Raising a donkey is a rewarding but long-term commitment. Donkeys can live up to 50 years in captivity, so bringing one home means potentially decades of daily care. They’re also not small horses. Donkeys have distinct dietary needs, different hoof anatomy, coats that can’t handle rain the way a horse’s can, and a social life that requires at least one companion. Here’s what you need to know to keep a donkey healthy and happy.
Never Keep Just One
Donkeys are deeply social animals that form specific, lasting friendships. Research published in Applied Animal Behaviour Science confirmed what experienced handlers have long observed: donkeys form genuine pair-bonds and can recognize their preferred companion from other familiar or unfamiliar donkeys. These bonds are so strong that separating a bonded pair can cause extreme distress, loss of appetite, and a dangerous metabolic condition called hyperlipaemia.
Plan on keeping at least two donkeys from the start. If you’re adopting, many rescues will only rehome bonded pairs together. A single donkey housed with horses or goats may tolerate the arrangement, but it’s no substitute for same-species companionship.
Feeding: More Straw, Less Grass
This is where donkeys differ most dramatically from horses. Donkeys evolved in arid, scrubby environments and thrive on a high-fiber, low-sugar diet. Rich pasture grass and generous helpings of hay, the standard horse diet, will make a donkey fat and sick.
Barley straw should form the majority of a donkey’s diet. It’s the best all-around option for most healthy donkeys, providing the fiber they need without excess calories. Grass, hay, or haylage should make up only about 25 to 50 percent of total intake, depending on the season. Even for young, growing donkeys, straw should never be outweighed by hay or haylage. Think of the richer forages as a top-up, not the main course.
Fresh, clean water should always be available. Donkeys that are working, pregnant, or nursing will need supplemental feed, but for the average pet donkey, the biggest nutritional risk is overfeeding, not underfeeding. Obesity leads to a painful hoof condition called laminitis and puts strain on joints that may already be carrying more weight than a wild donkey ever would.
Shelter Is Not Optional
Horses can puff up their coats in cold or wet weather, trapping an insulating layer of air against their skin. Donkeys cannot. They lack the tiny muscles in their hair follicles that allow horses to make their coat stand on end. Once a donkey’s hair gets wet and flattened, it loses all insulating ability. This makes sense when you consider their ancestry: domestic donkeys descend from wild asses that evolved in the hot, dry deserts of North Africa, not the rainy pastures of Europe or North America.
Every donkey needs access to a sturdy, dry shelter they can enter and leave freely. A three-sided field shelter that blocks wind and rain works well for mild climates. In regions with harsh winters, an enclosed barn with good ventilation is better. The shelter should be large enough for all your donkeys to use at once without crowding, since a dominant animal may block a smaller one from entering a tight space.
Hoof Care Every 6 to 10 Weeks
Donkey hooves look and behave differently from horse hooves. They’re boxier and more upright, angled 5 to 10 degrees steeper than a horse’s foot. The sole is U-shaped rather than round, and donkeys grow almost as much sole as hoof wall. Unlike horses, whose excess sole tends to flake off naturally, donkeys need a farrier to pare that buildup away.
A farrier should visit every six to ten weeks. Finding one experienced with donkeys is important, because trimming a donkey hoof the same way you’d trim a horse hoof can cause problems. Older donkeys may have trouble holding a leg up for long periods, so let your farrier know if your animal has arthritis or mobility issues so they can work in shorter intervals.
Wet, muddy conditions soften donkey hooves and invite bacterial infections like thrush. Keeping shelter areas dry and mucking out regularly goes a long way toward preventing hoof problems between trims.
Dental Checkups and What to Watch For
Donkeys need routine dental exams at least once a year, ideally from a vet or equine dental technician familiar with donkeys. Dental disease is common: one large study found that over a third of donkeys examined had missing cheek teeth, and other issues like gaps between teeth, uneven wear, and ulcers were also documented. These problems aren’t just cosmetic. Missing teeth and gaps between teeth significantly increase the risk of a type of colic caused by food impaction in the gut.
Donkeys with dental disease also tend to carry less body weight, which creates a vicious cycle: poor teeth lead to poor digestion, which leads to weight loss and greater vulnerability to further gut problems. The tricky part is that donkeys are stoic animals. They rarely show obvious pain, so you can’t rely on dramatic symptoms to tell you something is wrong. Subtle signs include dropping partially chewed food, eating more slowly than usual, or a gradual decline in body condition.
Parasites: A Silent Threat
Donkeys are commonly asymptomatic carriers of lungworm, a parasite that lives in the airways. Most infected donkeys show few or no obvious signs, but the infection can make them more vulnerable to pneumonia and other respiratory diseases. It’s also a serious concern if your donkeys share pasture with horses, since horses are far more sensitive to lungworm and can develop severe coughing and breathing difficulty from an infection passed along by a seemingly healthy donkey.
Your vet should perform fecal egg counts at least once a year, ideally in spring before warm weather allows larvae to develop on pasture. If lungworm larvae are found, treatment can dramatically reduce the parasite burden. One month after treatment, a follow-up fecal test determines whether the donkey is safe to graze alongside horses that summer. Beyond lungworm, donkeys also carry intestinal parasites like strongyles and should be on a targeted deworming program based on fecal testing rather than a blanket schedule.
Vaccinations
Donkeys need the same core vaccinations recommended for horses: tetanus, Eastern and Western equine encephalomyelitis, West Nile virus, and rabies. However, most equine vaccines are technically only licensed for use in horses, and limited data exists on their effectiveness in donkeys. In practice, vets routinely vaccinate donkeys on the same schedule as horses, but your veterinarian may adjust timing or products based on your region and your donkey’s health history.
Poisonous Plants to Remove
Before your donkeys set foot on any pasture, walk every inch of it and check the fence lines, hedgerows, and any overhanging trees. Donkeys are browsers by nature and will investigate plants that horses might ignore. Several common species are lethal in small quantities:
- Yew: A single mouthful can cause death by heart failure.
- Hemlock: Contains toxins that attack the nervous system and can kill within hours.
- Rhododendron: Causes death by respiratory failure, sometimes within a few hours of ingestion.
- Foxglove: Disrupts the heart’s electrical activity at every stage of the plant’s growth.
- Privet: Even a small amount can be fatal within 4 to 48 hours.
- Bracken: Poisoning builds up over time and becomes fatal after one to two months of regular consumption.
If you can’t identify every plant on your property, consider hiring a local botanist or experienced equine keeper to do a walkthrough. Remove toxic plants entirely, roots and all, rather than fencing them off. A determined donkey will find a way through a fence if something interesting is on the other side.
Understanding Donkey Behavior
The biggest mistake new donkey owners make is treating a donkey like a stubborn horse. Donkeys aren’t stubborn. They’re cautious. When a horse encounters something frightening, its instinct is to bolt. A donkey’s instinct is to freeze and assess the situation. This freeze response looks like defiance to someone expecting a horse-like reaction, but it’s actually a survival strategy from an animal that evolved in rocky desert terrain where running blindly could mean a broken leg.
Training a donkey requires patience and reward-based methods. Pressure and force will only reinforce the freeze response or, worse, push a donkey into a fight response. Start with the basics: let the donkey approach you on its terms, reward calm behavior with a scratch on the withers or a small treat, and build trust incrementally. Donkeys have excellent memories. A single bad experience with a handler, a farrier, or a trailer can take months to undo. A consistently positive one, on the other hand, creates an animal that’s calm, cooperative, and genuinely bonded to you.
Space and Fencing
A pair of donkeys needs a minimum of about half an acre of turnout space, though more is always better. The land should be well-drained, since donkeys do poorly on waterlogged ground. Rotate pastures when possible to manage parasite loads and prevent overgrazing.
Standard horse fencing works for donkeys, but avoid barbed wire. Donkeys have thinner skin than horses and are more prone to nasty cuts from barbs. Post-and-rail, stock fencing, or electric tape all work well. Check fence lines regularly, because donkeys are intelligent, curious animals that will test weak points and lean on gates.