Peaceful Valley provides a good quality coastal bermuda grass hay for all of our general population. We feed 1-1/2% of their body weight daily and allow for competition and waste (about 10 pound for a standard.

No, healthy donkeys should be fed a good quality grass hay. Supplemental grain is rarely needed. At PVDR, we only supplement those in poor body condition and nursing moms.

Approximately 2% of their body weight in grass hay spread out over 2 – 3 feedings per day.

Assuming the pregnant jennet is otherwise healthy and has good teeth, a lot of special feed is not really necessary. Good quality grass hay (alfalfa is not necessary and can make donkeys excessively fat pretty quickly), a trace element supplement (we use California Trace, though there are lots of others), and maybe a highly digestible pellet, to add some protein, would be sufficient. An example would be Equine Senior, at half the horse dose. Again, a lot of starches and sugars (grain and molasses) are just going to make the jennet fat, and maybe cause laminitis. They just don’t need that.

Females of all species become somewhat more insulin-resistant in pregnancy. So a jennet’s body will tend to store more energy closer to birth. Certainly, it is important for your donkey to have adequate nutritional intake, especially protein and minerals. I have attached a PDF of Recommendations for feeding pregnant and lactating jennets. The recommendations are for a UK-produced ration balancer, but using something like Topline Balancer would be available at your feed store. You do need to control her feed intake, and the fact that her neck is becoming fat means that she is getting slightly more than necessary. It is nearly impossible to control feed intake on pasture. Keep feeding her just slightly less than you are, and divide it into 3-4 feedings a day. Grass hay or straw could be free-fed to keep her happy. Do not overfeed the supplements, as they tend to be high in energy as well as protein, and you do not want her to get fatter.

If you are feeding alfalfa pellets, you are probably providing enough calcium and protein for lactation. You could supplement with a high-quality protein like Calf Manna and a trace mineral with fat-soluble vitamins (particularly vitamin E). It depends a bit on the quality of hay used to make the pellets. However, be careful to not feed excessive digestible energy (more than the recommended amount of alfalfa or any molasses) as it will tend to make the jennet obese.

We have fed Teff hay to donkeys with good results. It is always a good idea to have hay tested as it may vary in non-structural Carbohydrates, fiber, protein, and minerals depending on where it is grown and how it is cured.

First I would want to know: are you treating the PPID with Pergolide. We will have at talk on this topic at the DWS this year. With pituitary metabolic disease you are going to the a redistribution of fat to the ventral abdomen (which tends to occur in older donkeys either way). If diarrhea was an issue I would DEFINITELY have a veterinarian auscultate, ultrasound, and/or x-ray the abdomen looking for sand. Also, the teeth definitely need examination because PPID is associated with dental disease and the will affect feed conversion. I would not be in a great hurry to increase protein intake until these issues have been sorted out, as high levels of protein that are not used for muscle formation, which will only occur at a low level in an older donkey, will increase the nitrogen load on the old kidneys. As a feed in older donkeys, particularly if they have bad teeth is Purina’s Equine Senior. We had a small standard donkey that was living entirely on Equine Senior at the rate of 9 cups a day. He really got no other feed. In an animal with some dental ability, no sand, and controlled PPID, one might start at 6 cups a day, but I would definitely measure the donkey with a weight tape regularly, to monitor weight game and avoid the development of obesity. Be realistic about ‘building her topline’. Metabolic disease driven by a PPID will determine the donkey’s body confirmation, no matter what. Gutenberg blocks.

Sugar beets, depending on their degree of maturity (and therefor sugar content) could cause serious problems in a donkey. Though it is unlikely that just one would cause founder (laminitis) it is certainly possible. The other danger from sugar beets is choke. Large animals tend to bolt the tasty tubers and can get them stuck in their esophagus. Many years ago, when farms around Davis, California, raised a lot of sugar beets, they used to graze cattle on the leftovers after the beets had been topped and harvested. Some of my classmates had jobs “ridin’ beets”, in which they would ride through the fields looking for cattle choking on beet tops. They would open the animal and reach down their mouth and gullet to pull out pieces of beet that were stuck there. Carrots, celery, chard, or cucumbers are fine, but no beets.

I would agree with this feeding plan 100%. You can substitute wheat straw for barley straw, as it is easier to find in many parts of the USA. Of course, never feed wheat or barley HAY, as that contains the grain heads too and would be way to high calorie for donkeys. Beyond a proper diet, you also need to make sure that your donkey has environmental enrichment, which can take all sorts of forms, including going for hikes with your donkey . You should also work with picking up your donkeys hooves regularly, so that they can be handled by the farrier. In most situations in the USA, donkeys need to have their hooves trimmed about every two months. It is also important that donkeys hooves remain as dry as possible. They do not take moisture well, as they are adapted to arid conditions.

We have the best luck with feeding Purina Equine Senior at 1/2 the horse dose for weight and condition gain in donkeys. You might give the foal a little protein supplement, like Calf Manna. I would also have the manure tested for parasites, and don’t forget to comb the hair looking for lice. These sale yards are great places for parasite and disease transmission. I would also start their vaccinations: Tetanus, encephalitis, and equine influenza as soon as you can. We have been hearing about outbreaks of equine influenza in donkeys with a history of being rescued from kill yards. This disease causes an annoying cough in horses, but it can cause severe respiratory disease, which can be fatal, in donkeys.

As far as weaning from timothy to straw, there is no real problem as far as digestive or metabolic upset, since the straw is much higher in fiber and lower in digestible calories. However, your minis are likely to not like the straw very much at first and may not eat it. This is a problem because, depending on other factors, such as the mini’s weight (is the fat?), a period of anorexia could trigger hyperlipemia, in which a mass of fat is released from the adipose tissue and can damage the liver and other organs. So, I would start adding the straw as 10 % of their diet and double the amount every week. Depending on their body condition, you might also want to keep them on some level of hay permanently, maybe just ½ pound a day. You could also look for alternatives to timothy, like Teff, Orchard Grass, or Rye. Again, in small amounts. Do be sure that the straw you get does not have any significant amounts of the wheat heads left from combining (harvesting).

While the ideal of feeding barley straw is great, as you have found out, it is very hard to find the stuff in most parts of the USA. Wheat straw works just fine, given a couple of caveats. First, the straw should not contain a lot of actual wheat heads, because they contain exactly the high starch non-structural carbohydrates that you are trying to avoid by feeding straw. Fortunately, modern combines are pretty efficient at removing the grain part of the wheat plant at harvest, but it is still a good idea to check. If you find a wheat head in a half bale of straw, that isn’t too bad. If you find several heads in each flake, that is a problem, and that straw should not be fed to donkeys. It is also undesirable to have a lot of dirt clods in the straw. This happens when the field is rough and the cutting bar on the combine is set low to the ground. You can tell if a bale has a lot of dirt in it because they bales will be much heavier. A three-twine straw bale should not weigh 100 lbs. as you would expect with hay. Finally, you want to get long stem bedding straw. Some straw is cut so that the stems are short, or it is chopped, making it more digestible for cows. This “feed straw” is an inexpensive diet for cows that are not currently being milked, do not have a calf, or are in early stages of gestation. The longer stemmed bedding straw gives the donkey more to do, because it requires more chewing, and it has fewer digestible calories. For this reason, the Standee chicken bedding, even though it is made of straw, would not be a good feed for you donkey. It certainly is not going to make your donkey sick, but it will tend to make it too fat. Also, I suspect that it is a lot more expensive than buying straw in a standard bale. It does depend on what part of the country you are in, but you can generally find bedding straw easily by going to a feed supplier that services racetracks or county fairs. Bedding straw is universally used to bed racehorses and show livestock. The supplier may tell you that this straw is not for feeding, but that is because they don’t feed donkeys, and don’ know. I hope this is helpful.

It is really wonderful to see a new donkey owner (donkey friend) be so good about researching how to take care of their new charges AND recognizing that there is a lot of nonsense on the internet and social media. You are absolutely right in going to The Donkey Sanctuary and PVDR for information, because, among other things, they have nothing to “sell” and no egos to inflate. They just want donkey owners to have good information. At six months old your minis are “weanlings”. In fact, donkeys will naturally nurse their foals until they are a year old or even two. At this rate your donkeys have undergone “early weaning” and therefor need some of the extra nutrients that they would normally be getting from their mothers. To be specific, they need quality protein (that is, a complete mix of amino acids, such as is found in milk), calcium, phosphorous, and trace elements. You are right again in not wanting to feed the “mare and foal” concentrate mix, which is too high in carbohydrates and energy. Looking at Senior Balancers (specifically Senior Topline Balance and Senior Molasses Free) they have good levels of digesible protein (quality amino acid mix) and are lower in carbohydrates/sugars. I would stay at 8% crude fat or below and feed just small amounts as a protein supplement. You could add something like California Trace to ensure adequate trace mineral supplementation . Alternatively, you could feed the mineral supplement with Foalac Pellets (these are milk based) in a “salad” of chopped carrots, celery, chard, or cucumbers (depending on what is available), in handfull quantities. Donkeys like the salad and it is mostly fiber and water, with some vitamins. So it is not going to make them fat. You will need to be diligent in monitoring the little guys body conditions, because once donkeys get fat it is very very hard to get them back into a healthy body form and they have a tendency to founder. The problem is that donkeys evolved to live in desert, or at least arid conditions. Where I am in California, with its very short and circumscribed rainey season, this isn’t a problem. In the midwest, southeast, and northern plains states it becomes very difficult with the summer humidity and grass production. I am sure they like grazing on green grass, which has lots of vitamins, but also sugars which can cause problems. I have lived in Iowa and Tennessee, and can tell you that if I were raising donkeys there I would measure them regularly with a weight tape to make sure that they were not gaining excessively. This will be harder with your young minis, who are going to grow for about another year. The Donkey Sanctuary has materials for monitoring donkey weight and growth. They also have plans for pasture rotation, since they are based in the UK, which has a climate similar to Ohio, as far as rainfall. It is not that they cannot eat pasture, but growing plants nutritional value changes from day to day and even within a day. You want them eating grass that is mostly cellulose and “structural carbohydrates” not sugars and starches. Because local farm advisor’s offices normally work with horse or cattle pasture, they tend to not recognize the extreme efficiencey in donkey digestion and what a serious problem obesity can be, particularly in minis. YES, adding straw to their hay ration is a good idea. They will eat the hay or pasture first, but straw in hay nets will give them something to munch on, fill their little colons, and not make them fat. We mearsure by weight the amount of hay and straw that our donkeys (and we have some minis) eat daily. It isn’t hard to do. If you find that pasture management is too difficult, based on The Donkey Sanctuary’s pasture rotation and track system, I would suggest considering a three times a day feeding schedule with hay, straw, and salad, based on weight. Cindy, my wife is developing a practical donkey feeding presentation for The Donkey Welfare Symposium, to be held at UC Davis, in California, September 28 and 29. It will be available virtually, so you would not have to travel to California, though you would have a good time if you did. The Donkey Welfare Symposium has a Facebook page at https://www.facebook.com/DonkeyWelfareSymposium/ (That’s Cindy and her donkey “Jenny” walking with “Simón, our little dog on the page.)

This is an unfortunate situation, and you should be concerned. Once donkeys become obese, getting them to a healthy weight can be really difficult. As you realize now, grain diets for horses should NOT be fed to donkeys. They are way too efficient in their utilization of all types of plant material, as compared to horses. Non-structural carbohydrates such as starches (in grains) and sugars (in the molasses added to may grain mixtures) are way over the top for donkeys. Obesity can lead to fatty liver disease, laminitis, and arthritis. The metabolic conditions that come from excess adipose tissue (fat) and the pro-inflammatory state that they promote occur in all animals, including horses, dogs, cats, and humans. It is common for people to get donkeys as “guard animals” for sheep and goats (who are fed for growth and production) or “companions” for horses (who have a very different metabolism and digestive capability). With few exceptions, this results in the donkey getting obese. Once this has happened, the donkey’s body condition “resets” and tries to maintain the overfed state. Again, this happens in other species. Even exercise can be difficult because overworking hooves and joints that are carrying too much weight can result in lameness, making things worse. Extreme fasting is bad too, because the stored fat can be released by inadequate daily intake, stress, or pain, and result in “Hyperlipemia” and eventual fatty liver syndrome. To address your donkey’s problem, first use a weight tape or cloth measuring tape to get an idea of your donkey’s weight. This will help you monitor progress as far as weight loss. Horse weight tapes are not as accurate as those made specifically for donkeys, but you are most interested in the change week to week. The Donkey Sanctuary has a chart (donkeysanctuary.org) that you can use to estimate body weight using any tape. I have attached an outline of how to feed an obese donkey, from the same Donkey Sanctuary in Sidmouth, UK. Basically, you will have to go to coarse grass and straw as the total diet. Any pasture has too many non-structural carbohydrates, which will prevent success in weight loss. As this paper says, barley straw is ideal, but it is hard to get in most parts of the USA. We have always used wheat straw, and it works fine. Get the long-stemmed quality bedding variety, because chopped or short-stemmed straw is often fed to cows and is too digestible for donkeys. Don’t let veterinarians or feed store owners tell you that you cannot feed straw. We buy it by the truckload, and our donkeys do just fine. Feed at least 3 times a day, and 4 (every 6 hours) is better. The TOTAL intake should be 1.5% 3% of body weight. For a 200 lb. donkey, that is 3 lbs. -6 lbs. ONLY for the whole day. Start with 2/3’s hay and transition by decreasing the percentage of hay and increasing the percentage of straw weekly, until you are feeding 2/3’s of the diet in straw. It is important with these small amounts to actually weigh the hay and straw. To make this more efficient, we have a fish scale and pre-weigh the feed in old feed bags until we have a few days’ worth stored up. Then you just have to go out and dump the bag into their feeder. Remember, those amounts are PER DAY. So, the 200 lb donkey will be getting 1 lb.- 2lbs. of the hay/straw mix three times a day if that is how often you feed. They will also need a trace mineral supplement. There are a number of these on the market; we use California Trace. The supplement can be mixed with a high-moisture, low-sugar treat to get them to eat it. We use a handful of shredded carrots, which makes a nice afternoon snack. Because they will have less to do with less feed, you should spend some time grooming them, walking with them, and giving them chewy fun stuff like brambles, berry bush vines (without the berries), or bull thistles to chew on. Rosemarie bushes are also good, and The Donkey Sanctuary has a whole list of things that donkeys eat on their website. Giving them some toys (Jolly Balls and orange highway cones work well) to keep them amused will also help. I would start a program of doing this right away.

In Mexico, donkeys live on dried corn stalks. The only problem is how much actual corn grain is left in the bales with the dried stalks. It would be necessary to scrupulously pick out any before feeding it to your donkey, especially if he is foundered. Also, although corn stalks generally have lower digestible energy than most hays, they do have more calories than straw. So, you would have to remain vigilant that you do not overfeed your donkey, again, because of the chronic laminitis. Another option would be to feed wheat straw, which is available in most parts of the country and is usually half the price of hay. You want the long stem stuff that they use for bedding for horses. Donkeys do well on a diet of straw, with a little hay, and appropriate trace mineral supplements. I do not know what part of the country you are in, but if baled corn stalks are available, straw probably is too. Barley straw is the best, but rare in most areas. So we have used wheat straw for years, and it works fine.

I am not surprised that your donkeys are eating grain out of cow feces. They have an innate drive to find and utilize every scrap of food that they possibly can, and use it extremely efficiently. This comes from their evolution in an extremely arid desert environment. The entire history of the human-donkey relationship is one of their serving us in the most difficult of environments. So, when they are exposed to actual pasture, even if the grass is dormant, they gain weight, sometimes dangerously, with feed on which cattle and horses could not survive. As a result, they really should not be pastured in North America with production animals like cattle and sheep. Livestock management is designed for growth and production. Under this level of calorie and protein intake, donkeys are going to gain weight, and it will be hard to get them to a healthy body condition and prevent laminitis. The exception would be animals grazing in the desert southwest. So, if at all possible, don’t pasture your donkeys with cattle, especially ones that are eating any grain.

Yes, they aren’t thrilled about eating straw until they get used to it. One thing that you can do with the short straw is to thresh it. Basically, this involves running it through a screen (I made one out of expanded metal with 1″x1/2″ holes). You make a box with the screen on the bottom and scrub the straw on the screen, then feed what doesn’t go through the screen. This gets any of the grain out of the straw, which is what you are most worried about. It is actually how a grain combine works, but there you want the stuff that goes through. We’ve used this and have been able to use the shorter-stemmed straw without problems.

I also don’t know about Canary Grass hay as a feed for donkeys, but I would be concerned about potential toxicities as a result of the concentration of Selenium and Tryptamine alkaloids in the plants under certain conditions. Canary grass is usually regarded as a weed. Oat or rye straw would provide more digestible calories than barley straw, but, as long as the plant has been combined and the grains removed, they could be a solution. The simplest would be to just use wheat straw, which is commonly used as horse or livestock bedding. That is what we feed and makes up most of our donkeys’ diets. We also feed a trace mineral supplement, which we mix with a handful of shredded carrots and a teaspoon of flax. We do mix pasture grass or teff hay with the straw, but weigh it when feeding donkeys in need of weight loss. A standard donkey gets 1 lb. 4 oz. of hay and about 2 lbs. of wheat straw. With exercise and proper hoof care, donkeys will lose weight on this feed. You are always going to have trouble, as far north as Minnesota, keeping donkeys at an ideal body condition.

You do need to be a little careful with donkeys, especially minis on any kind of pasture. If it is improved and irrigated, most pastures tend to be too high in soluble carbohydrates (sugars and starches) for donkeys. They tend to get fat rapidly and even founder. This could be causing the diarrhea along with the increased water intake that results from pasture consumption. Additionally, spring exposure to pasture will cause encysted cyathostomes (common intestinal worm called “small strongyles”) to break out of the cysts in the gut mucosa, where they have been living over the winter. This can also cause diarrhea. So it may be worthwhile considering your parasite control measures and having a fecal egg count done. Actually, donkeys do better on pastures that are either dry and not growing, or contain low-digestible energy grasses. We would also recommend that minis be provided with straw (not hay) while they are on pasture, to give them something “low calorie” to fill up on, and prevent over consumption of the excessively nutritious pasture plants.

We use Purina Equine Senior diet, with hay and, yes, carrots for older underweight donkeys. I know you said he has good teeth, but at 32 years old, his premolars and molars must be very short (sometimes called “expired”). This is going to decrease his ability to chew roughage, so going to a pelleted feed, where the particles in the feed are really small. It is a good idea to soak the pellets in a mash with hot water, to make it still easier to digest and avoid pellets getting impacted in her esophagus. A 30-something-year-old jennet that we have now, who weighs about 300 lbs, gets one cup of the Senior three times a day mixed, mixed with a tablespoon of Psyllium to lubricate her bowl. I don’t know how big your jack is, but this may give you some idea. However, even very old donkeys rarely lose weight severely unless they are starved, have expired teeth, or have some other health problem. In addition to the suggestions above, I would suggest doing some blood work on your jack to ensure there aren’t other problems. A Complete Blood Count (CBC), Fibrinogen, and a “Chemistry Panel” including Triglyceride measurement. I would also repeat the parasite test, because the number of parasite eggs (ova) that a donkey will shed (and can be seen on the test) depends on the time of year. A negative fecal flotation on a single animal may or may not mean that there are no worms. Retesting, especially as the climate turns to spring, is a good idea. I am also assuming that this older jack has no joint, back, or jaw problems. Those could make it hard for him to get around and eat.

Thank you for your detailed description of your donkey’s diet. That is really helpful. I would not worry about the oats that much, as that is a pretty small quantity. However, Triticale, which is a hybrid of wheat and rye, may be adding a significant amount of calories to his diet, depending on how much grain is in the hay. If he has gained some weight, but just has some ribs showing, I would back off on his caloric intake a bit. Maybe just Bermuda or other non-grain grass hay, and rely on the alfalfa/grass pellets to provide adequate protein for development. I would keep an eye on his joints, because mammoths can have problems with bone formation if they are well fed and grow too fast, with some becoming quite lame. If you see anything that looks like joint swelling or soreness, having his knees or other joints that appear enlarged radiographed (x-rayed) would be a good idea

We have not fed rice straw to donkeys, and most places in the world where rice is grown are not good donkey habitat. So there is not a lot of experience using rice straw as donkey roughage. However, the stems and leaves of the rice plant are very high in undigestible silica. The small amount of literature that I could find on rice straw for donkeys says that they can eat it if they are given other hay to increase the nutritive value of the whole diet. Also, rice straw, being extremely coarse and hard, would be less appetizing even for donkeys with good teeth. If provided to give the donkeys something to do, it is probably okay. On the other hand, if it is a major part of the diet, there may be problems with malnutrition or intestinal impactions, because of rice straw’s low digestibility

By far the simplest thing would be to feed both the donkey and the horse grass hay. While alfalfa is often fed to horses, it is too high in digestible energy and protein for most horses, unless they are young and growing, lactating, or in heavy work. If your horse needs some protein supplementation (the reason alfalfa is usually fed), a small amount of cubes or pellets in a bucket, away from the donkey, would be a solution. Using a hay net will not keep the donkey from eating the alfalfa leaves that fall on the ground, and, unless you hang it high enough that it will make the horse’s neck uncomfortable while eating, it will not keep the donkey from reaching the alfalfa. I realize that quality, well-cured grass hay may be hard to find in certain parts of the country, but investing in good, low-soluble-carbohydrate roughage would benefit both horse and donkey.

Carrots or chard would be fine. They are tasty and may encourage eating. However, if it has been a week, it may be a good idea for your veterinarian to do a blood test called a CBC (Complete Blood Count), including testing for fibrinogen. If your jenny is getting “bute” or Banamine, she may have an infection, but still not have a fever. A blood test called “clinical chemistry”, including triglycerides, would also be a good idea. She may have had a difficult birth, but after 8 days, she should be feeling better. Donkey-specific normals for these tests are available at the Donkey Sanctuary website.

Grass hay is the number one feed choice for donkeys. Types of grass hay include: Bermuda, Coastal Bermuda, Orchard, Timothy & Brome.

Foxtails are not toxic in any way. They can leave their awns in an animal’s eye, but this only happens when they are really deep and thick. If this were a concern, you could mow the pasture once. Donkeys can eat foxtails, thistles, cactus, and most other plants just fine. The toxic ones are the ornamentals like Oleander, which is extremely toxic. It should not be found in a high desert pasture. As with most donkey nutrition issues, the fact is that donkeys are extremely efficient, and if there are a lot of plants of any kind, donkeys will tend to get fat on them. I have seen this in dry native pasture in the Sierra Foothills in California. So I would just make sure that they are not gaining weight. Again, mowing to decrease biomass will help with this.

Your veterinarian is absolutely right about needing to pay attention to the carbohydrate intake on donkeys, as they are so much more efficient than horse in extracting nutrients from feeds. As with any equid that is not keeping adequate weight you always want to check the condition of their teeth very carefully, even including a radiograph in older animals. We recently had one with a broken tooth root but looked normal on a regular oral exam. Parasites should also be considered, especially if pasture is available even part of the year. Assuming these are not problems, older animals can need extra nutrition. We just use Purina Equine Senior. One very old donkey we have gets a ½ cup three times a day with two tablespoons of flax meal. She does fine even though all her cheek teeth are expired. She also gets hay and straw with the other donkeys, so we include some psyllium with her Senior in the form of a moist mash. This lubricates her intestines and prevents impactions from the roughage. We use this approach and recommend it to donkeys with missing or expired teeth. Feeding some carrot slices with cucumber, celery, beet greens (not the whole beet), and chard increases their intake and they really like it. You can feed a cup or two of that mix without being concerned about excessive sugar or starches.

Zinc taken orally has a very low toxicity for all species. Unfortunately, the research to establish a “toxic dose” for donkeys has not been done. The main concerns about excess Zinc in the diet are that, because it is a metallic mineral, like Copper, Iron, Manganese, and Cadmium, it can interfere with the essential bone growth trace mineral Copper and also Iron, which has a large number of functions in the body. The only cases where this caused a problem were in young, growing horses. So, in an old miniature donkey, zinc excess causing a Copper deficiency would be really unlikely. Actually, excess Iron in soils and the forage plants that grow from them are more likely to cause Zinc deficiency. This is why supplements, like California Trace, claim that their zinc-containing product is necessary to overcome the high Iron levels in many horse and donkey feeds. Further, the USDA regulates the amount of minerals that can be in a supplement. Commonly used ones, such as those you mentioned, would have safe, often times low, levels of these trace minerals. I would not worry about them for your donkey.

Yes, your Poitou donkey could have a congenital hip problem, causing muscle atrophy over her back and hips. However, more likely this is a result of the PPID, as animals with this endocrine problem tend to redistribute fat to their lower abdomen and lose subcutaneous fat on their backs, along with muscle. They do this irrespective of treatment, which is mostly directed at preventing the most serious consequence of the disease, which is laminitis. It is really important that her teeth are in good shape, too, as that will affect her ability to digest important nutrients. You could increase her protein intake by adding a small amount of equine senior to her diet. In addition, she should be getting a trace mineral supplement. Just a mineral block is not adequate in most cases. We use California Trace, but there are many on the market that are about the same thing. To keep our donkeys happy, they get a “salad” of sliced carrots with their supplement in the afternoon, and we will replace some of the carrots with celery, chard, or cucumber, depending on the season. Bananas might be fed as a special treat, but they are very high in soluble starch and sugar, so I would be very careful about that. I think you are going at this the right way in general. I would just give it time, as it can take a traumatized donkey a long time to adjust to a better life

Yes, but in very little moderation. If you can get a mineral lick instead of loose minerals, that would be better for the donkey, so they don’t overdo it.

I am pretty conservative about feed supplements for donkeys, or horses for that matter. I am fortunate in that I live in the Sacramento Valley, where, for many millennia, minerals have washed out of the mountains of a large geographic area in Northern California. So mineral and trace element deficiencies are rare. Up where I used to live, where that water started in those mountains, things like Selenium and Copper deficiencies were not unusual. I guess the point is: it depends. The quality of forage fed and where it is grown has a large effect on the need for mineral and vitamin supplementation. I know of a colleague who likes California Trace. It is not only a good source of trace elements (Selenium, Copper, Magnesium, Zinc) but also has a good mix of sulfur amino acids, which some research suggests are good for hoof quality. Vitamins, other than Vitamin E (which can be deficient in poorly cured hay), are rarely necessary. Donkeys (and horses) make B vitamins and others in their colon. So spending money on these supplements is not a good investment, though more of them have no deleterious effect. Horse Guard is okay too, as long as it does not contain molasses or other highly digestible sugar calories. I couldn’t find a feed analysis for Horse Guard.

There are a variety of treats given that the donkey is on a good diet, like yours is. Some trainers like just plain whole oats as a reward or treat. A few handfuls of a high fiber grain like that is okay, as a reward in training. I have found small pellets and oats a little clumsy to handle, and we use just thin carrot slices. One can also use celery or cucumbers….or chard, depending on what you grow in your garden. We grow all these, feed a “salad” to all donkeys once a day (in addition to some hay and straw), and they do great. Some like carrots more than cucumbers and vice versa. You just have to experiment.

Sugar beets, depending on their degree of maturity (and therefor sugar content) could cause serious problems in a donkey. Though it is unlikely that just one would cause founder (laminitis) it is certainly possible. The other danger from sugar beets is choke. Large animals tend to bolt the tasty tubers and can get them stuck in their esophagus. Many years ago, when farms around Davis, California, raised a lot of sugar beets, they used to graze cattle on the leftovers after the beets had been topped and harvested. Some of my classmates had jobs “ridin’ beets”, in which they would ride through the fields looking for cattle choking on beet tops. They would open the animal and reach down their mouth and gullet to pull out pieces of beet that were stuck there. Carrots, celery, chard, or cucumbers are fine, but no beets.

My short answer is yes. I live in central NY where selenium deficient soils are a huge problem. That may not be the case in your location. However, donkeys do need other vitamins and minerals that are typically not present in sufficient quantities in most dry forages. Also, in my experience, even providing the salt blocks that contain selenium and other trace nutrients are not usually sufficient either. I find that the donkeys just don’t tend to lick them enough to consume adequate quantities. I would recommend feeding California Trace once daily at the dose provided on the label. It is a great way to be sure they are getting the essential micronutrients that they need and, if your donkeys are anything like mine, they will even think of it as a treat too and look forward to it each day.

Sulfur is a nutrient and is healthy for all animals in small quantities. It has also been used topically for external parasites. There is no objective research showing that it is particularly effective against internal parasites. So, to be on the safe side, you might consider giving your mini as part of a mixed trace mineral supplement or salt block. This would avoid mistakes in dosage and still give your donkey some of this important mineral.

Donkeys store fat above the nuchal ligament in the crest of their necks. That is the most likely cause of a swollen crest. If this is the case that donkey needs to eat less calories and get more exercise because it is getting obese. Once serious excess fat deposits set in, they are very hard to get rid of. Donkeys do fine on straw (just plain old wheat or barley straw) and a little grass hay, with maybe a mineral supplement. No alfalfa, no pellets, no grain! Also, since donkeys are individuals, just like people, one donkey in a herd will tend to accumulate more fat than another. However, both could benefit from a bit of dieting.

A broken crest is not a health problem for a donkey, as long as it is no longer obese. This condition does not affect that animal’s soundness in any way, just its looks.

Donkeys have evolved to store any tiny amount of energy that they possibly can. They build up fat in their abdomen (where you can’t see it), in their scrotum (in the case of jacks), and on the crest of their necks (which is what causes the collapsed crest). Basically, this donkey, either now or at some time in the past, has been eating too many calories and has built up adipose tissue (fat) around the nuchal ligament (in the crest of the neck). These calories could have come from grass (green or dry), hay, grain, or excessive treats. You have to remember that donkeys THRIVE in Death Valley, one of the sparsest and most extreme environments on the planet. A carrot and an apple by themselves would not be enough to cause the problem, but a generally high level of energy intake would.

It is very hard to maintain proper weight on donkeys that are not living in the dry west and southwest, with short annual grasses for forage. Besides looking at your jenny’s abdomen, look at the crest of her neck and the fat pads to the side of her tail. These areas are good places to estimate actual fat accumulation. Sometimes abdominal “wideness” in a non-pregnant animal can be the result of aging. Donkeys get “saggy” as they age. However, you are quite right: muzzling the jennet or changing to a dry pasture or paddock will be necessary to prevent weight gain if there is enough spring grass. Something else to consider is the amount of exercise. Hiking, jogging, or working with your donkey can help.

If the muscle loss in the hips is a result of nerve injury, feed will be unlikely to bring it back. Another issue in an old donkey like that is the condition of her teeth. At that stage of life, they are often “expired” (no crown above the gum line). If that is the case, she will need to eat processed feed like Equine Senior, which we have found will maintain weight in an older donkey, safely. Soaking the pellets in warm water and adding psyllium to it makes the diet easier to eat and digest (no chewing required) and will lubricate the bowel to help prevent impaction from coarse roughage. You will still need to feed hay to give her something to do.

Your gelded jack may just have the genetics to have an “angular” body. Some donkeys tend to have a thin “top line” and a larger abdomen, like a dairy cow. So, this may not be that abnormal, and you are right to slow his feed intake when you noticed that he was building a fat pad on the top of his neck. Donkeys tend to store fat in a lot of parts of their body, but the top of the neck is one of the first and most prominent. It is like a camel’s hump (also a fat deposit). There is nothing wrong with being able to see his ribs. In fact, a donkey (or a horse) in ideal weight you might expect to at least be able to feel the ribs. Looking at your donkey’s diet I would consider the quality of the hay. It should be mold free and not have a lot of grain or legume (clover or alfalfa) in it. The diet should also include trace minerals like zinc, copper, and manganese, and not too much iron. The iron is needed but too much of it will decrease the absorption of other minerals. There are a number of trace minerals and “ration balancers’ on the market. They are all pretty similar. To get your donkey to eat their mineral supplement, you can mix it with some tasty vegetables. We use carrots and add chard, celery, or cucumbers (in season). These are mostly fiber and water, so they don’t add a lot of calories. It would also be a good idea to have his manure checked for parasites. Even though you are deworming frequently, don’t assume that you have controlled parasites. They can be really sneaky. So , it is good to check.

I have attached a brief paper on refeeding starved or malnourished donkeys. As this states, the recommendations are based on what has worked in horses, simply because the research has not been done in donkeys. They make a good point in making sure that you have a veterinary examination, to be sure that there are no severe dental problems and, in this donkey’s case, to ensure that there are not musculoskeletal or neurologic problems that are keeping the donkey from standing. A blood test for triglycerides and liver enzymes would also be a good idea, because if these are high, the donkey may need IV Dextrose to avoid life-threatening hyperlipemia. As far as the actual feeding goes, Clean water should always be available, and if it is very cold where you are, it should be slightly warmed. Trough heaters are available in cold climates.
Feed a soft, highly nutritious pelleted or chopped feed. This can be soaked in warm water to make it easier for an animal with oral problems to eat. This should be fed at 75% of what the feed sack recommends initially, gradually building to 100% over a week. The feedings should be divided into 5 or 6 feedings per day (every 4 hours or so). We have had very good results with Purina Equine Senior. The brand names used in this article are from the UK and won’t be familiar to your feed store.
Do not use very high molasses or straight grain feeds. They are too high in soluble carbohydrates and can cause digestive problems. We have used cooked oatmeal in 1-cup quantities for animals that are not eating anything at all.
Make good-quality grass hay readily available at all times. Do not use alfalfa, except in small quantities. There is sufficient protein in the concentrated feed mentioned above.
Make sure that a recumbent animal is bedded in soft, dry bedding, and that if this donkey is not standing, you move it from one side to the other to avoid the development of sores.
Gradually increase the feed intake, and start switching to primarily hay as the donkey starts gaining strength.
From the start, a trace mineral supplement and salt should be available. There is a lot of misinformation around about feeding only white salt. This is none sense and having a mineral-supplemented salt is fine. We use California Trace, but there are a variety of mineral supplements available that work just fine. If the hay and pellets used are of good quality, vitamin supplements are no necessary and don’t give vitamin shots.
If you need to help this donkey to stand, use the Rescue Loop System. https://loopsrescue.com
Loops Rescue System
Large Animal Sedation & Anesthesia EMERGENCY FIELD GUIDE
loopsrescue.com

Some increase in neck crest fat is common in donkeys that have a Body Condition Score at or just above ideal weight, regardless of the scale that you are using. Donkeys store fat in this location preferentially and, great savers that they are, will enlarge their crests at the slightest opportunity. Having a Pituitary Adenoma ( referred to as “Cushing’s Disease” in equids) makes this more likely, as the Pergolide (Prascend) only helps with symptoms, but does not cure the disease. It will be difficult Some increase in neck crest fat is common in donkeys that have a Body Condition Score at or just above ideal weight, regardless of the scale that you are using. Donkeys store fat in this location preferentially and, great savers that they are, will enlarge their crests at the slightest opportunity. Having a Pituitary Adenoma ( referred to as “Cushing’s Disease” in equids) makes this more likely, as the Pergolide (Prascend) only helps with symptoms, but does not cure the disease. It will be difficult to keep him happy if he cannot eat any roughage, and it would be interesting to know what kind of tumor is preventing him from eating hay. This is because the simplest thing would be to dilute his diet with long stem straw. However, if the tumor cannot be treated, this may not be an option. The grain will significantly contribute to his weight gain, and unless donkeys are debilitated or lactating, we do not recommend feeding grain at all. Chopped roughage or high fiber pellets, soaked to make them easy to swallow, might be a solution. You can add Psyllium (about 1/3 cup daily) to “lubricate” swallowing and digestive passage in animals that cannot eat hay for some reason. Adding a mineral supplement, like California Trace, to the diet would balance all trace mineral requirements. Finally, for donkeys that get bored because their diet is consumed too fast, environmental enrichment by spreading out feeding stations that they have to travel to one after the other or just taking them for hikes, really helps. The extra exercise would also help keep him from getting fat.

I suppose that Purina Equine Senior does have some sugar in it, as most pellets are held together by molasses. However, if judiciously fed, this should not be a problem. We are feeding in cup quantities, mixed with flaxseed, and some vegetables (carrots, chard, and cucumber). Adding corn oil would add digestible calories and can be an effective way of improving weight gain. If you wanted to do that, I would start by adding very small amounts (a teaspoon) to a mash containing the above. You might build up to a tablespoon over a few weeks. Herbivore digestive tracks can handle fats (lipids in the oil), but their microbiome needs time to acclimate.

My name is Cindy Davis. I am Eric Davis’ wife and the person here who is in charge of our feeding program. We do not have a huge herd, but have cared for as many as 26 donkeys at a time and have treated no fewer than 13 (again, not a huge number but enough to form an opinion) obese donkeys, 6 of whom were morbidly obese. I have both questions and information that I would like to ask you/share with you.

Firstly, I have used Thyro L quite successfully in 3 donkeys. These were the last three donkeys that I treated, and I would not hesitate to use it again, as I do believe that it works. I think your problem is related to the volume of feed your animal is getting.

Secondly, I am curious as to how much the hay you are feeding this donkey weighs? You will need a good scale to determine this, and frankly, you can not diet a donkey, particularly a mini donkey, without carefully weighing out their feed. I use a Salter model 235 6M (we weigh all of the hay we feed to the donkeys, ALL OF IT, three meals a day for 16 donkeys and a mini mule). I had tried several fishing scales, but they broke frequently and were simply not accurate enough. The Salter is a workhorse, is well-made, and most importantly, accurate!

Thirdly, you need to know what your donkey should weigh. Since we do not know your donkey, I can guess, or you can consult your veterinarian. For the overweight miniature donkeys I have treated (total of 5), I would use 300 to 350 pounds as my ideal body weight (again, check with your veterinarian).

An equid on a diet should be fed 1% of its ideal body weight in dry matter (many donkeys meet their caloric needs, even when only eating straw, at 1.3% of their body weight, so you have no chance of changing a morbidly obese mini donkey’s weight if you feed more than 1%). This means that a donkey on a weight loss regimen of this ideal weight should get a total of 3 to 3.5 pounds of total feed per day.

DO NOT CHANGE THE DIET OVERNIGHT. I would reduce the amount of hay so that it took two weeks to get to a reasonable amount. I currently feed two miniature donkeys. They each receive roughly a half-pound of hay a day. The hay is shaken to remove as much high-calorie seed as we can. Even at this level with wheat straw in their diet, they are slightly heavy.

None of the obese donkeys I have fed have been candidates for free-feeding straw. There is always some grain in the straw, and the more of it you feed, the greater the chance that they are simply foraging for the grain and other higher-calorie tidbits they can find in it and leaving the stems behind. Even the straw we feed to our main herd is titrated. We feed them just enough that there is a light layer of straw on the ground below the feeders to minimize waste. I currently feed two miniature donkeys.

My recommendation for helping your donkey become its best self would be to (assuming that she should weigh 350 pounds again, consult your vet). Give this plan at least two months before you decide if it is working.

Transition to this diet over a two-week period.

1. Put Martha back on Thyro-L
2. Weigh everything!
3. Feed 1/2 pound of hay a day mixed into 3 pounds of straw a day, fed in a medium hole (1 1/4 inch holes) hay net to slow eating down.
4. Discontinue feeding beet pulp.
5. Discontinue yeast extract. Donkeys have very low dietary protein needs and these can be met by straw, even if they are not getting any hay.
6. Feed a one-ounce scoop of either flax meal or chia seeds, but discontinue one or the other. (if no weight loss is seen after two months, discontinue the flax meal and see if that makes a difference.
7. Shake the straw to remove any grain that might be present.
8. If Martha has access to any grass, discontinue it immediately.

Reevaluate diet in two months. Please let us know how this goes,

The only things that I would add are:
There is no advantage to giving thyroid hormones by injection, and you run the risk of negatively affecting the normal diurnal hormone rhythms. There is no research on the safety of injectable Thryo L in donkeys.
Since fat deposition is affected by “calories in vs. calories out”, putting your mini on an exercise regimen would also help. This can be done in a variety of ways, including walking or hiking with your donkey, or making an exercise trail that encourages them to walk some distance for food and water.

There are a lot of reasons why donkeys may have soft feces. While parasites are not impossible, they are an unlikely cause of wet stool unless they are really severe. If you are going to test for parasites, be sure and test all the donkeys, as if you have a parasite problem, different donkeys can shed parasite ova at different rates. Other possible causes would include sand in their colon (your veterinarian can diagnose this by listening to the bowel with a stethoscope), chewing on leaves or bark in the pasture, or their estrus cycles if they are jennets. Some donkeys just get intermittent soft feces or “cow poop” for no apparent reason and are perfectly healthy.
On the overweight donkeys: feed a handful of alfalfa (literally) twice a day for a week, then once a day for another week, and that should be fine. Do make sure that their teeth are in good shape and the continue to eat the straw and Bermuda. Where you get into trouble is if they are really fat and stop eating, which can lead to hyperlipemia. It might be a good idea to do some blood work on them, with a clinical chemistry that includes a test for Triglycerides, which could warn you ahead of time if hyperlipemia is starting.

Obese donkeys should not be on grass, grazing muzzle or not. The problem is that in some studies done by Dr. Elizabeth Tadros, which were presented at the Donkey Welfare Symposium a couple of years ago, she demonstrated that donkeys quickly learn to get more and more food through the muzzle. Minis particularly are just have such minimal energy requirements that they will stay obese if they can get to any pasture at all. Unfortunately, you will need to go to a dry lot situation, with frequent feedings of small amounts of hay to make any progress. You will also have to make sure that there is a vitamin/mineral supplement, because your donkey will need those, even if it is eating less. Here is a good basic discussion of feeding an obese donkey for weight loss: https://www.thedonkeysanctuary.org.uk/sites/uk/files/2019-02/feeding-&-managing-the-overweight-donkey.pdf

This is written in the UK, where it rains all the time and grass is everywhere, and is designed with standard donkeys in mind. One has to be that much more careful with minis. It is a good idea to get a scale and actually weigh the amount that you are feeding. Don’t go below 1.75% of body weight (your veterinarian can help you estimate your donkey’s weight. If the feet have been attended to, exercise can also help. Go walking or hiking with your donkey at least several times a week. This does sound like a lot of work, but both you and your mini will be happier and healthier for it.

If your donkey is already obese, getting her to a normal weight is going to be difficult, just as is the case with humans. Besides diet restrictions, you need to look at exercise as part of your plan. This could be done by going on walks, running with your donkey, or teaching her to drive or pull logs. The trouble with giving any exposure to pasture is that this donkey can graze enough to gain weight in 45 minutes, much less being on pasture all night. Instead of a stall, your donkey would do better in a large dry lot (no grass), where it could be housed with a couple of its friends. Using portable panels, you can arrange it so that several donkeys can be fed individually at meal time. The obese donkey should be on a straw diet, supplemented with trace minerals and literally handfuls of hay. Feed at least 3 times a day, but just small quantities. The slimmer donkeys can eat separately, but in the same general paddock, where they can see each other, and then all the donkeys can be together in between meals. You can graze your pasture down with sheep or goats to get the grass short or non-existent, which will be better for all the donkeys. I do not know what part of the country you are in, but in the more humid northern, eastern, or southeastern states, pastures are just too rich for donkeys. These animals have evolved to live in very arid and sparse conditions.

If your donkey is already obese, getting her to a normal weight is going to be difficult, just as is the case with humans. Besides diet restrictions, you need to look at exercise as part of your plan. This could be done by going on walks, running with your donkey, or teaching her to drive or pull logs. The trouble with giving any exposure to pasture is that this donkey can graze enough to gain weight in 45 minutes, much less being on pasture all night. Instead of a stall, your donkey would do better in a large dry lot (no grass), where it could be housed with a couple of its friends. Using portable panels, you can arrange it so that several donkeys can be fed individually at meal time. The obese donkey should be on a straw diet, supplemented with trace minerals and literally handfuls of hay. Feed at least 3 times a day, but just small quantities. The slimmer donkeys can eat separately, but in the same general paddock, where they can see each other, and then all the donkeys can be together in between meals. You can graze your pasture down with sheep or goats to get the grass short or non-existent, which will be better for all the donkeys. I do not know what part of the country you are in, but in the more humid northern, eastern, or southeastern states, pastures are just too rich for donkeys. These animals have evolved to live in very arid and sparse conditions.

I am glad you have your donkey on a diet. It is really hard to keep donkeys trim and healthy, given the hay that is available in this country. It will be difficult to get rid of the neck crest once it has formed, as that is a prime place for donkeys to store energy. However, getting an exercise program going will do the most to reduce its size. Hiking, jogging, or teaching your donkey how to pull a cart are all things that will not only help with the fat deposition but also make you and your donkey happier.

I am not at PVDR, but to answer your question, generally, I would need to know if the weight problem is weight gain or weight loss. Donkeys, including mini donkeys, are metabolically different than horses, with the tendency to become overweight very easily. This is because of various physical and behavioral adaptations that have stuck with donkeys from the time that they adapted to the very harsh environment of eastern Africa. Among these are a very effective chewing ability to grind even the coarsest feed into digestible particles, an extended gut transit time, a greater percentage of their body being digestive organs, and a metabolic condition referred to as “insulin resistance”, which tends to make them store every morsel of energy that they consume. It is entirely possible that a miniature donkey, who is not getting a lot of exercise or not ‘working,’ could gain a lot of weight on good-quality coastal Bermuda grass, with no supplements added. We have found it hard to keep donkeys fit (BCS of 3 on a 1-5 scale, or between 4 and 6 on the 1-9 Hennecke scale) without feeding at least part of the diet as straw. Barley straw is preferred, but wheat straw (with NO grain in it) works and is often the only option available. Donkeys are individuals, and the amount of hay vs. straw will vary depending on the donkey’s feeding behavior and individual metabolism. We occasionally feed supplements to older donkeys or others who, for some reason, don’t maintain a healthy body weight on hay. What has worked the best is Equine Senior, fed at 1/3 the horse dose and softened with warm water for those with bad teeth. I would doubt that this would be necessary in a mini.

Judging if a donkey is getting overly fat is difficult. Donkeys will often get an increase in their crest before fat is deposited anywhere else. I applaud your diligence in worrying about this, as many people don’t until is has already become a problem. I would suggest a few things:
There is nothing wrong with substituting wheat straw for barley straw. Our donkeys main diet is wheat straw and they do fine. The get a very small amount of grass hay, and a evening carrot/chard/cucumber salad (okay…that’s a little off the wall but they really like it). However, the hay and salad are literally handfuls, with most calories coming from the straw. This includes two mini’s who are doing fine.
Increase exercise: which is good for everybody. If you donkeys do not have a large paddock to roam in, start hiking/running with them, depending on your own exercise regimen. Consider teaching your mini how to pull a cart, snig (drag logs through a course), or do obstacles. Using up some of that excess energy will help.
While there is little toxicity associated with thyroid supplementation, this should ONLY be considered as a VERY last resort. Thyroid hormones have multiple metabolic effects and you don’t want to cause a problem in trying to solve something that can be addressed other ways

Judging if a donkey is getting overly fat is difficult. Donkeys will often get an increase in their crest before fat is deposited anywhere else. I applaud your diligence in worrying about this, as many people don’t until is has already become a problem. I would suggest a few things:
There is nothing wrong with substituting wheat straw for barley straw. Our donkeys main diet is wheat straw and they do fine. The get a very small amount of grass hay, and a evening carrot/chard/cucumber salad (okay…that’s a little off the wall but they really like it). However, the hay and salad are literally handfuls, with most calories coming from the straw. This includes two mini’s who are doing fine.
Increase exercise: which is good for everybody. If you donkeys do not have a large paddock to roam in, start hiking/running with them, depending on your own exercise regimen. Consider teaching your mini how to pull a cart, snig (drag logs through a course), or do obstacles. Using up some of that excess energy will help.
While there is little toxicity associated with thyroid supplementation, this should ONLY be considered as a VERY last resort. Thyroid hormones have multiple metabolic effects and you don’t want to cause a problem in trying to solve something that can be addressed other ways

I would replace the small amount of grain with lettuce and carrots for a little extra treat. The grain may be low-fat, but there is a lot of soluble carbohydrate in all grains, and donkeys just don’t need that, unless they are being rehabilitated. There really are no supplements that will reduce the “pones ” or fat deposits. The best approach is to decrease caloric intake and increase exercise. Walking/hiking is as good for donkeys as it is for humans. However, I would also like to point out that donkeys are the world champs at storing energy as fat. Even donkeys that are trim will retain fat deposits on their necks and rump once they have developed. As far as the hoof issue: donkeys will develop a thickened layer of hoof wall at the toes that can separate and appear as an extra layer. The reason for this is unclear. There is virtually no research on it, and even experienced farriers have various theories and approaches to treating it. My observation is that when this layer is rasped off, and the hooves are carefully and regularly trimmed, they can become normal. Some would recommend a trace mineral supplement like California Trace to improve hoof health and formation. There is no objective proof that these work, but we are using CT on our donkeys.

It would be very hard to keep a donkey from getting fat in a place with as much rainfall and grass as NC. Remember, these animals evolved to live in an extreme desert environment and are MUCH more efficient in digesting forage than horses. We just identified a 30+ year old donkey that had lived its entire life in Death Valley, and it was in good shape. That is a tough and efficient animal. It is really important that donkeys not be allowed to get fat, because when they do, it is difficult to get them to lose weight, and they are at risk for metabolic diseases and laminitis. Recommendations:
Do not feed your donkey grain ever. It is unnecessary and has way too many digestible calories for a donkey.
IF the donkey is going to be in a pasture, it needs to be a pasture that is as dry as possible. The high-energy spring growth should be avoided. This can be done by strip grazing or chopping the grass really short. Muzzles are another option, as is dry lot, though donkeys like to get out in a pasture.
Do not feed the donkey with the horses because horse nutritional requirements are much different, and horse feed and hay is just too rich.
Feed a high fiber, properly cured, grass hay or straw as the primary roughage. We feed our donkeys primarily straw with just a little rye grass hay here in California, and they do great. The Donkey Sanctuary recommends feeding barley straw. Costal Bermuda, Orchard grass, and Teff hays are okay, but should be tested to make sure they are not too high in non-structural carbohydrates. Hays differ around the country, so it is hard to make blanket recommendations. DO utilize advice from The Donkey Sanctuary, especially since they are in an environment that has similar rainfall characteristics to NC. Do NOT use advice on Facebook, unless the content is curated (such as the PVDR site); there are just too many pseudo-experts on social media.
Finally, make sure your donkey gets plenty of exercise. You can easily train them to drive or pack, and hiking or running with your donkey is one of my favorites.

These are always tough cases. Yes, your veterinarian is right in that obesity can result in liver damage or a “fatty liver syndrome”. Just like in other animals (dogs, cats, and humans…), losing excess weight is hard and takes time. Don’t get impatient. It also takes both a decrease in digestible calories AND an increase in exercise. What we have had the best luck with is using a high fiber roughage, because it keeps the donkeys happy, gives them something to do, and exercises their digestive tract without providing a lot of calories. The Donkey Sanctuary recommends Barley Straw (the stems of the barley plant without any grain on it) as the best roughage. The trouble is that in most of the USA, barley is not a common crop. So, instead, we have used wheat straw, and it has worked just fine. This is usually reserved for horse bedding in the USA, but donkeys can use it quite effectively as feed. Make sure that there are no wheat heads in the straw and have your donkey’s mouth examined to make sure the teeth are in good shape. Obviously, the donkey needs to be fenced out of places where it can “help” the horses with their feed, and NO green pasture. Donkeys are just not evolved to live on highly digestible feeds. Then, start taking walks with your donkey or teach it how to do obstacle courses, or (what I have done), train it to pull a wagon. Donkeys enjoy “having a job” and “getting out”. They are very easy to train, and it is FUN! The nutrients that donkeys need that are not found in straw are few and can be supplemented with a variety of calorie-free additions to the diet, which you can feed with a low-cal treat like some chopped carrots, cucumbers, or chard.