Monday, August 13, 2012

Donkeys—Are You Hungry?

Tom and I knew very little about donkeys when we bought them. We just thought they were cool and would be fun to have as pets. We didn't know what they ate or how to take care of them, but we figured we could learn just like we did with our chickens. And learn we did. We now know they eat and poop all day long. That's what they do. ALL DAY LONG! And they don't eat normal stuff like meat and potatoes. They eat grass, branches, twigs, hay, and tree bark. I'm sure there's probably more to add to the list, but for now, that's all we know about. Both Donkey and Sable have tried to nibble on my jeans, but I guess they don't have much interest in material things (pardon the pun), because they didn't strip the clothes off my back like they did the bark on the trees. Notice the tree in the picture (which used to be a healthy plum tree full of leaves and branches) has been stripped clean of bark all the way up as far as the donkey's teeth could reach. Note: The rest of the trees in the corral look the same way.

Because of their fondness for wood, they must have decided that the chicken coop looked like dessert, so they helped themselves to the trim. Fortunately, we nipped that in the bud before they could do real damage. We put up a separate fence just to keep them out of the coop. Sable is not happy about that. Donkey doesn't care—he's got me to nibble on.

Will they eat the fence? We'll just have to wait and see.

*Chairs in the chicken coop? The chickens needed a place where they could sit back and laugh at the donkeys.

3 comments:

Fijufic said...

They will munch the fencing....

Ann Mullen said...

Let's hope not. I'm running out of donkey funds. They might have to get jobs. Donkey rides anyone? Cheap. Available as soon as they let us put a bridle on them and proceed to a blanket. Gotta buy a sombr.

Unknown said...

This is a riot. I agree with you. I thought they were just cute. (P.S. Now that I have transferred from Southern VA to the southwest, we call them "burros."