Raising Miniature Donkeys - Are Mini Donkeys Playful?

“When your mother asks, ‘Do you want a piece of advice?’ it is a mere formality. 

It doesn’t matter if you answer yes or no. You’re going to get it anyway.” (Erma Bombeck) Boy, every word of that rings true, doesn’t it?

And, I know I am not your mother, far from it, but if I could offer up a piece of good advice to any of you’s miniature donkey owners, I would say to play with your miniature donkeys as much as possible.

Miniature donkeys love to play and what's more, they love to play with YOU!

I would strongly recommend that you refrain from getting miniature donkeys if you don’t think you could interact and play with them too.

I would also give another piece of advice, this particular advice I have given before on one of these infamous hallowed HalterUp blog posts… Don’t just have one miniature donkey!

You should always have another pasture pal for your minis and I can guarantee you that you will see plenty of playing around inside your mini donk pens!

It’s good to know…

what donkeys like to play with,

do donkeys like playing with balls?, 

are ALL miniature donkeys playful (?),

and who doesn’t love to see some fun examples of playful miniature donkeys.

(this is Nick...he loves his beanbag ;-)

What could you put in your miniature donkey's pens that would provide a good bit of fun for your pasture pals? How do you keep a donkey entertained?

While there are several things that make your mini donks happy on a day to day basis, a new “toy” could be just the thing to help them ‘Spring’ outta their Winter doldrums (see what I did there… because it's about to be Spring… lol that’s fun).

I am not normally one to use bullet points when I am bloggin’ out, but I found a FANTASTIC list in a recent issue of Asset (Issue 115 Spring/Summer 2020) put together by Ellen Dahlstet and Sharon Windsor: 

• A worn out sweatshirt - arms tied in knots
  
• Worn tube socks - again, with a knot or two tied into it
  
• A length of old garden hose or old washing machine drain hose
  
• Inner tubes from cars/lawn mower/tractor/bicycles (valve stems removed!) different sized tubes for different sized donkeys (these are proven to be a HUGE favorite)
  
• Any piece of older, softer rubber such as worn out soccer balls, basketballs, Jolly Balls (partly deflated)
  
• A length of old heavy rope with lots of knots (not the bristly kind)
  
• Large rubber dog Kong
  
• Plastic children’s bowling pins (found at a garage sale)
  
• Of course there is always the old tried and true rubber bowl or orange traffic cone

As you can see there are great ideas for toys for your favorite pasture pals that don’t require you to go out and buy something, just look around and I bet you could find something great for them to play with around the house!

For the most part, all miniature donkeys are playful and like to have fun.

There are certain situations and types of mini donks that just aren’t as playful and can be down right nasty if you aren't careful. 

Hmmm… what does that mean?

Really I am talking about jacks compared to everyone else. Jacks are a tough group to understand. They can be playful (awfully teasy… lol), but they can be pretty rough too.

Jacks like to play fight and sometimes they just plain want to fight-fight. Jennies pretty much like to run and frolic, they aren’t too keen on fightin’.

Jacks will get so focused on being the Alpha of the group that playing is out of the question and it comes down to kill or be killed.

Jacks can sometimes even seem playful and gentle for the longest time, but something might set them off and they go right back to savage mode.

There are a lot of horror stories about jacks floating around out there. If you want a playful male donkey then make them a gelding.

What about geldings though? 

So, geldings might be rough sometimes too, because being males, they still can carry the instinct to fight. A gelding however, will be play fighting as opposed to fighting for supremacy of the harem. 

It is of the strongest suggestion that you don’t ever keep an ungelded male (jack) around the rest of your herd. 

We have discussed some pretty famous, playful miniature donkeys on here before. I recently ran across a pretty funny article in The Brayer about a special donkey that you can hire to crash your next Zoom call. 

Buckwheat has been helping his farm out with some creative post-pandemic money-making. The Farmhouse Garden Animal Home was having a hard time making ends meet during the pandemic, so farmer Mike Lanigan and volunteer Tim Fors have introduced the business world to Buckwheat, donkey for hire. Buckwheat will play for the camera and provide meeting go-ers with giggles as they conduct their calls. This has become a huge hit and Buckwheat and his friends have “crashed” over 100 Zoom calls and has become a beloved Zoom staple for a lot of companies. 

Hopefully this information will be of help to you and maybe provided a few giggles. It can get pretty dull sometimes out on the farm for your miniature donkeys, so use this info and get them playing. They will be happier and will make you happier in turn! 

For more info on miniature donkeys or if you are in the market for fun miniature donkey merch click here and happy browsing!

~Ryan