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Donkey Sanctuary Information Sheet

Science - Ourselves

Information Sheet No.3 – Donkey teeth

Unlike humans, donkeys do not need to have fillings – they do not eat sweets or drink fizzy drinks, which cause tooth decay.  However, they do suffer from other problems that, fortunately, humans do not.

Donkeys have teeth that continually erupt or grow from the gum line; in fact they erupt at about 2mm per year.  This is because the food they eat, grass, hay and straw, is quite abrasive and helps to wear down their teeth quickly - about 2mm per year!  If human teeth wore down by 2mm per year, by the time we were 10 years old we would have no teeth!

As donkeys do not need fillings, why do they need to see a dental technician?  Donkeys’ teeth do not always wear down at a regular rate, so their teeth get sharp edges and sometimes they even become overgrown.  These need to be filed down with dental rasps.  Dental rasps are like nail files; the largest ones are up to 45.7 cm long.  Surprisingly, donkeys do not seem to mind having their teeth rasped.  Regular rasping means donkeys can stay healthier for longer, whilst also extracting all the goodness from the food we feed them.

Perhaps you have heard the saying ‘getting long in the tooth’?  This originally referred to donkeys and horses because the older ones have very long teeth.

(Pause for thought …  As donkeys lose their ‘baby’ teeth, is there a donkey Tooth Fairy?  If so, what would he/she be called and what would they look like?)