Breeding siblings? Your thoughts and experiences please

[SoDak Thriver]

I do think my situation is odd. It came from having too little space to winter. Therefore, we had to make permanent breeding/culling decisions without being able to see the results of those decisions. Now that I have a small barn for rabbits, I can maintain several buck and lots of does. Once I find a working combination, we'll be back in the saddle. If I can't find a working combination, I'll have to bring in fresh blood, and all the problems that brings in.

In fact, if I have to bring in fresh blood, I might just cull my herd and restart with two new breeding trios.

 

[Rainey]

if you have any teeth problems in your herd FIX THAT before you breed inline. You don't want to fix that into your herd, along with pinched hips, curved spines etc.

Not sure if I should be starting a new thread for this but since it is related and is in response to something said in this one, I'm trying it here. What am I looking for about a rabbit's teeth? Never notice any problem except the original vicious doe that bit the hands that fed her and is long gone. I can imagine that if the teeth aren't right, then eating (especially maybe the willow and other forage we feed) could be difficult. But is there a way to check with newborn kits or when should I be looking and is there some way to tell besides watching everyone eat? That feels like a dumb question, but I can see this is something I need to think about with breeding closely related rabbits. Thanks, ladysown, for pointing it out.

 

[Nymphadora]

What am I looking for about a rabbit's teeth?

Signs of malocclusion, would be my first instinct. And you’re right, severe malocclusion will definitely interfere with a rabbit's ability to eat properly, but even before then you may be able to detect it. It can show up as teeth that are slightly crooked, or offset. If the teeth don't look nice and neat, or something looks to be overlapping weirdly, chances are there's something not quite right. And it can get worse with time, since the teeth won’t get worn down correctly. Of course, an especially silly rabbit may end up messing up their teeth by chewing and pulling on cage wire, as well. In which case, you wouldn’t have to worry about it passing bad teeth to its offspring. :roll:

I know the judges at rabbit shows check teeth for each individual rabbit when they do their assessment. It doesn't look terribly hard, but baby rabbits can be squirmy (my arms tell that story all too well). :x

 

[michaels4gardens]

teeth

 

[MaggieJ]

Downright scary, Michael! :shock:

Here's a couple of links about rabbit teeth, with photos of proper alignment. Sometimes in young kits their teeth may not seem quite right, but may correct themselves as the kits grow.

http://www.rabbitmatters.com/rabbit-teeth.html
https://www.raising-rabbits.com/rabbit-teeth.html

 

[michaels4gardens]

Fortunately for me- I have never had malocclusion in my rabbits, -but- when I worked for a "animal sanctuary" -there were a lot of "pet breed" rabbits surrendered [ "dumped"] there-- I treated /trimmed teeth on a lot of those rabbits. -careless inbreeding , and irresponsible breeding, is a real problem in pet breeds . I also saw a lot of GI issues, eye issues, and clogged /Nasolacrimal duct obstruction in those designer breeds. I think,-- those type of problems have mostly been eliminated in standard meat breeds, it only crops up when crossing or inbreeding discovers a recessive gene.. It is said by some,- that malocclusion can happen from rabbits pulling/ biting the wire on cages-- maybe so,-- but in the hundreds of thousands of rabbits I have raised-- I have never seen it..

 

[alforddm]

I will probably do a couple of sibling breedings this year so long as the buck proves he can produce litters. He has a massive loin but I bred him twice and neither doe took. One, I can't hold against him as the I've had trouble getting that doe bred in the past but the other one really surprised me. His inbreeding COI is only 20.57% so def not so much that I would expect problems. I rebred him to 3 does and they are due in 2 weeks. My palpating skills are not great so I guess we'll see.

 

[Rainey]

Downright scary, Michael! :shock:

Here's a couple of links about rabbit teeth, with photos of proper alignment. Sometimes in young kits their teeth may not seem quite right, but may correct themselves as the kits grow.

http://www.rabbitmatters.com/rabbit-teeth.html
https://www.raising-rabbits.com/rabbit-teeth.html

Thanks, Maggie, the links were really helpful. My daughter and I read them and then went out this morning and checked the teeth of our 2 bucks. They both looked good. And Michael's post about teeth problems being less common in breeds that have been developed for meat than in pet rabbits was also helpful. Going forward it will be another thing we'll be sure to look at before breeding anybunny.

 

[SoDak Thriver]

We get malocclusion from time to time in our meat herd, but we just trim the teeth until they get to fryer weight and then they feed us.