Maybe you know ?

[Krevis1]

Okay for obvious reasons rabbits with certain issues you don’t want to breed and maybe shouldn’t

that being said has anyone tried breeding them anyway?
or by accident

I DONT JUDGE AND I DONT WANT ANYONE ELSE TO JUDGE - if you don’t feel comfortable commenting - please private message me

this is a genuine question about the heredity of certain issues - teeth growth in specific - how inheritable is this? Preferably a response from someone who has experience or experimented with this ? Generation specifics - how many kits were affected etc.

I obviously don’t want to bred this issue into rabbits and the best way to do that is to not breed them at all - I agree - but is it possible to breed this issue out ??? Other than regular teeth trimming and removing to solve the problem - how can future generations be improved ?

 

[eco2pia]

not rabbit specific, but rodent specific, this is a very heritable trait in my experience.

IF you had unlimited space and time, and monitored every individual carefully, and permanently culled any animal that you got that had bad teeth, EVENTUALLY (years at least, if not decades) you might be able to breed it out. The only way I would do it would be under one of 2 circumstances:

1. I am on a deserted island with only 2 rabbits with bad teeth and I need a food source badly. There are literally no other options, and I am going to eat every rabbit with bad teeth only letting the healthy rabbits continue to breed.
2. I am commited to a specific breed for some reason with this trait embedded, and I need it to go away. In this case I am going to get the healthiest individuals I can find, and breed them at high volume, keeping impeccable records, and cull not just the kits who exhibit the trait, but also the breeders who produce the highest percentage of offspring with the trait. It will take years. It may never fully leave.

I work with genetic knockout research animals in my other life. Sometimes there really are no options, but even then this is mostly to be avoided at all costs. No matter how cute it is, enjoy it as a pet and do not breed if you can help it. If it was bred accidentally, don't breed the offspring, and don't breed it again, even if everything SEEMED to work out.

 

[Krevis1]

not rabbit specific, but rodent specific, this is a very heritable trait in my experience.

IF you had unlimited space and time, and monitored every individual carefully, and permanently culled any animal that you got that had bad teeth, EVENTUALLY (years at least, if not decades) you might be able to breed it out. The only way I would do it would be under one of 2 circumstances:

1. I am on a deserted island with only 2 rabbits with bad teeth and I need a food source badly. There are literally no other options, and I am going to eat every rabbit with bad teeth only letting the healthy rabbits continue to breed.
2. I am commited to a specific breed for some reason with this trait embedded, and I need it to go away. In this case I am going to get the healthiest individuals I can find, and breed them at high volume, keeping impeccable records, and cull not just the kits who exhibit the trait, but also the breeders who produce the highest percentage of offspring with the trait. It will take years. It may never fully leave.

I work with genetic knockout research animals in my other life. Sometimes there really are no options, but even then this is mostly to be avoided at all costs. No matter how cute it is, enjoy it as a pet and do not breed if you can help it. If it was bred accidentally, don't breed the offspring, and don't breed it again, even if everything SEEMED to work out.

Thank you - that was very insightful - I was just curious if there was any potential to rid such unwanted qualities - but the problem I keep having is creating possibilities for more :/ and I’m not one to killcull

 

[eco2pia]

Permanent does not have to be killcull. It has to be permanent. So if you spay/neuter and rehome, that is still culling. It is just quite a bit more work.

It is possible to breed out unwanted traits, but it takes an extremely high volume of breeding to do it.

 

[golden rabbitry]

Anything with bad teeth is usually hard culled because it is VERY genetic. One of my friends works at a vet clinic and snipped an inch of teeth out of a hollands mouth and NOSE. Most breeders hard cull, very poor breeders let them go without realizing. Wolf teeth are the biggest issue and unless you snip and maintain the teeth, the rabbit needs to be culled. You can't breed it out, you shouldn't try. The amount of rabbits that will suffer is just not worth it

 

[RabbitsOfTheCreek]

Trying to breed out things like overgrown teeth is very bad

 

[Krevis1]

Permanent does not have to be killcull. It has to be permanent. So if you spay/neuter and rehome, that is still culling. It is just quite a bit more work.

It is possible to breed out unwanted traits, but it takes an extremely high volume of breeding to do it.

Thanks I understand culling different methods . but for instance - someone doesn’t killcull and they did not neuter/spay before rehoming and then the rehoming person bred them - I feel like it’s setting up to have more potential chances of crossing in the future - this would have to be a extremely closed project
I don’t intend on doing such experimental breeding but was just curious if anyone has tried/ had success - or if it was a lost cause :/

 

[Krevis1]

If we ALL killculled overgrown teeth that might work - but that’s about the same chance I have with fixing it - “why”

 

[RabbitsOfTheCreek]

Killculling because of teeth issues that were bred on purpose just doesn't sit well with me

 

[arachyd]

I ended up with a few that had misaligned teeth because it does not show up immediately. I checked teeth fairly often but it can take while for a kit's teeth to show they are crooked. Mine were bred before it was noticeable and neither they nor their kits were never bred again. The source was a beautiful young NZ buck and doe I got at auction. Never resell or give away an intact rabbit with malocclusion. Even though half the kits showed normal teeth they would have carried the genes for the problem.

 

[Preitler]

Permanent does not have to be killcull. It has to be permanent. So if you spay/neuter and rehome, that is still culling. It is just quite a bit more work.

....

I wouldn't do that. One of the reasons I stay away from any "cute" breed that is prone to stuff, like lops and such. But even in my farm mutts some undesired things - like skittishness - pop up, I don't even give those away.

Health issues, that's a nogo. Sneezing - the oven will cure it. It mostly isn't the richest people buying those culls, and "petting out" rabbits with bad teeth genes or such would be burdening the people that get attached to those rabbits with crippling expenses in countries like the US (vet costs are much more reasonable here), not to mention the suffering. I had to have my house bunny Herr Hase put down last year due to a spinal issue, I could not sell a rabbit knowing it's future owner has a fat chance of going through something similiar.
I just hope that wasn't genetic but the result of an accident (boy thought he was a cat), both my current breeding does are his daughters. Only sell rabbits for meat breeding, and very few of those, not a single one last year.

It's a completly other thing to pet out culls due to not being up to the breed standard, wrong colours etc, but health issues mean destination freezer camp.

 

[Krevis1]

Killculling because of teeth issues that were bred on purpose just doesn't sit well with me

No I meant we would all have to killcull to rid the problem without doing any experimental breeding that will create possibilities for more (obviously spay and neuter is an option but an expensive option in this scenario not just the procedure but the feed cost to be old enough for the procedure as well)

it was a completely random thought but like eco2pia said it would take a really long time.

Andddd it would never fix the problem as a whole for everyone - so it was pretty pointless

Just was curious anyones success with selective breeding to weed out “problems” - if anyone has tried

 

[Krevis1]

I ended up with a few that had misaligned teeth because it does not show up immediately. I checked teeth fairly often but it can take while for a kit's teeth to show they are crooked. Mine were bred before it was noticeable and neither they nor their kits were never bred again. The source was a beautiful young NZ buck and doe I got at auction. Never resell or give away an intact rabbit with malocclusion. Even though half the kits showed normal teeth they would have carried the genes for the problem.

100% agree with never selling or getting rid of them ! It only furthers the problem for everyone else!

 

[Krevis1]

I wouldn't do that. One of the reasons I stay away from any "cute" breed that is prone to stuff, like lops and such. But even in my farm mutts some undesired things - like skittishness - pop up, I don't even give those away.

Health issues, that's a nogo. Sneezing - the oven will cure it. It mostly isn't the richest people buying those culls, and "petting out" rabbits with bad teeth genes or such would be burdening the people that get attached to those rabbits with crippling expenses in countries like the US (vet costs are much more reasonable here), not to mention the suffering. I had to have my house bunny Herr Hase put down last year due to a spinal issue, I could not sell a rabbit knowing it's future owner has a fat chance of going through something similiar.
I just hope that wasn't genetic but the result of an accident (boy thought he was a cat), both my current breeding does are his daughters. Only sell rabbits for meat breeding, and very few of those, not a single one last year.

It's a completly other thing to pet out culls due to not being up to the breed standard, wrong colours etc, but health issues mean destination freezer camp.

This was really funny and I agree! Skittishness was another thing (and would probably be lighter hearted thread example! Oops lol) I work on rabbit socialization (with people, other rabbits, toys) I don’t breed religiously like some who might have more experience with this - so that’s why I was wondering about this - unwanted color and shape I know can easily be “fixed” but it’s the harder things that make me feel like a rabbit supremacist *hides under a rock*

 

[Krevis1]

It’s just one of those traits that we have to unfortunately accept