Thinking about throwing your Christmas tree over the fence for your donkeys?
Donkeys evolved from the desert; donkeys are foragers who seek out wood and will eat just about anything they find. Donkeys are stoic, meaning they will hide their pain until, in many cases, it is too late to save their life. Preventative care is one of the best ways to give your donkey a long, happy, healthy life.
Is it safe to give a donkey a Christmas tree?
First, ensure your donkey’s teeth and gums have been examined by a veterinarian. Donkeys can choke or get bark and tree needles stuck in their gums. Yes, donkeys can have gingivitis, a painful disease of the gums just like people, in many cases requiring surgery, and eventually, the donkey cannot eat hay, requiring a hay mash.
Before throwing the Christmas tree into the pasture, the most crucial issue is deciding if it is a nonpoisonous tree type; if you purchased it from a tree farm, it is difficult to know 100% if the tree was sprayed with a fire retardant chemical. I would not feed this tree to a healthy donkey; it is better to compost the tree. Finally, remember moderation is always the safest way to prevent colic.
The mammoth donkey has bubbles coming out of its nose after eating bark.
We brought home a nine-month-old mammoth donkey, a thirteen-year-old miniature donkey, and a two-year-old horse in 2007. Everyone said it was safe for our donkeys to eat bark, so we gave chunks of wood to them weekly. One day, our mammoth donkey, now over a year old, started blowing bubbles out of his nose. The veterinarian was called and proceeded to scope his throat, finding a large chunk of bark stuck in his throat, costing us a little over $800.00. This was a terrifying scenario for us and a lesson; needless to say, we no longer feed trees or bark to our donkeys.
