Free Donkeys

[kuntrygirl]

Someone has asked me if I wanted 2 free donkeys (females). Is it difficult to raise donkeys? What do they eat, are they prone to many sicknesses/illnesses and will they get along with my sheep?:/

 

[KinderKorner]

I bought two beautiful spotted mini donkeys a couple years ago. I thought they were adorable, and I was going to use them to pull a cart and protect my goats since I don't have a dog.

First off they were wild as crap and I literately roped them and 4 people jumped in to pin them down and get them into a trailor. It took way over an hour.

I got them tamed down a bit, and taught them to lead.

They were beautiful and hilarious. I named them cosmo and cleo. Cosmo was just a wooly little baby when I got them, and he loved to pick up stuff and carry to around. He would carry around sticks, buckets, or the hose.

They loved picking up stuff a little too much, one day the female started picking up my goats by the necks and swinging them around. She could have killed them easily. They would also bite, stomp, and chase them.

I sold her, and was going to just keep little cosmo because he never hurt the goats. But after she left he had no one to play with, and he started picking up goats by the neck too. He wasn't trying to hurt them, he was just playing but it was still too rough.

They were cute. But worthless to me. They were stubborn, and rotton. They did nothing but eat, poop, and play all day.

If I was leading them and they didn't want to go, they would sit down. They were a pain for the farrier.

I loved my little fuzzy cosmo. But I will never get a donkey again.

 

[boykin2010]

Got a donkey. Supposed to be very sweet and tame. I took the halter off of her and never got it back on her. Took all day to load her on the trailor and sold her for one third of what i paid for her because she acted WILD. She was great with the sheep for the first couple of months. Then got very protective over food and kicked, bitt, and knocked over lambs in order to eat more. She even picked some of my sheep off the ground by the scruff of their neck.

I will NEVER own a donkey again
I now realize why there are so many that are free on craigslist

Got a great pyreneese and it was the best decision ever. He eats a lot less than donkey, is much sweeter, and good with the sheep.

 

[dcphotos]

I have a miniature donkey. He was like all that. But now he is the nicest animal EVER. He can ornery and buck and kick when he's displeased, but he's only tried that with me a couple times and I responded by yelling at him quick and loud, he chilled.
Now that he's been around a while he is nothing but a love donkey. He does like men more than women, when I have friends over he stands around us and gets a lot of petting and face rubs. He doesn't take to women as much and has reared up at my wife a couple times, but he knows I'm not scared of him so he never does that with me.

His name is Pinot di Asino and I'll keep him as long as he lives, my donkey is cool.

Here he is hanging out by a campfire:

Photographed in infrared:

 

[bluewater rangerbreds]

Donkeys are actually very good guardians for sheep in many cases however you didn't say what size of donkey you were offered. A Mini donkey is just as big of a target to dogs and other sheep predators as the sheep.. If the donkeys are bigger (standard or mammoth sized) then that is a better size if you want them as Guard donkeys. One of the biggest things with donkeys is that they don't need as much of the higher quality feed that a horse eats. Donkeys evolved eating desert scrap forage so they develop issues when fed high quality feeds. You can get a donkey really fat really fast if you don't carefully monitor their diet.