Category Archives: Donkeys

Donkeys Update – 20 December 2011

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The donkeys are all fit and well.
We took them out for a walk in the woods.
The sheep came too.

The grass and wild flowers are beginning to grow and the animals grazed through the undergrowth beneath the cork oak trees.

Here are a few photographs.

It costs us £25 per month to look after Domingo.
Adopt Domingo for a month … only £25.

We’ll e-mail you a special set of photos taken of him during that month.

It costs us £25 per month to look after Chico.
Adopt Chico for a month … only £25.

We’ll e-mail you a special set of photos taken of him during that month.

So far in 2011 Domingo was adopted once. Thank you.
Chico has never been adopted.

Donkey Update – 05 November 2011

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Lots of thunderstorms and heavy rain this week has seen us weather-watching to buy straw and get some to the donkeys without getting completely soaked.

The donkeys are all well.
The rain has washed and fluffed up their winter-coats which are coming through. They all look to be in fantastic condition.

The dark stormy conditions weren’t ideal for photography. I’ll take some next time the sun decides to shine in Andalucía.

Adopt a Donkey – Domingo

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Domingo was born in May 2004.
Domingo is a very large and striking donkey. The best looking donkey in the world!
He was wild when we first got him, but lots of patience and TLC has transformed him into a gentle giant.

He has fathered one son, Chico with our female donkey Rosie.

It costs us £25 per month to look after Domingo.
Adopt Domingo for a month … only £25.

We’ll e-mail you a special set of photos taken of him during that month.

Your gift would really help Domingo and allow us to buy items which the animals urgently need.

Donkeys Update – 23 Sept 2011

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Another week of beautiful sunny weather here in Andalucía.
Temperatures have fallen to the point where you can actually spend time outside without your skin frying.

We went out picking Carobs.
Carobs are found on an amazing drought tolerant tree. A member of the pea family it produces long leathery pods.
They are edible, tough with a sweet taste. They are used to make a fake chocolate.
If you were starving they’d be wonderful as they store well. Otherwise it’s hard work eating one of them.

The donkeys love them.
We collected a sackful and will use them as treats over the winter.
We’ll try to get more but it’s hard and hot work knocking them out of the trees.

Here are some photos of carobs, picking them and then the donkeys eating them.
Sorry the pics are smaller than usual, the uploader was playing up.

Worming A Donkey

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Chico lives with his father Domingo on a mountainside in Andalucia.
They both get the same amount of straw and seed supplement.
They are also fed separately so we know they get their fair share.
Domingo is fit and strong.
Chico is bony and doesn’t seem to put weight on.

We were so worried about Chico we’ve managed to save up to buy him a worming treatment.

Here are some photographs …

How to worm a donkey. 

Adopt A Donkey – Chico

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Chico was born in September 2008.
His mother is Rosie and his father Domingo.

Chico is very placid and easy to handle.
He has a longer coat than either of his parents, this is common in young donkeys but he does seem to be hanging on to his fluffy coat.
He is really cute. Like a big teddy-bear.

It costs us £25 per month to look after Chico.
Adopt Chico for a month … only £25.

We’ll e-mail you a special set of photos taken of him during that month.

Your gift would really help Chico and allow us to buy items which the animals urgently need.

 

Donkeys Update – 16th Sept 2011

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A beautiful hot sunny day today. September really has been a lovely month to date.
We took water, straw and seed for the donkeys and sheep.

All are well and were at the gate to meet us … are they psychic or is our Jeep really noisy?

Here are a few photographs which I took today of Domingo and his son Chico.

Chico needs worming.
A series of unexpected and unwanted car repair bills have sucked up all our available cash. We can only just manage to buy their food at the moment … can you help by making a gift to us of some worming paste? It would be much appreciated. We can scan and e-mail you the receipt. Thanks.

How We Found Lily Lamb

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We were walking home from the finca after feeding the donkeys in a thunderstorm.
It was just after New Year 2010.
We could hear a baby lamb calling on the mountainside above the track.
Just about able to stand and take a few steps it had just been born.

We searched for a few minutes but we couldn’t see it’s mother or hear a flock of sheep anywhere.

It was late afternoon and the skies were black, we had no choice but to wrap it up in a coat and get the little lamb home in front of the fire.
A temperature close to zero was forecast for that night. In fact it was the coldest night of the year.

Fortunately we had a feeding bottle which we had used to feed an orphan kitten.
We gave the lamb cow’s milk that night, but the next day we bought a sack of powdered milk especially for lambs.
She soon needed a larger bottle. Her growth rate was phenomenal!

We called her “Little Lamb” to begin with but now she has now been named Lily.
She’s really cute. She needed feeding every three hours. So we had a lot of interrupted sleep.

Lily is now a fully grown young sheep. She lives with Domingo and Chico the donkeys and her friend Dolly the sheep.
She’s free to graze the mountainside.

We wanted to tell you how we found Lily. More of Lily Lamb’s story, photos of her growing up and her first shearing shortly.

Lily costs us around £120 per year. To feed, worm and shear.
Adopt Lily Lamb for a month … only £10.
We’ll e-mail you a special set of photos taken of her during that month.

Your gift would help Lily and allow us to buy items which the animals urgently need.

Photos of Donkeys and Sheep – September 2011

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We drove to see the donkey’s with fresh water, straw and seed.
It was a hot day in early September.
Clouds of dust followed the jeep as we bounced down the dry rutted tracks to the finca.
We transport water every two days during summer.
The bale of straw will last them three days.
We can’t bring more because there is no storage that we can use.
We’d like to build a feeding station before winter comes.
The area has heavy rainfall and this quickly spoils any bales of straw left in the open.

We parked just outside the gates. The two donkeys Domingo and his son Chico were nearby under the shade of some leafy oak trees. The sheep are never far from the donkeys. As soon as they heard us they headed up to the gates. A single-file procession with Domingo leading followed by Chico then Lily and Dolly in the rear.

We let them through the gates to see us while we unloaded the Jeep.
We know that they won’t run away because it’s feeding time soon.

The Spanish summer sun is relentless. It dries and scorches all but deep-rooted trees and shrubs.
The donkeys eat some of the leaves but most in reach were eaten months ago, only blackcurrant bushes have green leaves at the moment. They eat these carefully to avoid the thorns but they can offer little sustenance.

Through late autumn to spring a small stream runs on the land, it pools in places making natural drinking spots for the animals. There are grasses and herbs that grow in small patches. The mountainside is very steep with 33-50% inclines. It is rock strewn and mostly barren. At around 50,000sqm the fenced land is the perfect natural terrain for a small herd of donkeys. They have freedom of choice about where they sleep and where they spend different parts of the day. The steepness keeps them fit and the rocks wear down their hooves naturally, so we have none of the hoof problems associated with donkeys kept on soft soils or grassland.

Here are some photos of donkeys and the sheep which we took.

Our Donkeys

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We have currently have three donkeys. Rosie, Domingo and Chico.


Rosie Donkey Burra

Rosie goes for a walk with Jane

Rosie is the oldest, she’s thirteen years old.
She’s black in colour and quite small.
She has a lovely temperament.
We got Rosie from a Spanish man who worked in a timber yard.
We think Rosie might have worked there, but we aren’t 100% sure because we picked her up from his home at the weekend.

Domingo is a seven-year old male stallion.
Domingo was two when we got him, he was running wild on a mountain side with a stallion horse.
His neck was covered in bite marks from the bigger stallion’s assertive behavior.
We moved him to a nearby finca with Rosie.

Both donkeys were pleased to see each other, and were happy living an idyllic life under the Spanish sun.
The marks on Domingo’s neck weren’t serious and his coat soon grew back.
Rosie changed from a sad little thing with a dirty coat to a bright-eyed girl with her ears up and a black shiny coat that has a purple hue in strong sunlight. She is so much fitter now too.

Soon Rosie was pregnant. Unfortunately her first foal was still born, which left us all feeling sad for a long long time. Then she was pregnant again but this time everyone was celebrating as she gave birth to a fit and healthy baby boy, who we named Chico.

Chico is lovely. A placid donkey. Not as striking to look at as his two-colour father, Chico’s kind of mottled and fluffy.
He has a red-brown coat with long wispy blond hair growing from his ears. He’s cute.

If you click on the donkey’s name you can find out more about them. (adding this asap)

Donkeys Burros Domingo Chico Lily Lamb

Chico & Domingo ... followed by Lily Lamb

We have other animals that we’ve rescued and adopted. A cat that followed us home and adopted us.
A lamb with no mother we found in a thunderstorm who we bottle-fed, she now lives with Domingo and Chico.
Dogs from rescue centers. Two cats with amputated legs … we’re animal crazy … can you help us?