More troughs

The donkeys and I have all become very fond of the outdoor feeding trough we built last July! I still use slow feeder hay bags morning and night but during the day, weather permitting, I put a mix of hay and straw in the trough and they come and go.

I'm not comfortable heaping it in there though, as I am paying close attention to weigh and body condition, so I can't say I'm feeding free choice but it is so regular that I'm hoping their metabolisms are settled into a comfortable place of fairly constant digestion.
They have access to some bush too.

I am really trying to minimize food-related stress - an important thing to notice especially with multiple animals competing for food.  They have a tendency to gobble or bully or over eat.  So by leaving food for them, this settles down.  It has to be the "right" food though - low in protein,  sugars and starch and high in fiber.  Sadly, I have yet to find this "perfect" fiber (hay or straw!) so I am still doing a bit of monitoring and doling out.

Anyway, this post was supposed to be about troughs ... I was so disappointed at the thought of not being able to use the outdoor trough during wet weather that I was searching for solutions.  My first thought was to build a roof over the whole thing - big enough to keep the donkeys dry as well as the hay.  But the ground still might get muddy, rain still might blow in, snow might too!

Solution # 2- re-create the trough inside the barn - but where?  The barn has smallish-stalls and a centre aisle and I need to create something that is not an obstruction or potentially dangerous as donkeys come and go.

Hmmm ... aha!  A solution!  Build four new feed troughs into the corners!

These were simple to make.  We filled in sides and backs with plywood, then simply angled the front boards across a corner and attached PVC pipe along the top with metal strapping.  The ends of the PVC go into uprights or are cut snug at an angle into the  wall, so no sharp edges and no chewing the top rails either!

Three built and one to go - the donkeys love them and they are standing on the dry barn floor while eating too!

Hiking adventures & how Clicker training helped!

Dorrie and I set off this morning on a hike which I predicted would take close to two hours.  It's been so foggy (I used to love fog?) and gloomy that I figured we needed some air and exercise.  Up the road we went, me chattering away to Dorrie who was doing her cute "almost" trot with a nice flexion of her neck towards me.

At a property at the top of the road, we cut through a trail which would lead us to another road when low and below, we found ourselves about 10 feet away from three VERY startled horses!  I didn't know they were there.

Dorrie has met horses before, no big deal but these three became completely unhinged at the sight of us - stampeding, snorting, blowing and charging the fence line.  Dorrie, in her steadfast donkey way, simply stopped to take it all in and figure out what to do - we in no danger (Dorrie was not so sure!) I doubted very much that any of the horses would try to jump the fence, but they were truly FREAKED OUT!

In order to continue our walk, we would have had to turn our backs on the horses and no way was Dorrie doing that, so I figured out a way we could cut through another little trail that would eventually take us out
to the next road.  That way, Dorrie could keep her peripheral vision on those horses.
Dorrie, who is normally pretty bomb-proof was very tense and didn't want to move at all.  I did have my clicker with me and that acted as a great target to help change her focus.

I asked her trust me, I asked her to soften and relax a little and I asked her follow the "target."  It worked and we got to the next path, which actually was a long and winding driveway.  She was still tense and listening to the thundering hooves and snorting (which had not abated!) but at least willing to move.

Then ... oh no - the property owners had put cement sculptures all the way along their drive.  Dorica HATES cement sculptures - I had found this out once before!  Poor donkey had to negotiate the long driveway with these sculptures looming through the murky fog and it was like walking through the house of horrors for her.  Her eyes were like pizza pans each time she saw another one!

I actually found it funny (sort of) but also felt sorry for her!  There was no way I wanted to put any pressure on this already tense little donkey - I didn't want to pull, prod or drive her forward.  I was VERY grateful to have my clicker training problem-solving skills at the ready.  It's not so much about "getting behaviour" as it is about attitude.  With positive reinforcement training, attitude is everything.  And because it builds such a bond of trust, that trust is there when you most need it (hopefully!)

I wish I had remembered my camera - you would have been able to see the changes in attitude (sigh) - maybe next time I'll remember to take it along!

Fog and mushrooms!

We are well and truly fogged in here!  The forecast says the fog is supposed to lift and give way to sunny  afternoons but no way!  It's a thick enveloping blanket.  Gloomy and damp feeling.

Poor donkeys seem to reflect the mood.  They spend much of the day up in their forest paddock. It's a small climb but the difference in elevation seems to make it it a tad less foggy.  However with the damp Fall comes .... mushrooms!  Eeee gad - they pop out overnight in amazing variation!  I am quite familiar and comfortable gathering chanterelles and oyster mushrooms (yummy!) but do we have those .... No!

Instead we have a melange of unidentified specimens - orange, brown, beige, white and red.  Every morning I crawl around looking for the overnight sprouting of new fungi but there's no way I am able to find them all.  And the donkeys seem to want to EAT them!  Or some of them ...

There has been some diarrhea lately and yesterday I looked out from my studio and noticed that while everyone was grazing, Siog looked positively miserable - head drooping and just ... yucky.  So I grabbed her halter and took her out (that's always the first thing I try and this is a good way of data collecting, in my opinion.)

Once out, she perked up and seemed absolutely fine, even trotting and eating the roadside brush with gusto - phew!  But again today, diarrhea (sorry for the graphic detail!)  I have started to give a small mash with ground flax, a vitamin powder and a day or two a week, I add psyllium.  So hopefully IF they are eating some mushrooms, this will help.

Meanwhile, I have finished the work for my up-coming art exhibition, except for minor details and packing it up.  Next weekend, I am teaching two workshops, then off to the show!

Canadian Thanksgiving

This past weekend was Thanksgiving.  Living as we do, on a small farm, in the company of animals, growing fruit and vegetables, surrounded by the sea and a plethora of wildlife, on a flight path of migratory birds in the rare coastal Douglas Fir zone of the Pacific Northwest, I feel we have a LOT to be thankful for!

I am working towards a new exhibition, opening on November 7th.  If I'd had more time, I would have taken many photographs  -  here are but a few ...

some trays of dried pears!

Alice and Arlo

So much "stuff" on line!

There's so much to learn "out there" in cyber space!  A friend told me about the Donkey Welfare Symposium being held next month at UC Davis in California.  If only I could attend ... but wait - they're offering a live, interactive webinar!!!

Now how can I resist that?  But how can I find the time?  My art exhibition gets set up on the 6th - a 6 hour trip from here and SO much to do before then - but ... how can I miss this?

I just registered - I WILL find the time!   Here's the link to the program:

http://donkeywelfaresymposium.homestead.com/

Balancing Vitamins and Minerals for Donkeys

This has always been a head-scratcher as very little research has been done about which vitamins and minerals donkeys need and how much. So we donkey owners tend to feed horse stuff, adjusting the amounts and hoping for the best.  This is probably dumb!

I offer a mineral block that has selenium in it (I know we are deficient here on the west coast) and I also put out a salt lick plus a wall feeder with loose white salt in it.  The donkeys use all of them ... a bit! So maybe that's enough - after all everybody is healthy.

But, but, but ... lately I've been thinking about the idea of being over fed but under nourished.  The donkeys never seem to reach a level of satisfaction, even though they are being fed LOTS!  Probably too much as they are chubby and that's not good.  So what could be going on?  What are they looking for? 
Munch, munch, munch ...

My friend from The Dancing Donkey blog, has been doing a lot of work on exploring her hay test results and setting up spread sheets to try to determine what the deficiencies are in her hay (and mine too - thank you K!)


Hmm ...  we KNOW that donkeys utilize feed differently than horses (more efficiently) and we know that their feed requirements are less than horses, i.e. they can make use of coarser, lower protein hay than can horses and they can eat scruffy bits of browse and find some value in it.

So now the UK Donkey Sanctuary has developed a vitamin/ mineral pellet for donkeys (yay!) ... that we can't get in Canada (boo ...!)   I have compared the feed tags between the UK-produced pellet and the ones I have been feeding (occasionally) but e-Blogger will only let me paste photos, not text files.

Look up http://drreeds.com/formula2.html   - I feed this pelleted form because I don't need to put it into a wet mash, like you do with powdered supplements.

And here is the one developed especially for donkeys in the UK:
http://www.topspec.com/shop/products/topspec-donkey-forage-balancer/  They don't list ingredients but it's a VERY different product with far fewer ingredients from what the feed tag tells me!

And for us, it looks great because it doesn't contain iron or manganese, both of which this year's hay has in excess, and it has added copper and selenium, both of which are deficient in this batch of hay.

I am considering sending the hay test results and the ingredients list from TopSpec (I have written to them for more info)  to someplace (?) that can custom-make a supplement for me - balancing the deficiencies in my hay and leaving out stuff that it has in excess.  It would be very interesting to see if the donkeys respond to having the "correct" balance of vitamins and minerals by balancing out their body-weight!

Having said all this, Dorrie and I went out for a super walk yesterday - exercise is also a high priority!

The Donkey Sanctuary, Devon, UK

This was the most beautiful farm I have ever seen.  The whole place appears to be so well run and the buildings and land are seriously gorgeous!  So many donkeys ... various ages and needs, everybody is tagged and cared for.  I could have moved in ... enjoy these photos!

Inside the big barn ...

A newly arrived group

On the way back to ...

the barn!

Poitous Herd!

The beautiful inner courtyard and stable area

another shot of the central area

Memorial Garden