# Replacing hay for a mini donkey



## donkeylover1 (Oct 23, 2014)

I was wanting to replace all of my 5yr old mini donkeys hay with Timothy grass pellets and sometimes alfalfa cubes does anybody know how many pounds I should feed per day and do I have to soak the pellets he eats grain just fine


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## Teej (Jan 14, 2012)

I can't help you with amounts but it should be on the bags. I do want to ask why? While the pellets or cubes may nutritionally be ok, regular hay meets many other needs. The digestion of long stemmed fiber keeps them warm. Equines are designed to be grazers rather than having meals a couple of times a day.

I understand sometimes there's no choice because your equine has lost all it's teeth and can't chew hay (I have one but he still gets hay just so he can have the satisfaction of pretending to eat it), or there isn't any hay available because of weather conditions or what is available is costly but even if your donk gets most of his requirements from pelleted hay, I'd still provide him with regular hay as well. Maybe get a slow net hay bag so it will last him longer and you won't have to use as much.


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## arabian knight (Dec 19, 2005)

I would not so it unless absolutely needed to because of some reason maybe cost factor of hay or can't find a good quality hay in your area.
Want to have things chewed on? Trees, fence boards, barn or anything else within reach of a creature that by nature has a habit of munching and chewing throughout the day. Not to get done with a meal and not even have small bits of hay or bits of grass to satisfy his natural craving to do this several times in a 24 hour period, not to be down with eating in a few minutes then left nothing to do till the next feeding time. And then the possibility of choke is also present, when eating a cubed pellets too fast, as they swell up when getting wet in this case the animals own saliva.


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## cfuhrer (Jun 11, 2013)

A couple winters at our house got a little rough when I was growing up. We fed alfalfa pellets for nutrition and straw for roughage, entertainment, etc.

Most of our horses ate it just fine, we soaked it for our seniors. Everybody lived and made it to spring in very good condition.

If I might ask. Why are you so interested (two threads that I've seen) in hay alternatives?


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## offthegrid (Aug 11, 2009)

Bad idea.

Why on earth would you want to do that? 

Most people use hay replacement as a supplement to their equine's hay -- if the horse won't eat all their hay and still needs to gain weight; if they have a hay shortage; if the horse has no teeth....

Otherwise...they need hay/forage - that is what they are designed to eat....not forage cubes/pellets.


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## aoconnor1 (Jun 19, 2014)

I would absolutely not replace hay unless you have no other choice. If that is the case, there is a product called "Hydration Hay" that Purina puts out. It is compressed hay bricks and you put it in a bucket, add water, and it expands into about the size of a normal flake off a bale. I have used hydration hay for my elderly mare when she has teeth floated, but otherwise she eats regular hay.

For donkeys, I see no reason ever to take them off hay or grass pasture and give them pelleted hay products. Their mouths and teeth are smaller than a regular horses mouth, and chewing/swallowing pellets is not a good idea, especially ones that would be the size of what you are looking at. If for whatever reason you do have to feed pellets or cubes to donkeys, you better soak them overnight and feed them the completely broken down product, because a badly chewed pellet or cube can cause a choke, and that isn't something you want to deal with, especially in a donkey.


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## DragonFlyFarm (Oct 12, 2012)

Donkeylover - If your guy is just a pasture ornament (does not work) look at 1% of body weight daily, split up to two feedings a day. The pellets don't need to be soaked long -- 20 minutes with warm water does the trick. I would stay away from alfalfa for a donk. Do you have orchard grass pellets available? Pellets do cost more than baled hay....


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## wr (Aug 10, 2003)

donkeylover1 said:


> I was wanting to replace all of my 5yr old mini donkeys hay with Timothy grass pellets and sometimes alfalfa cubes does anybody know how many pounds I should feed per day and do I have to soak the pellets he eats grain just fine


Why? If you plan on removing a natural and essential part of an animal's diet, it should be noted if there are health considerations.


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## where I want to (Oct 28, 2008)

I've often wished I could do so as hay here is both expensive and can be awful. A couple of years in a row, it was the year of the rocks. There were so many rocks and so much gravel in every $25 bale of grass/alfalfa, that I pulled every flake apart and shook it out before feeding. It came out sounding like a hail storm on the roof. I then was able to accumulate enough to make a rock path about 10 feet long in my garden.

So you say shop for better hay. But all three of the local hay stores carried the same hay. When I complained, the feed store guy said he asked the hay guy to raise his bar but he refuses to do it and lose that much product.

So now my hay check means asking at the store where there has been a mold issue, whether it is this year's hay and about the gravel content. I do the weed check myself after the year of the 25% baled curly dock, and the yellow star thistle pick throughs. 

The only thing that keeps me from trying is the idea the pellets may be no better. I just can't tell with them.


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## where I want to (Oct 28, 2008)

donkeylover1 said:


> I was wanting to replace all of my 5yr old mini donkeys hay with Timothy grass pellets and sometimes alfalfa cubes does anybody know how many pounds I should feed per day and do I have to soak the pellets he eats grain just fine


BTW the straight forward, non-judgemental answer, is that you feed the same number of pounds as you were feeding in hay as pellets are nothing more than compressed hay. If you can't weigh the hay you were feeding because it's all gone, I would start with expecting to feed 1.5 % of the animal's body weight per day, keeping a sharp eye on it to increase or decrease if the animal loses weight or acts too hungry or gets fat.


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## wr (Aug 10, 2003)

Several years ago, we had a horrible drought and I did have to get creative with my feeding program and I did use pellets and cubes but it's not nearly as easy as it sound. 

I found that the ration recommended was not nearly enough for a winter feeding program and feeding according to manufacturers directions didn't work well for me at all. 

Ultimately, I had to increase my ration by 25% and feed 4 times a day and in reality, it was the most expensive feed I've ever bought. 

If you decide to feed more than one in this manner, it gets even more complicated because you really need to separate each animal for feeding because you'll find that the top end will eat their ration and then push the lower end animals off their feed and you'll see significant weight loss.


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## offthegrid (Aug 11, 2009)

where I want to said:


> BTW the straight forward, non-judgemental answer, is that you feed the same number of pounds as you were feeding in hay as pellets are nothing more than compressed hay. If you can't weigh the hay you were feeding because it's all gone, I would start with expecting to feed 1.5 % of the animal's body weight per day, keeping a sharp eye on it to increase or decrease if the animal loses weight or acts too hungry or gets fat.


I'm not being judgmental. Feeding hay pellets is not how equines are designed. They are designed to graze and browse throughout the day, not eat soaked tubs of short stemmed, compressed hay product twice a day. What will the donkey do for the other 22 hours of the day? 

I would worry about boredom and colic more than # of calories - because as you say, it would be reasonable to feed approximately the same dry weight as hay for a starting point. 

In my area, actual hay would be far cheaper than a bag of pellets...a 50# bale of hay costs about $4.00. I realize that's not the case for everyone. However, I doubt there are many people who would argue that pelleted or cubed hay is preferred to real hay unless you simply cannot obtain quality hay.

If that is the case, I would still recommended bagged hay (e.g. found a Tractor Supply) instead of hay pellets.


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## where I want to (Oct 28, 2008)

offthegrid said:


> I'm not being judgmental. Feeding hay pellets is not how equines are designed. They are designed to graze and browse throughout the day, not eat soaked tubs of short stemmed, compressed hay product twice a day. What will the donkey do for the other 22 hours of the day?
> 
> I would worry about boredom and colic more than # of calories - because as you say, it would be reasonable to feed approximately the same dry weight as hay for a starting point.
> 
> ...


I hadn't read your post when I wrote that quote. I just meant that it was an answer to the question without elaboration. That is the general recommendation to get an approximate starting point to feed a lot of animals. As my previous post was a general ramble that did not include even a hint at what the OP requested. 

But it is also true that there might be many valid reasons for feeding less than the standard best practice. I remember the local feed store tried to sell bagged hay at one point but never could sell enough to be worth trucking it in over the mountains. I never even got a chance to look at it. I was only asked if I would be interested in it for my goats. If it doesn't feed the dairies and ranchers, it's just too much shipping cost.


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