questions about foaling

[Olive08]

Hello everyone, I'm brand new to this forum and a new mini donkey owner. We have a recently gelded jack (gelded 7 months ago) and a jenny, both 11 or 12 years old. They came to us in November with our girl Olive *maybe* pregnant. (Their previous owner passed away and we don't know much about their history or previous care but do know that she foaled last February and possibly previous years also). Well she is definitely, undeniably preggers and probably 4-6 weeks from foaling based on my research but of course, as I've gathered, who knows! Her paddock and shelter can be made ready very quickly so I'm not too stressed about prep. My question is - should the jack, Paco, be moved to a different paddock? If yes, at what point should he be moved? He was gelded late and is pretty rambunctious but a total sweetie. Thanks in advance for any advice!

 

[Maryann at MiniV]

Welcome Olive... I've never foaled out a donkey baby, although we do have ONE mini donk. I am assuming all the same rules apply to them as miniature horses/ponies. For us, we keep them together because we know our stallions. Some folks will be concerned about the aggressiveness of the stallion. And once the mare has foaled we keep them apart because the mare is being given extra grain.

 

[Ryan Johnson]

Would love to see some pics of her ? Only thing I wanted to add is Jenny's usually take longer to foal. Its not always 4-6 weeks from he start of udder development.

As Maryann said , It really depends on the stallions and other paddock mates whether you should separate them or not. If it was me and not knowing a great deal of their history, Id be separating them to be safe.

Good thing is she has previously had foals , so your not dealing with a maiden

 

[Olive08]

Ryan and Maryann, thank you both so much. I'll figure out how to posts pics. The jack is a sweet boy but because I don't know him very well (only had them for 5 months) not sure I can trust him to not be aggressive, I'll probably separate them in a few weeks.