BITING MINI DONK!!! Arrrgh!!

midwestmilkmaiden

Songster
11 Years
Jun 19, 2008
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Have recently added a Mediterranean Donk to the farm family...

Love him!.. well, most of the time!!! He's recently started to try and bite .. ALOT!!.. and I have 2 young daughters that love him but now, I'm worried about letting them out there alone.. cuz when he bites me...
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IT HURTS!

So.. is there a way I can show him to STOP!.. I don't want to scare him and make him more of a bully.

He is a one year old Jack. I'm hoping to get a Jenny for him soon.. as of now , he's with my 2 male goats.. one buck .. one wether.. he terrorizes the buck .. so, I 'm trying to iron out all of these kinks!

should I get a jenny..make him happy???.. make him a gelding , maybe then he won't be such a bully..

All in all.. I'd like to keep my wether goat.. keep him a jack and get a female to make him happy, just hoping he'll still be nice to my wether after that!..

I know ,, it's confusing... can ya tell i'm confused!!!???
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so.... ANY advice .. WELCOME!!!
 
As an equine owner, this is my opinion:

If you leave him a jack, you will have to keep your daughters out of his pen, pasture, or where ever you keep him. Intact male donkeys can be very dangerous.

He will need to be kept by himself most of the time. Getting him a female to keep him company will not work. He will bite and harass her when she is not in heat, and when she is, he will breed her and then you will have to separate them to ensure her health until she foals. Then you will have to keep them separate to ensure the health of the foal, etc. and so on...
If the health of your other animals is important to you, you won't leave him with any other species, either.

I would suggest you geld him and you will end up with a wonderful pet.

Jean
 
It is common knowledge that intact male livestock is dangerous. If you wish to continue his being a pet, then you need to geld him. He will be a gentler, calmer animal all around without testerone telling him to bully or breed everything.

-Kim
 
Definitely geld him. Life will be much happier all around. In fact, get him another gelding to buddy around with. Donkeys love having their own kind.

When he bites, don't be afraid to punish him. Do it IMMEDIATELY. If he was being to rough as a youngster, his mama or any ranking adults in the herd would punish him. If he was an adult and bit or harassed a higher ranking donkey, he would be reprimanded. You won't make him a bully by showing him that the behavior is unacceptable. That doesn't mean you need to beat him, but you do need to punish him. One good pop usually does it for me.
 
Even if you geld him (which I would do), he may retain some bad habits like nipping. You may wish to try to find a donkey/mule trainer to help until the problem is under control.
 
Biting has nothing to do with gelding...How many gelded horses are there out there that try and bite? geld him if you want but that won't make him stop biting. How old was he when you got him? Does he have any other bad habits? JMO?...yep...but I have donkeys...They help me work with problem horses...1 jack 1 jenny...do they bite? NO Is the jack aggressive to my kids,3d 1b? NO...biting, to me isn't a sign of male aggression in a donkey, but rather it is a sign of poor/not enough training....If a donkey wants to scare you he/she will lower their head turning it to the side and "fake" charge you with their shoulder or they will half rear and stomp with their front feet....These would be problem signs, to me....I'll bet your jack was fed treats from your/previous owners in their hands....Again JMO...So he now figures that your hands are made of whatever the treats he recieved....He is only a youngster and he may just be playing or trying to play with you...But biting isn't so fun for us people as it is for horses and donkeys. I'll be watching the thread to see what you have to say...Good Luck and remember safety first...

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daisy...bubba is too camera shy
 
()relics :

Biting has nothing to do with gelding...How many gelded horses are there out there that try and bite? geld him if you want but that won't make him stop biting. How old was he when you got him? Does he have any other bad habits? JMO?...yep...but I have donkeys...They help me work with problem horses...1 jack 1 jenny...do they bite? NO Is the jack aggressive to my kids,3d 1b? NO...biting, to me isn't a sign of male aggression in a donkey, but rather it is a sign of poor/not enough training....If a donkey wants to scare you he/she will lower their head turning it to the side and "fake" charge you with their shoulder or they will half rear and stomp with their front feet....These would be problem signs, to me....I'll bet your jack was fed treats from your/previous owners in their hands....Again JMO...So he now figures that your hands are made of whatever the treats he recieved....He is only a youngster and he may just be playing or trying to play with you...But biting isn't so fun for us people as it is for horses and donkeys. I'll be watching the thread to see what you have to say...Good Luck and remember safety first...

Do you keep your intact jack with goats? Or do you keep him with the jenny year round?

I've been told it's very dangerous to keep an intact jack with smaller livestock. Even something as small as sheep or goats, I've heard this is why livestock guardian donkeys for sheep and goats are gelded males or females, females being the preferred.​
 
I absolutely agree, geld him - not *just* because of biting (although IME poorly trained stallions/jacks are more aggressive with their mouths, on average, than poorly trained geldings) but because if this is what's happening now you really don't want it to go onwards as his testosterone and Adult Male Attitude develop further.

Also training would be good, preferably someone who can come work with you and the donkey together (horses sent off for that sort of training tend to relapse after a while at home unless the owner learns to change how things are done).

Please be careful with kids being involved - even minis can bite real hard and don't honestly kick *that* much less dangerously than a larger animal.

Good luck,

Pat
 
Just some reading on the subject, to further advance the decision to geld him. I agree, being intact is not the sole reason for biting, but being intact surely makes them more liable to be aggressive.

Use jennies or geldings. Do not use jacks as guard animals because they are frequently aggressive to other livestock and may kill sheep or goats.

The above was cut and pasted from here:
http://www.agr.state.tx.us/agr/main_render/0,1968,1848_5329_7078_0,00.html?channelId=5329

If you google "housing/keeping donkeys with goats" or anything on the subject, it states the very same thing. To use jennies or geldings, not jacks because of aggression and killing issues. OP, you've already stated that the jack is being aggressive and fighting with your goat, this could very well be a prelude of what's to come as the jack grows older and more confident.​
 

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