Test breeding

[ladysown]

So a month ago I made the decision that rather than simply culling a doe who gave me four kits with poor teeth that I would do a bit of a test to see wherein lies the problem.

I've never had poor teeth from the buck she was originally bred to, but with her...half the litter had severely bad teeth.

So I bred to a NZB buck, a holland lop buck, and to the original buck as well.

I got seven kits.

TWO have obvious colouring/markings from the holland lop buck.
One looks identical to the kits I get off NZ/harle crosses - with one having me wondering. Growth rates should confirm.
leaving three-four the look to be off the original buck.

If none of them end up with bad teeth I'm going to assume it was just an odd breeding that was just a one off.

If the ones I"m fairly sure are from the original buck have bad teeth but the others have good teeth I suspect I'll let her stick around for a go with a new buck that's coming. She's a good mom and a decent looking doe...and I wonder about the inbreeding a bit.

BUT if the holland lop cross kits have bad teeth, or the nz cross kits are bad then she'll be gone as that's just saying "DOE"S PROBLEM!" and I don't want to mess with that.

Does what I am thinking seem reasonable? or should I just cut my losses with her in four weeks and say nope, can't have this in my herd at all?

 

[eco2pia]

wow. I never thought of crossing a doe on 3 bucks at once--of course it would never have been an option for me, since i never have that many distinctly different bucks available. I am interested to hear how the kits turn out, I think your conclusions will be correct, if other crosses produce bad teeth then it would be the doe's problem.

 

[akane]

I would think even if only the original cross produces bad teeth the doe is still carrying something unless your buck is throwing bad teeth on other does. If neither of them shows the problem with any other rabbit it means they are both carrying something recessive. It would actually be better that one throws the problem on several matings because then you know it's probably just that one. If only a certain pair have issues though then they both must be contributing. That is what has never made sense to me in keeping one half of a bad producing pair. Even if you pair them up with different mates you still have one half the problem waiting to cause issues down the line.

 

[ottersatin]

If you have rabbits producing Bad teeth or any other fault,
I would Cull the sire and Dam and all of the offspring!
That's just me, but I breed toward disease resistance
and refuse to fix a fault into the herd.
No member is more important or takes precedence over the importance
of the rest of the herd.
Ottersatin. ldtimer:

 

[ladysown]

does it take two rabbits to produce bad teeth? the buck has been used several times and every time except for this one doe the teeth have been just fine.

That's why I thought I'd outcross the doe to different bucks and see what happened. The buck will be leaving as he has a pet home he'll be going too and I've a new buck coming.

 

[curlysue]

Years ago when Holland lops were new,we had a lot of teeth issues.i used too keep a buck i knew threw bad teeth for test breeding.some does babies would have good teeth bred too him those were the does i kept.i believe its a recessive trait and both animals must carry it.i would get entire litters with bad teeth.

 

[akane]

does it take two rabbits to produce bad teeth?

Whether 1 rabbit or 2 is required depends if you are dealing with a dominant or recessive mutation. If neither rabbit is producing bad teeth on any other rabbit then obviously both rabbits are contributing something even if it's just one of the rabbits not having the genetics to override the mutation from the other one. The weakness will remain in some form no matter which one you keep. If one rabbit throws bad teeth on many other rabbits then you have a dominant mutation that may be isolated to that rabbit and you only have to remove that one and possibly it's offspring to eliminate the problem. The more you inbreed the offspring from either rabbit even if they didn't initially show the defect the greater the odds you'll see it again.

 

[Devon's Mom Lauren]

The teeth issue would be autosomal recessive which means both have to carry for it. Breeding to 3 bucks at once is not a test of anything unless you DNA-type them for paternity. You would have to do testing with 3 separate litters instead with these bucks. Having four kits with the same mutation would not be a one-off thing it actually tells you that trait is very strong in this cross. Having one with an issue would be more of an one- off thing. Hollands are a hard breed because of the desired shape of head is very round and mug-like leaving a shorter nose and you start to see this type of thing, much like you see in dogs that are deliberately bred with very short muzzles..they all have underbites, except in dogs its not a health issue like in rabbits.