Team Donk’s Feeding Philosophy

It’s always important to think about what we feed our donkeys. What goes into the inside will certainly show up on the outside.

First, remember where this species originated. It is a desert animal and they do very well on sparse feed. So forget the alfalfa and the high protein hays. Your best hay choice should be good clean grass hay that is available to them all the time. You ask will they over eat? They may at first if they are not use to having feed available all the time. Donkeys love to play and if given the room they need any extra calories will soon be burned off. If you feed by the flake make sure there is hay in front of them at all times. Remember the act of processing hay in the winter is what helps to keep them warm. There is a round bale in the pasture for Team Donk almost year around. Even in the spring and early summer when the grass is green they still go to the hay to fill up before browsing on the fresh pasture grasses. No matter what time of the year it is they will consume what they need when they need it. After all donkeys are browsing animals and need to eat small amounts regularly. We notice our boys, eat, play, nap and later come back to eat repeating this process around the clock. As a bonus donkeys do not waste hay like horses. The round bales work very well and we recommend they be fed in a metal round bale feeder. We monitor the hay and check for signs of mold and how the hay is holding up to inclement weather.

Team donk has had amazing success with a feed program that was offered to me years ago. We don’t seem to have the problems that others write about on the Yahoo donkey lists, I sometimes wonder if it does not come back to what our boys consume. We no longer fight with the dry skin itchies or sores, or the dry cracked hooves that show up during the dry and cold months, both of these conditions are now past history. Colic has never been a problem for us either, knock on wood!

This is the original tried and true recipe I received from Vicky Abbot for supplementing donkeys many years ago.

2 cups dried beet pulp pellets mixed with 4 cups of water let this sit and soak up all the water. I mix mine at bedtime and feed the next morning.
2 cups of whole oats
1 cup wheat bran
2 oz Manna Pro Sho-Glo
2 oz Manna Pro Unimilk
1 oz dry Molasses
1 tablespoon Magnesium Oxide
One chopped apple
Add together and mix into the soaked beet pulp
Most of these products can be found at your local feed store. The Wheat Bran, Magnesium Oxide and the dry Molasses come in large quantities and will need to be stored in plastic containers with lids. At first I ordered the Manna Pro products through a catalog and found the shipping to be terrible. I started looking at the products I could pick up locally and found Purina Mare’s Match and PetAg’s Foal-Lac Powder. Both work wonderful and save me expensive shipping costs. Check your local sources first.

When you first introduce any changes to a feeding program it is recommended to go slowly. Simply cut back the beet pulp and add only a small amount to the product you now feed. Over time slowly decrease what you are currently feeding and increase the mash. It may take your donkey about a month to eat every bit and lick the bucket clean. Once they start they’ll be asking for it daily.

Luc and Liberty are now mature geldings therefore I have altered the original recipe that goes with their weekly flax feeding. Here is what I recommend for an adult donkey with no health issues.

1 cup dried beet pulp mixed with 2 cups water
1 cup of cracked, steam rolled or whole oats
A heaping 1/2 cup wheat bran
1 oz dry molasses mix
1 tsp Magnesium Oxide
1 chopped apple
I now feed the recommend amount of Horse Guard Vitamin/Mineral mix which I can buy locally. Notice I dropped the foal milk replacer; I did this when the older boys hit 7 yrs old. Young and growing stock need the extra calcium for maturing bones and muscle mass. Now the boys are adults I did not want to take the chance of throwing off the correct calcium phosphorous ratio.

Find a loose salt mixture and a good mix of free-choice loose minerals to keep in front of them. Your donkeys will thank you for both. Blocks don’t work as well but are better than not feeding anything at all. Clean water that is warmed in the winter is a must, they actually will drink more when it is cold which keeps everything on the inside working smoothly without colic and compaction problems.

“Feed Flax” my farrier recommended. We were fighting dry cracking hooves, white line disease and other hoof ailments. After doing a great deal of internet research and a recommendation from my local feed store friends I decided to try it. Once a week the boys get cooked flax. If you live in an area with prolonged below zero weather then you might consider giving it twice a week, especially if they are looking stressed or losing weight. Since our bitter cold spells generally last several days I have not resorted to feeding flax more than once a week. I simply double their beet pulp intake when the temperatures dip below zero and stay there. Instead of one cup of beet pulp I go back to feeding two as they need more calories during this time and to me the beet pulp is a perfect solution.

Buy flax seed/linseed from your local health food or feed store or anywhere you can purchase the whole flax seed. Store your seeds in a cool dark place and they will last a long time. Using a coffee bean grinder, pulverize the seeds into a powder. Chop up only what you need as the powder will go bad very quickly. The reason you need to crush the seed is that it is so small it will pass thru the system undigested.

Next step is to soak the flax powder for 2 to 6 hours in cold water, stirring occasionally. Mine is presoaked in a small crock pot then cooked for two hours on low heat. I like to set it up on a timer that automatically brings it on and turns it off. You will need to stir it several times during cooking process also. Pour the cooked mixture over the soaked beet pulp or whatever you feed your vita/mineral mix in or over small presoaked hay pellets. You can let it sit up to an hour before feeding if you would like it to soak in better. The reason behind cooking flax is to destroy the toxic prussic acid that uncooked flax seeds contain.

I recommend feeding no more than one to one and a half ounces of ungrounded seeds per animal soaked in at least one to one and a half cups of water, two to three ounces of seeds should work with two to three cups of water for two animals. It is recommended not to feed over ¼ cup which is 2 ounces for horses. Since our donkeys have a different digestive system I have reduced it to what I feel works best for them. The water amount can vary to whatever works for you. You may have to play with the amount of flax and water to get it just right. It also can be simmered on the stove for 30 minutes, don't boil or burn it. Cooked flax will be thick and jelly like.

Flaxseed has a high concentration of Omega 3 and Omega 6 fatty acids, that animals cannot produce in their bodies and are an essential part of the diet. Benefits include a nice shinny coat and healthy skin, strong resultant hooves; it helps to prevent compaction and is a great sand colic prevention. One of the benefits I find is that the little beggars’ lice and the cockleburs easily brush out during the fall and winter months.

Flax nutritional values: 22-26% crude protein, 18 MJDE/kg, 7% fiber, 31% oil, mild laxative, antioxidants, Omega 3 fatty acids, anti-viral, anti-fungal and anti-bacterial, decreases recovery time from strenuous exercise if mash is fed after exercise, improves hoof condition, relieve arthritic and inflammatory pain, keeps less desirable saturated fats mobile in the blood stream, increases oxygen uptake to the cells, improved skin and coat condition, valuable source of energy. Flax is great to feed during the cold months; mash fed twice per week or during times of stress helps to prevents weight loss. Note: the protein is scarie high for a donkey and that is the reason behind feeding only 1 to 1 ½ ounces of seeds per animal. My thoughts have always been less is best with flax, but it is worth the effort.

The down side to feeding flax is again not to overfeed it. You don't want to plug the liver which is another reason I don’t believe in feeding oils to our donkey friends. Do not use or add flaxseed (linseed) oil to their diet, it is not the same as flax seed and does not replace it. Another note of caution is to wash the feed tub thoroughly after feeding flax. Any remaining wet grains, bran and flax will turn sour over night and the feed tub becomes a haven for bacteria, not to mention producing a foul odor.

There you have it all of theTeamdonk feeding secrets. Take a look at Liberty’s coat in this photo taken in August 2008. That is a healthy donkey from the inside out!

Kristi Kingma
www.teamdonk.org