Creating a rabbit line - Netherland Dwarf Rabbits

[Rebecca]

Hello!

I wondered if you could give me some advice on creating a line.

I read that in order to create a line you take the offspring of a pair of rabbits, and breed mother to son and daughter to father. Then you breed the offspring of the mother/son and father/daughter litters together.
Can anyone explain to me what happens after that? I've looked at charts and numbers but I couldn't understand them.

Also, I'm trying to decide which rabbits to start my new line with...
I have a false dwarf doe and a true dwarf buck that are completely unrelated that I have already bred and have kept one buck and one doe from that litter.

Would it be better to start off my line this way or is it better if I start it off with father/daughter as the first generation?
I ask this because the daughter has much better traits than the mother.

Thank you for your time.

 

[SixGun]

Here's a link to a graphic on creating your own line. http://www.amysrabbitranch.com/Breeding/Lines.pdf

I personally don't think it needs to be that rigid, but, that's just my opinion and I'm probably wrong.

 

[Prisma]

That's line breeding, making your own line can be from out crossing constantly too to unrelated stock.

In short, offspring from the separate initial breedings are crossed then the next off spring are crossed back etc. There are variances of that of course. Amy's site has a good example :bunnyhop:

 

[Dood]

Good advice above

I would add that there is no point in keeping a closed bloodline if they are not producing desirable results so introducing new blood once in a while is often beneficial and needed