I have been introducing Chewie to her new friend, Liberty the donkey.
This has been a gradual shaping process over the past couple of weeks. I wanted to go slowly, to make the experience positive for both Chewie and Liberty and to make sure we didn’t have any injuries or negative experiences.
At the previous barn, introductions were often fast and sudden, resulting in stress, bad experiences, and the potential for injury. Chewie also spent a lot of time chasing a white donkey at the previous barn, when they were haphazardly introduced to each other. This experience was stressful for both the white donkey and for Chewie.
So, our goal was to go slowly and thoughtfully, to make sure everyone was happy and relaxed!
From the beginning, Chewie and Liberty shared a fence line between their two pastures. So, they had the opportunity to sniff each other and interact through the fence, if they wanted.
My first step in our introduction process was to hang two hay bags on the fence, near each other. I did this for several days and watched how Chewie and Liberty interacted with each other and with the hay.
At first, they each kept to their own hay bag. However, after not too long, they also started eating together, from the same hay bag.
I was very excited when I started to see them eating together from the same hay bag. This interaction let me know that they probably were going to do just fine together in the pasture.
I watched their behavior for a couple of days, with the hay bags on the shared fence line. I occasionally saw some ears back or other small signs of tension. But, no big behaviors (biting, lunging, kicking, etc.) that indicated there might be a problem if they were together.
During this time, I always made sure there were multiple hay bags available. So, they didn’t have to eat with each other, if they did not want to.
My next big step was to have Chewie eating her hay in the round pen in her pasture, while Liberty was loose in Chewie’s pasture.
This step gave them an opportunity to interact with each other in a different context, but still with a fence between them.
We did this routine for several days. This set up gave Liberty a chance to explore Chewie’s pasture, since it had now been almost two weeks since he had been in this pasture.
It also established a new pattern — Chewie could eat hay from a tub in her pasture (while in the round pen) while Liberty was also in her pasture.
My next big step was to have Chewie and Liberty in the same space.
I started out as before, with Chewie in the round pen and Liberty in the pasture. Then, I opened up two of the round pen panels and dragged the tub with Chewie’s hay out into the main part of the pasture. She followed me and then kept eating her hay.
Chewie and Liberty stayed together in the pasture for 20 minutes on this first day. Chewie spent the whole time eating hay in the middle of the pasture. Liberty spent some time eating from a hay bag on the fence and some time grazing and exploring.
All in all, it was a completely uneventful session!
Over the next several days, I gradually increased the amount of time they spent together in the mornings, while I was at the barn.
I started to see them hanging out together and grazing together. I also would occasionally see Chewie put her ears back and ask Liberty to move out of her space. But, I never saw any chasing or any behavior that made me feel like it was not safe for them to be in the same space.
After a few days of hanging out together in the mornings, while I was present, I started leaving them together in the pasture in the morning, but I would come back later in the day to check on them to make sure everything was okay.
They are now living together 24/7 and seem quite happy with each other.
As you can see from the pictures below, I think they are starting to be good friends!
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