereal straws and stovers contain very low amounts of protein.

In their natural habitat donkeys will browse, eating highly fibrous plant material in small quantities throughout the day. During the spring and summer the donkeys at The Donkey Sanctuary have access to restricted grazing. In addition to the restricted grazing our donkeys always have access to barley straw to ensure they are getting plenty of fibre to meet their nutritional needs. The amount of grass donkeys have access to is controlled, either by strip grazing using electric fencing or by co-grazing with other species to prevent them from becoming overweight.

Donkeys have such a strong desire to browse that they can become quite destructive when forage is limited. Providing sources of browse, such as brambles as well as tree branches and twigs, from safe tree species can give a donkey something to do and reduce destructive tendencies. The fact that donkeys can adapt to any environment and are okay with whatever you feed them doesn’t mean you shouldn’t watch out for things they shouldn’t eat. Do not feed your donkeys with leftover meals, as they might have a hard time digesting them. Also, donkeys should not be fed horse food as it can harm their health. Donkeys don’t need to be fed hay during summer, as they’ll make do with an abundance of quality grass during this season.

To make the best use of the food given, the donkey should be fed times a day, especially when it is working. The teeth of a donkey are so important to maximize food intake and breakdown of the food for digestion that it is important to look after them. The first premolars called wolf teeth are usually present in the upper jaw of only 30% of females and 65% of male donkeys and are of no practical value. In horses they are often removed in a riding animal if they interfere with the use of the bit. The anatomy of the digestive system of the donkey is similar to that of the horse (Figure 1).

Groundnuts can contain a mould toxin to which equids are sensitive, so the cake is best avoided. Gram (Dolichos biflorus), sometimes called “field” or “horse” gram is another good protein source, which is available in many tropical countries for donkeys and can be fed without cooking. Faba, horse or broad beans (Vicia fabia) are legumes which contain approximately 25% crude protein. Many of the other beans, namely from the Phaseolus species (mung, navy, kidney, lima beans) need cooking to remove toxins before they are fed to equids, and so are less useful.

Sugar beet, a by-product of the sugar industry, is a useful food given in small amounts to tempt a sick donkey to eat or to help an elderly donkey or underweight donkey gain condition. Sugar beet is a source of succulent, nutritious, digestible fibre when added to the feed, although it cannot be fed as a replacement to hay. We recommend unmolassed sugar beet to help prevent laminitis and unnecessary weight gain.

With our years of experience, we hope that this information helps you to look after your donkey. If you are ever worried that your donkey might not be feeling himself, either through behavioural changes or you notice he’s eating less, always seek an equine veterinarian’s advice. The offspring of a male donkey and a female horse is called a mule, while the offspring of a male horse and a female donkey is called a hinny.

Grazing should always be considered as supplementary to straw, which should make up the majority of a healthy donkey’s diet. Talk to one of our welfare advisers to find out more information about donkey nutrition. There are 25 important amino acids of which 10 are essential amino acids in the diet. They are essential because they cannot be synthesized by the donkey, or the micro-organisms in the hind-gut, in sufficient amounts to meet the donkey’s requirements. There is no system for digesting microbial protein in the large intestine, so the donkey really depends on the protein it eats to supply the amino acids it needs. This is the amino acid most likely to be deficient and inhibit growth if the young donkey is fed only on roughage.

The food provides the energy, protein, minerals and vitamins which the donkey needs for maintenance, for work, for growth, and when appropriate for pregnancy and lactation. Many people assume that donkeys can survive by fending for themselves on grazing and do not need any special feeding. However, the food demands of donkeys can vary over the year, depending if they are doing a lot of work, or if they are pregnant or have a foal to feed. The feed quality of grazing varies throughout the year too as the grasses develop from young easily digested plants to the mature plants after flowering, which contain more fibre and are less digestible. To make sure a donkey is well fed it is necessary to know something about its feed requirements and then how best to meet these requirements from the feeds that are available. Also many working equids suffer from varying degrees of dehydration, because they do not receive enough water in the working day.

Their diet consists mostly of grasses and hay, but they will also eat other vegetation like shrubs and leaves. However, when domestic donkey owners provide hay and other food sources, donkeys can be fed twice a day. Just like your horses, your donkeys will need a source of micronutrients, such as trace minerals, and vitamins to compliment their forage. Ration balancing supplements with a 3- to 4-ounce serving size are typically a better choice.

They commonly exhibit a range of coat colors, including gray, brown, black, white, or a combination of these. Each breed exhibits traits that have been selectively bred for specific functions, such as load-bearing, companionship, or even show purposes. Despite these variations, all donkeys share common characteristics of endurance, strength, and a generally calm demeanor. This article offers a comprehensive look into the world Check this for Doeat.top What do animals eat in different habitats of donkeys, exploring their origins, characteristics, and the significant roles they continue to play in cultures around the world. Donkeys are natural browsers and should be fed with berries, grass, bushes, and other things in their natural environment. Donkeys must chew their food properly to aid digestion; hence they suffer intestinal impaction or esophagus obstruction when they don’t chew their food correctly.

Silage is not suitable for feeding to donkeys because the moisture level is usually too high, with a low pH, as well as a low fibre and high protein level. The foal is able to stand and nurse within a short time after birth. Donkey foals are cared for attentively by their mothers and are weaned at around 6 to 9 months of age. Donkeys are primarily herbivores with a diet consisting mainly of grasses, herbs, and shrubs. Their feeding behavior is adapted to cope with sparse and rough vegetation often found in arid and semi-arid regions.

It is also essential to moderate the amount of barley, wheat, and oats that are given to donkeys. Providing a balanced and varied diet will ensure their health and well-being. Donkeys may seem like ordinary herbivores, but their unique digestive system sets them apart from other animals. One of the main differences is in their ability to extract nutrients from fibrous plant material.

Hence their energy needs should be provided in a more concentrated form than that available in roughage alone. If distances are difficult to estimate, the hours spent working can be used to help estimate energy requirements. A donkey working for 4 hours a day will usually need about another 50% more energy than if it had not been working. Working for 6 hours a day can mean a doubling in energy requirement and for 8 hours an increase in energy requirement on a working day to 2.5 times that needed for maintenance on a non-working day. This also takes into account some short rest periods during the working day i.e., it assumes the donkey does not spend the whole time moving in the working day.

The micro-organisms can digest the fibrous part of the food, the cellulose, hemicellulose and lignified parts of the plant material. The donkey has no enzymes of its own to do this, and so particularly on fibrous diets the micro-organisms play a vital part in releasing nutrients for further digestion and absorption from the gut. The micro-organisms grow and multiply using the available amino-acids in the gut. They also synthesize all the B vitamins and vitamin K2 needed by the donkey. This makes it less prone to harness and saddle sores when working. Good nutrition can reduce the occurrence of disease, reduce the effects of disease on the donkey and help increase the rate of recovery from a disease.

During group feeding, donkeys are known for struggling to gain dominance. The dominant one kicks others away and prevents them from eating, especially during seasons when there are food shortages. Also, donkeys consume food more after working hours or when there is insufficient space to eat. Before you begin to feed them, invite a veterinary to address their dietary and dental issue to ensure that they receive proper nutrition.

Oat straw contains a higher nutritional value, and wheat straw has a lower energy value but is high in fiber. The straw of all forms is nutritional to a donkey aside from linseed straw that contains poisonous seed. Their digestive system is also built to break down food efficiently.

Baby donkeys should be provided with dental care at least twice a year to address signs of dental diseases such as bad breath, dropping feed, drooling, and slow or reluctant feeding. Ensure that your donkeys don’t eat pellets too quickly to avoid colic. Avoid cereal-grain-based pellets and opt for fiber-based pellets. The amount of food a donkey eats per day depends on several factors, such as its weight, age, activity level, and overall health.

This consists of the cecum and colon, where the last stages of digestion take place. The cecum is a closed sac, linked to the colon, and the colon links the small intestine to the rectum. The colon and cecum provided a good environment for the large population of micro-organisms which carry out the fermentation of the undigested food remaining and the unabsorbed nutrients. Some of the bacteria and protozoa, which make up the micro-organisms found in the cecum and colon of the donkey, are similar to those found in the rumen of cattle and buffalo, but most are different.

Fresh green leafy legumes and grasses are good sources of the vitamins, so it is advisable to feed these in small amounts regularly to the donkey. Mineral and vitamin supplements are available which can be added to rations where donkeys have no access to fresh green plant material. They also like to eat fruits and vegetables as well as grains like oats and barley.