Okay. This forum is to air things that bug you.

So here goes: It doesn't 'bug me', per se. I suppose it just amazes me more than irritates me that people vary so widely --- and hold so strongly --- in their opinions about inbreeding/linebreeding.

Especially considering that in order to develop the breed that a person holds dear, some I/L breeding was most surely utilized.

In the very same day, I have a family that wants to buy a full brother and sister rabbit so they can raise litters. Then another lady gives me the stink eye when I mention that they could pair such and such kits:

"But they'd be COUSINS!"


To some, no matter what you cite they will remain strongly opposed to any of the validity/merits of the practice.


Who else has run into the "Squickie" looks??

Next time, take a moment to explain that inbreeding/linebreeding works better with some species than others. One experiment with rabbits found that they could breed full siblings together for 17 generations before they started to encounter problems.

Incest taboos in humans (from whence these people are taking their prejudice) exist for a very good reason. Humans, in general, will not cull infants with health problems... so it is important to prevent these problematic inherited traits from getting set in human bloodlines. Think of the European royal families and how too much inbreeding resulted in hemophilia getting established in the Russian royal families. The royals of Europe had been breeding from a small gene pool for centuries.

With animals, ethical breeders will not breed animals with a discernible inherited weakness. And with rabbits, anything substandard can be sent to freezer camp or euthanized at birth. Thus we keep our stock healthy, even if inbred.

I do ALOT of linebreeding and Inbreeding and get that look alot...some people just dont understand..even when you explain to them. If they dont want to do that..its their problem. Youll show them on the show table..

Just have to explain to them that it works and then move on.

We linebreed a lot here too, not so much inbreeding but its necessary in the Pals. No bloodlines to outcross to!

At first, I was thinking like a dog breeder. I have no inbreeding/line breeding in 5 generations. At some point line breeding will be necessary.

But I had a look at a rabbit line breeding chart and that changed my thinking, and also it is hard to get certain colors around here, chin being one, so I have to breed half brother and sister.

I've always heard it is "line-breeding" if it successful and "inbreeding" if it doesn't. LOL

Yea I did have to learn some major differences with rabbit breeding compared to the horses and buying purebred dogs that I was used to. Even with other animals I had to learn the different levels you can inbreed safely.

In horses I tried to avoid nearly all inbreeding except for very old lines that had established the breed because many problems have been created by doing so. I really wanted to keep a stallion from one of my mares but I would have no use for it since all other mares were at least partially related and all fillies would be half or more siblings. I would not breed a stallion related within a few generations or related at all unless it was a very amazing animal that appeared twice on it's pedigree.

With akita dog lines I found some inbreeding amongst the Japanese lines to stamp out American traits was not a bad thing but still best to bring in an entirely new line if you ended up with the same ancestor on one animal's pedigree several times which is what my dog's breeder did. A dog from new lines is imported every few generations.

With rodents you really don't have to care. You can inbreed a gerbil or hamster including full siblings many many generations and maintain a healthy line. Chickens it also does not matter. I started with 2 japanese bantams and kept going for 8 or 9 generations with no health problems just some loss to the black markings before I crossed them out to seramas and bantam easter eggers.

Rabbits fall somewhere in the middle. By my research and info from breeders full siblings is not desirable unless they are from very good lines that aren't over bred and don't have any major faults. The line is best crossed out to another similar line after that. While parent child and crossing out 2 siblings then crossing their offspring back together is quite common and what I've been doing with my mini rex. I also got told many times that against most beginner's opinions starting with a somewhat related pair (I got a buck and granddaughter from one breeder and 2 lines that had been crossed back and forth a few times from another breeder) are better to start with because of better predictability of results and easier culling decisions than completely unrelated lines.

If someone has only worked with one type of animal or only knows about the problems with human inbreeding (which appears to be quite sensitive resulting in our strong instinct against it) then they don't understand it's not as big of problem with some animals. They have to get it explained to them that each species has a different sensitivity to health problems from inbreeding. With humans they found we even have a natural detector for inbreeding. People who have a scent similar enough to yours smell worse and are found less desirable (by scent tests only) than those that have a scent far different from your own (taking external scents out of the equation). It automatically screens for people who are close to your own genetics. They did a couple interesting experiments like that with scent alone and not being able to see or know anything else about the person you were judging.

One of the benefits of living "a long time" is that you learn not to care "what others think." It's such a relief and gives so much more freedom that it would be a blessing if we could learn it earlier in life. It might cut down on ulcers and heart attacks Anyway, I say do what you know to be right/best/works/ and don't spend a lot of time worrying, or even complaining, about those who don't approve. I often remind myself, "Well, I remember when I used to think that way too..." Lot's of people just don't know how to do it any differently than they do... If I'm patient and kind about it, who knows? They may feel free to open their mind a little wider.Wouldn't thatmake life a lot nicer for all of us?

Unfortunately what others think often doesn't just stop at their opinion. It starts impacting your life. They report things, they interfere with things, they may even lead to the death of some of your animals or the ruining of your lifestyle... It would be nice if we could all just tolerate each others difference of opinion and have our own but ignoring someone's opinion quite often doesn't stop them from giving you trouble. Giving some education can end up being better for you in the long run.

I completely agree. Ire ally do think that would make life a whole lot easier for us all. You cant be worrying about what others think of you..or its gona be a hard road on yourself. Also have to think in their shoes...its hard to do but might change your perspective. Life is about how you look at things in life and how you respond.

i got worse than that, the rabbit 4H leader told everyone too not buy rabbits from me because i breed related animals.

Well, obviously she's a ding dong.

And you've been spared having to deal with THAT rabbit leader

I love that. I'm passing it on to my 4-Hers.