Nestle is our youngest donkey at Lucky Glider Ranch. This beautiful little boy was born on September 17th, 2001. His mother is BonBon, who came to the sanctuary three months into her pregnancy – but she was not showing at the time. BonBon was always front-and-center in the mornings for her daily treat of carrots, but one day she was not with the other donkeys. A search of the tree line revealed she had just foaled little Nestle.
We were able to carry Nestle around just for fun the first two weeks but after that he grew too rapidly and therefore too heavy to lift. The normal weaning period for donkeys is no longer than six months but BonBon did not chase Nestle off of nursing for over a year and a half. He was (and is) such a momma’s boy!
Even now, Nestle will not let his mom out of his sight. If, for any reason he loses sight of her, he cries out loud and gallops around the fields until he is reunited with her.
In his first five years, Nestle was very cooperative when getting his hooves trimmed and required little to no sedation. Recently; however, Nestle has been putting up a real fuss when we go for his hooves. So we will now be asking the vet to sedate him first before we do his trims.
You will often see Nestle performing “mutual grooming” with his mom BonBon. It is a very touching and loving sight to see them taking care of one another. Both of them love to be petted, but the little boy will interrupt BonBon’s attention and barge in to get his head and ears rubbed.
Are you interested in virtually adopting Nestle? If you would like to help him with veterinary bills, feed, and shared shelter, you can donate any monthly amount and receive personal updates on Nestle.
