Miniature Donkey as Livestock Guardian

[cjc]

I have put in a bid to adopt an 8 year old miniature donkey from our local humane society. Our number one want for him is to be a companion for our quarter horse. We only have the one horse. But we are hoping he will also make a good livestock guardian for our lambs. I know that donkeys are good at this but what about miniature donkeys? Our lamb predators are coyotes.

He is not a tiny mini donkey. He is a medium size. Very nice personality.

Anyone have any experience with the minis?

 

[Bunnylady]

I have a mini mule; my only actual experience has been with her. Some of what she has done is typical donkey/mule behavior, though not all will do what she has done. I'm not particularly trying to influence you one way or the other, just letting you know what I have heard and seen.

When I first brought Betsy home, I had a herd of 5 goats. She spent the first week terrorizing them. Goats generally hate water, but I had to fish one goat out of the duck pond twice because she ran into it and got stuck in the mud, trying to get away from the mule. Once she had them firmly impressed with the "rule of mule," she eased up on them, though to this day just a look from her will back them off (I wish they were that respectful of me!) We have 2 miniature horses that outrank Betsy in the horsely hierarchy, but though the goats give Betsy wide berth, they are not particularly impressed by the horses.

Betsy hates anything dog-like, and has been known to chase dogs and foxes. She was recently seen attacking a raccoon. Though we have outside cats, I have never seen a cat in her paddock - which may be significant. Unfortunately, I have seen her trying to stomp on ducks (she might have tried it with chickens, but I think they are too quick for her to catch). I have heard it said that they are protecting their space, rather than the animals in it, and my experience with Betsy seems to bear that out.

At 33", Betsy might be a match for even a large, single dog, but on other sites I have followed pitiful threads about miniature horses that were mutilated or even killed by 2 or more dogs. Betsy could probably intimidate a single coyote, but I fear that, were she faced with a pack, she'd be just a vulnerable as the goats and other minis.

How does your horse feel about donkeys, do you know? Donkeys aren't just funny looking horses; they think and act very different. Your horse and donkey may become fast friends, or not . . . . it's hard to say. And of course, there's the size issue. Some people manage to keep minis and "bigs" together with no issues, but I know of people who have had minis that were killed by one kick from a big horse. One of my "minis" is actually oversized; though her parents were both registered Miniature Horses, at 40" she is too big for registration. Just before I bought her, she was being kept in a pasture with several 14-hand or bigger horses. When she came here, she had several bite marks and a couple that looked like kicks, and scrapes all up the front that looked like she had been running into things, trying to run away . . . .

 

[cjc]

@Bunnylady thanks so much for sharing your experiences!

Our horse stands about 15.5 hands. He is not large but he is not tiny.

Our horse has been bonding with our neighbours standard size Jack for about 5 years. They are separated by a fence but they are the best of friends. They did bite each other many times on the neck for the first few weeks. We were unsure if it was in an aggressive nature or a loving nature. The neighbours donkey is about 25 years old. He is an old guy and is very passive. The donkey we are looking at adopting has also been living with horses and ducks and is very polite towards them. The SPCA says that he gets along with all the horses there (10 horses currently) and is great with all people.

Our plan would be to put our horse and the mini donkey next to each other but separate them by a gate. Let them get to know each other and then let them in the same pasture. Our horse has never shown to be aggressive and is pretty lonely now that he is the only horse in our pasture. We are hoping they will take to each other.

After what you say about the mini's getting mauled I would be worried to leave him with the lambs. The lambs do go into a locked shelter at night but the coyotes have been getting them in broad daylight.

Do you have any experience with introducing two donkeys to each other? The mini I am hoping to adopt has just been gelded a few weeks ago. The neighbours standard size donkey is still in tact. They would never not be separated by a fence but do you think it would be an issue? We have 4 board fencing separating them...would he try and push through?

 

[Bunnylady]

It's hard to say just how pushy an animal will be in a new situation. A couple of years ago, I saw a gelding that had been the "low man on the totem pole" for at least 4 years suddenly decide he was a stud and start beating the stuffing out of the horses with which he was pastured, when the barn owner put a couple of mares on the other side of the fence. We were all shell-shocked, not least of which was my mare Latte, who had pushed this guy around for years . . . .

Just because you have never seen your horse being aggressive, doesn't mean that he won't be. Horses kick and bite each other to establish/maintain dominance, it's just what they do. As Rick Gore (Think Like a Horse) said in one of his videos, "horses vote every day for who's the boss." At a barn where I worked, we had up to 12 geldings in a big pasture. Some of the horses were 16 hands or more, but the dominant animal was a 14-hand Arabian. I remember one owner complaining, "Brady's so mean! He's always beating up the other horses. My horse always has nicks and scrapes from him." I don't remember what I said, but what I wanted to say was, "it isn't that Brady is mean - most of the other horses aren't getting beat up. The problem is that Brady is #1 in that pasture, your horse is #2, and he wants to be #1. If he'd just get out of the way when Brady tells him to, he wouldn't get beat up!"

 

[promiseacres]

We tried mini donkeys as LG but they were very food aggressive I've so we no longer have them. Tried out 4 different ones, even the young one got bad. We never had an severe injury but know someone who's donkey picked up a ewe with his teeth, they ended up losing her. IF you've tons of pasture and separate for feeding hay or grain it may work. Though no guarantee they will bond and protect sheep or even their area. If I were losing lambs I would invest in a LGD

 

[Don & Sandy]

I have a mini mule; my only actual experience has been with her. Some of what she has done is typical donkey/mule behavior, though not all will do what she has done. I'm not particularly trying to influence you one way or the other, just letting you know what I have heard and seen.

When I first brought Betsy home, I had a herd of 5 goats. She spent the first week terrorizing them. Goats generally hate water, but I had to fish one goat out of the duck pond twice because she ran into it and got stuck in the mud, trying to get away from the mule. Once she had them firmly impressed with the "rule of mule," she eased up on them, though to this day just a look from her will back them off (I wish they were that respectful of me!) We have 2 miniature horses that outrank Betsy in the horsely hierarchy, but though the goats give Betsy wide berth, they are not particularly impressed by the horses.

Betsy hates anything dog-like, and has been known to chase dogs and foxes. She was recently seen attacking a raccoon. Though we have outside cats, I have never seen a cat in her paddock - which may be significant. Unfortunately, I have seen her trying to stomp on ducks (she might have tried it with chickens, but I think they are too quick for her to catch). I have heard it said that they are protecting their space, rather than the animals in it, and my experience with Betsy seems to bear that out.

At 33", Betsy might be a match for even a large, single dog, but on other sites I have followed pitiful threads about miniature horses that were mutilated or even killed by 2 or more dogs. Betsy could probably intimidate a single coyote, but I fear that, were she faced with a pack, she'd be just a vulnerable as the goats and other minis.

How does your horse feel about donkeys, do you know? Donkeys aren't just funny looking horses; they think and act very different. Your horse and donkey may become fast friends, or not . . . . it's hard to say. And of course, there's the size issue. Some people manage to keep minis and "bigs" together with no issues, but I know of people who have had minis that were killed by one kick from a big horse. One of my "minis" is actually oversized; though her parents were both registered Miniature Horses, at 40" she is too big for registration. Just before I bought her, she was being kept in a pasture with several 14-hand or bigger horses. When she came here, she had several bite marks and a couple that looked like kicks, and scrapes all up the front that looked like she had been running into things, trying to run away . . . .

My question deals with your mini mule. We had a mini donkey that was bred when we got her. We were told that she was bred to a mini palomino horse. They also had a jack that was around her, too. How do I know if she’s a mini mule or mini donkey? She had the stripe down her back and shoulders like a mini donkey.

 

[Bunnylady]

An animal with a horse mother and donkey father is a mule. One with a donkey mother and horse father is called a hinny (there's your fun fact for the day!). Hinnies and mules have features that are somewhere between those of a horse and those of a donkey, with hinnies generally tending to look a bit more horse-like than mules do. Telling a mule or hinny from a donkey should be fairly easy - start by looking at the tail. Donkeys have tails like cows, with long hair only on the end. Mules and hinnies have tails more like a horse's; there is long hair (or long-ish hair) all the way up to the point where the tail joins the body. The ears of a mini mule or hinny are significantly shorter than those of a donkey, and there is a lot more mane hair (which may even lie down, like that of a horse).

The dorsal stripe and shoulder bars are dun pattern markings, along with rather faint zebra stripes on the legs and possibly dark "cobwebbing" on the face. Dun occurs in horses, too; the Norwegian Fjord horse breed only comes in dun patterned colors. Not all donkeys have dun, though most do, and mules/hinnies can be any color that exists in horses and donkeys.

If your jennet was exposed to both a stallion and a jack, the likeliest situation is that the foal was sired by the jack. Most animals prefer their own species if given a choice (though I knew someone who had a mini jack that made beautiful little mules, but wouldn't even look at a jennet). Even if the breeding takes place, hybrid pregnancies aren't a given; some otherwise fertile females simply don't conceive when bred to a male of the other species, or spontaneously abort during the pregnancy.

Did that help?

 

[Don & Sandy]

Thank you so much for the information!