Okay to breed brother to sister?

[jimmywalt]

We have a BEW Mini-rex doe that just turned 3 years old. She had 4 kits that are now 2 weeks old.

We are worried that the doe is getting older and her breeding time possibly ending. We are thinking about keeping 2 of the kits (male & female), but wondered if we could breed them or would something crazy happen with those babies?

Would it be better to just keep a male and try to breed back to the mother in a few months? If so, would we be able to keep a female from that litter and then breed with the male when she matured?

What is the best way for us to keep our BEW's going with only having the mother and 4 kits?

Thanks.

 

[DBA]

Just as a bit of information, I have a 6.5 year old thrianta who had a litter just about a month and a half ago.

I wouldn't breed siblings. Keep a doe from the litter breed it to the father, or keep a buck and breed it to the mother.

 

[alforddm]

Keep a buck and breed back to the doe. You'll have a 50/50 chance of BEW vs a 25% chance with a sibling pairing.

 

[Dood]

3 is not old for a rabbit

I was breeding my ND does up until 8 years old

 

[WhWRabbitry]

I echo what Dood said - 3 is not old.
I have a 5 year old Mini Lop doe that is due to kindle in the next 3 days.
I agree with the advice given here to not breed siblings but breed father to daughter or mother to son.

 

[jimmywalt]

Thanks everyone...........

So if I keep a buck I can breed it back to it's mother?

Then if I wait a few litters can I keep a doe and breed it to the buck (since it wouldn't be a direct sister from the same litter)???

 

[DBA]

So, you are saying breed the buck to a doe, where the buck is the father and a half sibling?
You might be skating on thin ice there too. Do you not have the buck that was mated to your doe?
Think about this, if you have two litters, both from same buck and same doe, even if they are two years apart, they are still full sibling just as if they are litter mates.

 

[WhWRabbitry]

:yeahthat:

Think about this, if you have two litters, both from same buck and same doe, even if they are two years apart, they are still full sibling just as if they are litter mates.

 

[alforddm]

I see no problems at all with doing this. If it doesn't work you'll probably know fairly quick. You'll either get birth defects, slow growth, or kits that just don't thrive. Possibilities also include reduced fertility later or cancer. If any of that happens you can always bring in new stock. You're not actually creating new genetic problems by inbreeding so much as increasing the probability of genetic problems adding up. For example, you get several "minor" recessive mutations that by themselves don't hurt anything but cause problem if they all end up in one rabbit. Every animal carries some of these mutations and you run the risk of doing the same thing by breeding cousin or any other partially related rabbits (it just may take longer).

Just keep the kits that thrive and eat the rest.

 

[Prisma]

I've never had an issue with breeding siblings; I have had more trouble from bringing in unrelated lines with questionable several out breedings (even though they were from solid show lines/breeders). If you cull hard and do not allow for weakness, breeding siblings together is just fine. With the bews it is a quick way to see if there is any under lying issues with seizures etc with close line breeding. I used to not breed so closely and don't suggest it just for new people or those that don't know any thing about their lines (you have to have a good understanding of what you are working with to begin with), but I wanted to get consistency in litters and move ahead as fast as possible without having to guess every litter if there was even a chance of what I was wanting to get from the breeding.

 

[skysthelimit]

:yeahthat:

 

[Dood]

Well, considering the rarity of BEW in Mini Rex, the doe is probably pretty inbred to begin with

To maximize the gene pool I would keep the best kit from this litter then breed the BEW doe to a different Rex buck and keep the best of the opposite sex (to the previous hold back) in that litter and then breed those two kits to get 25% BEW offspring

Also, please disclose to buyers that all kits from this doe will be Vienna carriers, even if they don't have any white marks - many breeders do not want the Vienna gene introduced to their non-BEW programs but it can be a selling point to those who are breeding BEW and many pet buyers love the little white marks that often appear on the nose, head, neck or feet and of course the blue eyes