I need a bit of help.

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CanucksStar#17

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I don't know if this is going to make any sense at all but I'll try.

I have 4 adult rabbits 2 females 2 males, one of the male's is a Silkie the other one is a New Zealand, Californian cross The females are also New Zealand Californian crosses. The two females are sisters but the male is not related.

The Silkie male is getting old and I don't know how much longer he will live, so I want to keep another male rabbit, but I also want to keep a female. Since the mothers are sisters but the Dads aren't related to either of them, could I keep a male from one of them and a female from the other one? And then breed them?
 
What are your goals for your herd? How comfortable are you with line breeding? How old is old in regards to your buck? Rabbits can be quite tightly bred for many generations before problems show up. Tight breeding doubles up on all traits, good and bad so being clear on what you want from your herd is essential and culling for it.
What you keep is going to depend on how much cage space you have and how fast you want to expand.
Bucks tend to last a lot longer in a herd than does do so there's a possibility that you might not need more bucks but that's up to you of course.
Hope that helps some and welcome BTW :)
 
Welcome to RabbitTalk! :welcomewagon:

Many of us breed brothers to sisters, mothers to sons, fathers to daughters, and so on without problems at all. As 3mina said, good traits and bad traits will be enhanced, so it will be easy to see if two rabbits should be bred again. If you have good stock, you will probably have no problems. :)

One buck is sufficient for quite a few does, so if you're only going to have 3 - 5 does, you really need only one buck. But if you want to have a back-up buck on hand in case the other one kicks the bucket unexpectedly, that's fine, too.

I have not heard of a Silkie rabbit, only Silkie chickens. Perhaps you meant Satin? Or what is a Silkie rabbit? :D
 
3mina
My goals are to get more females so the girls I already have don't have to have babies a couple weeks after the last batch is weaned. They won't get as tired then and will likely like longer. But I also want the babies to be able to get sold.

I'm not really sure about line breeding I haven't ever done it. But I think I would be pretty comfortable doing it!

I don't know the age of my buck but he is close to 5 years of age, I noticed when I used him to bred one of my rabbits the other day that he was really slow, and when he was done he just lay in his cage and was breathing really bad he just looks and sounds really old!

I don't know how good of stock I have. I bought my rabbits from a friend who bought his rabbits from his neighbor who was moving so I have no clue how healthy his rabbits are But they seem a lot healthier then some rabbits I bought from a breeder (who was in shows and stuff)he said to feed adult rabbits all they wanted even if they didn't have babies. Thankfully I had done my research and did the right thing, his rabbits also died a couple years after I got them! My friends rabbits look healthier and he didn't tell me to feed the rabbits more then we should!

Miss M
I guess one bucks is good enough but I find it easier to have at least two bucks just in case one kicks the bucket like you said.

No there is no such thing as a Silkie rabbit! I don't know what I was thinking, all this time raising rabbits and I get the name of the breed of one of my bucks wrong. :oops:
Thanks:)
 
I started out with two does and two bucks, but one buck died before I could use him. Most of my rabbits come from those three animals, and the third generation is now in production.

I really like the quality I am getting now, so I would encourage you to give line breeding and inbreeding a try.

There was a study done where brother to sister breedings were done for over twenty generations without any issues.
 
I firmly believe in linebreeding, because it will instill consistency in the bloodline. :) By next year I'm hoping to have a largely "closed" rabbitry, meaning I won't be introducing any new rabbits unless absolutely necessary. All my Champagnes will descend from two rabbits unless I need to improve type (right now not an issue since both my buck and doe are VERY good), and I'm hoping to have my Mini Rex program really up and running by next fall. :)

That said, cull HARD when linebreeding, otherwise you will have a terrible time trying to "breed out" negative traits. :p
 

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