Donkeys eat the same as horses – oats, barley, corn, bran, cake, any hay, straw cutting, stalks of corn. For 100 kg of body weight for light work, they need 1.25 fodder units, including 80 g of digestible protein. At average work, respectively, 1.6 and 100, with a heavy -2.1 and 150. (Recall, 1 feed unit equals 1 kg of oats.) If the donkey works 2-3 days a week, you can keep it only at the stern. But even with an average load, a grain feed is desirable, and with a heavy diet, it should be generally strengthened (2 kg of straw mixed with 1 kg of wheat bran, 2 kg of alfalfa hay and 1-2 kg of crushed barley).
If the animal does not “lose the body,” then the feeding is OK. As soon as it starts to lose weight, the diet should be reviewed. It is very important to observe the daily routine.
The stomach volume of the donkey is small, so feed it 3-4 times a day. You can not give him a hot drink after work. However, the unbroken donkey does not eat rough food, and it is dangerous to feed grain with water, so the donkey should be drunk 0.5-1 hour before the end of work, and then let the animal cool down.
The duration of a working day for an ass can be 8-10 hours with a break for lunch, rest.
For a small animal (up to 100 cm tall) will be a normal pack weighing 60 kg, larger animals can be loaded and up to 100 kg, but a daytime shift with such cargo should not be more than 35 km.
