Mini Donkey and a Nervous New Mom at Dinnertime

[greenacres]

Hi,
I also am a new Mom to a rescue miniature donkey yearling --the rescue was feeding the donkey a scoop of pellet feed and a scoop of sweet feed in the AM. I didn't want to change the diet to drastically right away, so I continued the AM feeding, though I had to switch to all-stock sweet feed (because I have sheep in the same paddock) and Purina Enrich-12 supplement. They have been here 3 days. The miniature horse that came with the donkey is doing fine, but the donkey has diarrhea. Both have free access to pasture. Any suggestions? Thanks, I am worried about him.

 

[Bunnylady]

How much is in"a scoop"? How does the feed you have compare (protein, carbohydrates, fat) to what he was getting before? I would certainly hope that the rescue would know what they were doing, but everything I have ever heard about feeding donkeys holds that, "less is more." Good quality grass hay, a salt block, and that's it! No grain, no other supplements; they just don't need it, and it may do more harm than good.

Was this little guy on grass before? If so, how does your pasture compare to what he was on? A sudden increase in the amount of grass he's getting could cause loose poop.

And - I think this is in order:

 

[greenacres]

Hi and thanks for the welcome and reply. The scoop is one of those square bottomed standard plastic scoops you get at tractor supply -- I think they are 3 q. to the top, but the lady form the rescue only filled it 1/2 way. She did say she had them (the miniature horse and donkey) out on pasture. My guess is my grass is a little richer than her's was because 1) it has never been grazed before and 2) I live a little North of the rescue (about 300 miles) so it is a little cooler and wetter here. I guess I will try to back off of the pellet and sweet feed. I didn't use the exact same pellet she was using because it had alfalfa in it which I was pretty sure was not good for the donkey. She has quite a few horses (standard and miniatures) in with 3 miniature donkeys, so I think that's why they were all fed the same. Anyway, one more question on a slightly different note -- I have the horse and donkey sharing a paddock with my 2 sheep. The sheep have a triad through which they can "escape" into the pasture if they are being bullied (though for some reason they like to go under the paddock panel railings instead, even though they barely fit). Anyway, the miniature horse is being a bit of a bully and chasing them away from the paddock when they try to come in. That is where the barn and livestock waterer are too. Any suggestions on how to discourage the bullying? He is also beating up on the donkey a little. Thanks