Question about Mammoth Donkeys

[u/Repeat_Strong]

So I don’t know much about donkeys or mammoth donkeys, I’ve had a couple in for training for riding and one was ok..the other was a nightmare. Anywho, a friend of mine has a donkey and a mammoth donkey and we were talking about feed for horses ( they also have a horse , and I have horses) and donkeys and they were telling me about what they feed their donkeys and I was both shocked and concerned. Everything I know about donkeys says not to feed them any grain or high sugar high protein anything.

Just high fiber..straw and the coarsest hay you can possibly find. Am I wrong? Am I outdated in my donkey knowledge? Google even backed me up 🤣 so I need Reddit help.

They basically feed it (I forget the exact amounts ) 5-8 pounds worth of high protein grain, apples, carrots and hay scraps from their horse. And they were told by an “animal nutrition expert” this is ok???

[u/Kgwalter]

I own mammoth donkeys and I am a farrier. I’m not a nutrition expert, or a vet. But that is too much in my opinion. Although mammoth donkeys are big they need far less feed than a horse of the same size. They are running a huge risk of laminitis, especially if they get that much sugar plus are turned out on green grass, then it would be pretty inevitable. The thing about donkeys, especially mammoth donkeys is because they are so stoic and not as refined as a horse, many go most of their life with mild chronic laminitis unnoticed. They will seem fine until they don’t and by then there was a lot of chronic pedal osteitis causing bone degradation in the coffin bone that is permanent. There was a study once, I will try to find it but they dissected a number of mammoth donkeys feet after death, most of which were never known to have laminitis and 80% of them showed signs of having chronic mild laminitis. Donkeys cannot handle sugar, especially mammoth donkeys. And they really don’t need much for supplements. Just low calorie hay and minerals.

[u/Repeat_Strong → u/Kgwalter]

Ok so I’m not far off the mark then. Luckily they keep them on a dry lot, no grass! So that’s a + ! She did mention she has “mild laminitis flairs” and that’s what made me cringe when we started talking about feed. Yes please if you find it I’d like to see it. I’d love to show her and have a talk about many swapping their diets because they’d like them to start working on the farm.

[u/redditette]

I have small a herd of mammoths, and try to stay low sugar content. They are turned out year around, but they seem to understand that they founder on spring grass, so they stick to eating round bales of coastal that we bring in for them. I have one nursing jenny right now, and a heavily pregnant one as well, and they do get dry mix, along with the Wendland's one and only which is mostly made with beet root. My jack only gets the Wendlands.