Line breeding?

[Canlay]

Hello everyone!

Recently I bred one of my bucks (Starpaw) to his mother (Poppy) to get some harlequin/patterned babies. Poppy had a litter of 7 with 4 surviving kits. They're all really beautifully patterned, and I have one female that has a really nice easy temperament, and was thinking about keeping her as a breeder. However, I'm worried about breeding her back with her dad, Starpaw. Starpaw's parents are Poppy and my other unrelated buck. Would it be ok to breed her back to her dad, or would that be too many degrees of inbreeding? It's not a huge concern, I just want to add another doe to my breeders since one of my other does is about to age out next year. Thoughts?

Thanks

 

[Jackrabbit]

I would say it’s not a big deal all of my standard Rex share some close ancestry. But it’s really up to you to decide what you should/want to be doing with your rabbits.

 

[Sunshine9198]

From what I've read and seen from other breeders feedback is you ideally can in-breed/line breed up to the 7th generation, but keep in mind the more you line breed the more it will highlight both good AND bad traits. I would be fine with breeding dadxdaughter/motherxson every so often to really highlight a specific trait I want, but I definitely wouldn't do it extensively. I've also heard never to breed siblings together (or if you have repeated rabbits in the same line on top and bottom that wouldn't directly be linebreeding back to its direct parent).

 

[Canlay]

From what I've read and seen from other breeders feedback is you ideally can in-breed/line breed up to the 7th generation, but keep in mind the more you line breed the more it will highlight both good AND bad traits. I would be fine with breeding dadxdaughter/motherxson every so often to really highlight a specific trait I want, but I definitely wouldn't do it extensively. I've also heard never to breed siblings together (or if you have repeated rabbits in the same line on top and bottom that wouldn't directly be linebreeding back to its direct parent).

Ok, that's good to know! Yeah I bread a son back to his mother, and one thing I notice were a higher percentage of infant FTT/deaths. But I've also only bred them together once and the doe usually has a couple casualties in her litter. So I'd probably have to try again and see if that's a trend. The surviving babies are perfectly healthy though.

 

[golden rabbitry]

It depends on the line. Line breeding strengthens everything good and bad. I've never had a problem with it in my herd and actually prefer it. You shouldn't have higher fatality rates because you line breed, it is probably another factor

 

[SoDak Thriver]

“When you get a good result, it’s line breeding. When you get a bad result, it’s inbreeding.” ~Someone on this forum. I don’t remember who.