Taking Pictures of Donkeys

If you own a donkey you know the same thing that every other donkey owner knows... they are nearly impossible to photograph unless you have help!

Donkeys are very curious and if raised well they are also very personable.  If you are trying to photograph a donkey that does not know you it will try to get to know you, getting impossibly close to your camera.  Even if the donkey knows you it will get up close and personal, looking for snacks, pats, or just saying "hello".

She would be even closer if she was not behind the fence!

I have deleted more pictures of donkey noses than anything as my donkey, Aggie, always wants to sniff the camera just to see if it is edible. She is cute though!

In all seriousness if you want to take a picture of your donkey one of the best solutions is to have a friend help you.  The friend can either hold the donkey on a halter and lead and keep it a reasonable distance from the camera, or they can use themselves as "donkey bait" standing just off camera but having the donkey focus on them so you can get your camera in a better position for picture taking.

Okay, Everyone Go Play in the Snow

Over the weekend we had a lot of snow, more snow I think than we had all winter. 

Today the temperatures were expected to be above freezing, and it was not windy so I thought this would be a great day to get some of the new lambs outside.

I put Blackie, her two lambs, Dark Brown Katahdin, and her twins, as well as Patsy sheep and her twins,  outside in the morning at feeding time.  This would have been a good time for pictures as Crystal the llama especially loves seeing the new lambs.  Aggie the donkey likes them okay too, but Crystal really adores them.  However as I was very busy getting everyone sorted out I did not plan for photos.

Here they are later in the day.

I kept Girlie and her triplets in the barn.  Although they are a week old now they are much smaller than the other lambs and the one needs bottle feeding.  It is pretty hard for the sheep to keep track of two lambs when outside, and three is much harder.  Because the temperatures were not great, it is simply better not to risk putting them out.  Besides, they were able to keep Diamond and her two-day-old triplets company, as they are also still in the barn.

Two of Diamond's triplets have fetlocks that are still a bit bent, a likely result of being cramped before birth, so, although they can walk, they need to let their legs stretch out before they would be able to keep up outside in the snow.  I am trying to spend a few minutes every day with the lambs stretching out their joints a bit to make them stronger.  This problem does occur from time to time although I have not had a lamb with it prior, and it ususally corrects itself in a few days to a week.

Patsy must have wanted to be alone because she took her twins away from the group.

Anyhow the moms and lambs that were out in the snow were probably glad to get out of the barn, and I have been checking to make sure they are doing well.  The show is about 20 cm (8 inches) deep in most places but deeper in areas where it has drifted. 

The sheep walk on the same path and actually pack it down so well that when the other snow melts the path of packed snow often remains as ice and is the last to go.

Not a great day for photos, I took more picutres of them in the shed but they all turned out too dark to show off.

Lambing Time Almost Here

Today is February 15, 2012, in a little over 2 weeks our ewes are due to have their lambs.  This year we wanted to make sure the lambs were not born in January so we got a ram a little later than we had in the past, putting him with the ewes on October 4.  In previous years lambing in the middle of winter was hard work combined with the extra feed needed and risk to lambs being born in the cold.  Ironically this winter has been the mildest ever, we hardly have any snow, and temperatures have been pretty good for central Alberta!

With the sun shining and the girls all having big tummies I thought it would be a good day to take some pictures, so that is exactly what we did.  Actually my goal was to get a picture of the ram trying to charge me, he has been the first ram we have had that even tries this.  He only does it if I am not looking but on this day he didn't seem interested.  Normally I have to be very aware of where he is and if I feel he is planning a sneak attack, and turn, he pretends he was not up to anything at all.  Quite funny really, also he is small so not really a danger.

Anyhow for a while I had been worried that the ewes were not getting big, if you recall the first year we had sheep the ram we bought was infertile - I don't want to go through that again!  But in the last couple of weeks the ewes started getting bigger and there udders were showing.

Most of the ewes are getting udders, a few are bigger than others.  Diamond sheep is the largest, she usually has triplets, only once did she have twins.  Blackie, and Girlie are pretty big too.  In this picture you can see Diamonds rear end, and her swollen tummy.  You may also note how there is no snow, last year at this time it was up to above there stomachs, I had to shovel paths for them in some areas;  this year, next to nothing.

We only have 9 ewes, that seems like a more manageable number for our small hobby farm (we are not big time sheep breeders).  It is hard to get sheep to pose for their picture, but I think my husband did a good job getting some of them looking in the right direction for this shot. 

Here is another picture, this time you can see Diamond sheep facing amost head on, with Mrs Brown Katahdin to the left and the ram to the right (our right, not Diamond's). 

Aggie the donkey is in behind.

The Winter Flock and Guardian Donkey

The other day was warm, I thought it would be a good day to take pictures of the sheep, but they didn't seem t be doing anything too interesting, they were just standing in the sun, in the shed.  I still thought this would be a good time to take pictures since the pictures can be used to show people what a shed for livestock looks like.

At the time only the sheep, and donkey, were in the shed.  Crystal, the llama, must have been off somewhere doing her own thing.

The lambs are not due until March, which is much better than last year when they started delivering new years eve and continued through the cold months of January and February.  This year has at least been warmer, and lots less snow too.  I am sure the sheep are happy to have a better winter.
 

I took these pictures only a few days ago, everyone is on their best behavior, waiting to see what Santa might bring them for Christmas.

I had to take two pictures of my small sheep flock, and have no idea of how to splice them together to make one big picture.  In the first pictures we have, from left to right, Girlie sheep, Patsy sheep (laying down) and Aggie the donkey, as well as Mrs White Katahdin.

*Yes, some farmers do name their animals.

In the second picture we see, starting from the left, the as yet unnamed Dorper ram.  In front of him is Diamond sheep.  In front of Diamond is Blackie, and Blackie's mom, Favorite Sheep (the one that had the stroke a few years ago).  Back in the shed, behind Diamond we see Mrs Dark Brown Barbado (named Dark Brown because when we got her we first had two and she was the darker one), and to the far right, and still in the shed is Mrs Brown Katahdin.


I think for Christmas we will give them an extra snack of hay around noon and some cut up apples.  They really love those.  We buy the discounted apples at the grocery store as they make a nice treat for the sheep and Aggie.   We may even put a few out for the birds too.

On behalf of myself, husband, and daughter, and all our critters, I want to wish everyone a Merry Christmas and happy holiday season, be sure to keep extra care of your pets over the holidays, so many times we get busy and forget about them out in the cold. 

Does this Halter Make my Neck Look Fat?

Horse people often consider a donkey to be a rather funny looking animal, they have big ears, a thin tail, no withers, and can kind of look lumpy.  Horse people are well aware of what a fat horse looks like, but few understand how donkeys get fat.  I need to point out that it is fairly easy for a donkey to get fat, especially when kept with horses.  Donkeys are very food effecient, having come from Africa, and do not need as much food to survive, therefor a donkey with little activity, and a fair amount of food - will get fat!

To understand more about donkeys and fatness, we must look at the ships of the desert; the camel!

 Most people have the wrong idea about camels and their humps.  We have been told camels store water in their humps. A lot of children, and some adults, have the image of a camel with a hollow hump and water sloshing around in there, but this is not accurate at all.

The camel's hump is where it stores its fat. The hump is an adaptation to living in the hot desert. A camel's hump is made up of fat cells and muscle.  By storing all its fat in one, or two, humps, rather than distributing it all over its body (as most animals do) the camel can stay cool in the hot climate. Donkeys have a similar adaptation.

The donkey has its fat storage area along the sides of the crest of its neck.  When a donkey gets fat, the top of its neck gets thicker, and fatty.  In extreme cases the crest will even fall over.  At this point it is very hard to correct. 

Above you can see our donkey, Aggie, showing her displeasure at having her picture taken to demonstrate a fat donkey.  You will note how tall the grass is.  This summer we have had so much rain that our pasture is over grown.  This area is one of the more chewed down places, and the grass is still lush and tall. 

Aggie's neck did not get fat like this over night, it was a big bit when we got her (not unusual in our area) and got bigger since, but this year, it has gotten particularly bad.  This afternoon I am going out to give her some exercise to help it from getting worse.

I have seen some donkey's where they neck is falling down and we really do not want that to happen to Aggie.  At that point it is not uncommon for a donkey to get so fat it gets fat lumps all over its body. 

Owners of donkeys must remember that the donkey is adapted to areas where food is scarce, to over feed a donkey (to give it grain) can be cruel - we never give Aggie grain - she got this fat on grass alone!

Read more on Donkeys and Camels - click here.

The Grass is as High as a Sheeps Eye

The first seven months of 2011 have been nothing if not wet, and cold. Winter was long, snowy, and colder than typical. Anyone who thought spring would make up for it was wrong, anyone who thought summer would make up for a terrible winter and spring, was also wrong.

Winter was cold and wet, spring was cold, wet and windy, and summer continued the trend. The gloomy cloudy days made everyone miserable, the wind tore most of the sheet metal off my shed and the rain made everything soggy. Weeds were pretty happy, and the pasture did look greener than every.

Two years ago there was a drought in the area. Pigeon Lake, nearby, was way down from its usual, and even 2010 did not bring it up to where it should be.

We sold a few sheep in 2010 due to the drought, pasture was very poor that year, and rather than go through the same worries again it was just easier to sell a few sheep. In the spring of 2011 we sold Baby Katahdin, the ram, and all the lambs, so we were left with 8 ewes, Aggie the donkey, and Crystal, the llama. This seemed like a reasonable number of sheep.

July 28, 2011

The problem being that we had nothing but rain so the pasture did nothing but grow. All of central Alberta, and southern Alberta did much the same, although parts of northern Alberta experienced fires that left the town of Slave Lake ravaged (later it flooded).

You might think the animals were thrilled with all the grass... but no, they were being eaten by mosquitoes if they were not being pelted by rain, the shed had not much of a roof left so they mostly stayed in the old barn poking out only rarely to get something to eat, then going back to get away from the bugs. I have been here now 6 years, the mosquitoes were the worst I have ever seen.



July 28, 2011



For almost one week in July we had sun, but it was tempered with thundershowers at night. The lucky thing being this was the week our cochin chicks hatched at least they had some sun. I am not so sure if there has been a day with no rain, or not.

The sheep cannot keep up with the grass, and nor can we, lawn mowing is a never ending chore. The mosquitoes are not quite as bad and the grasshoppers are assisting in chewing down the pasture. Aggie is getting fatter and fatter (donkeys get fat on their necks) and we see the sheep now from time to time when they poke their heads up above the grass.

If you have been following this blog you know the sheep are Patsy in the front (with 5 horns), Mrs Brown Katahdin, Diamond, with Mrs White Katahdin tucked in behind, Girlie and her mom, Dark Brown, and off to the left is Favorite Sheep.  Blackie is only see in the above picture, where Aggie is also getting in on the shot.  Crystal is actually behind Aggie rolling in the mud/dirt.

To compare I will show you a picture taken in roughly the same spot two years ago.

Patsy in 2009 - same pasture as above.

Meet Favorite Sheep

When we first got our sheep we thought it would be a good idea not to give them names, after all these were livestock animals, that might be sold.  As such our sheep ended up with non-name names, mostly color descriptions, because after all, we still needed some way of referencing which sheep was which and did not use ear tags. 

Soon one ewe got the name "Favorite" simply because she was the friendliest sheep and my daughter referred to her as her favorite sheep.

Here she is at one year of age, after her first shearing.

Favorite sheep became rather tame and would eat from your hand, but one day something went slightly wrong for Favorite sheep.

This was 2008, sheep were living with a donkey, llama, and miniature horses, including a miniature stallion.  All seemed to be fine together, and even now we are not sure if she got kicked, or had a stroke.  The only thing we do know is that one day she was not holding her ear correctly.  This was the summer, we checked the sheep daily but otherwise left them alone for grazing, and as such the small flock often got flighty and avoided us, when in the winter they always would come around looking for oats and treats.  Favorite otherwise looked fine, so we did not call the veterinarian at that time.

As time passed it was clear something had happened (xrays would have been expensive and finding out what happened really would not make a difference), however her tongue would hang from her mouth and it appeared she really did not have feeling in that side of her face, in fact food often builds up in her cheek and she spits it out regularly.

Favorite is at the front of the sheep, obviously still the "leader" of the other sheep, fast on her feet, but you can see she has something wrong when you look at her ear, eye, and face. 

Now... I know most keepers would have culled her (sold her or shot her) but... we had already named her "Favorite" how could we do such a thing?