• Post Reply Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic
permaculture forums growies critters building homesteading energy monies kitchen purity ungarbage community wilderness fiber arts art permaculture artisans regional education skip experiences global resources cider press projects digital market permies.com pie forums private forums all forums
this forum made possible by our volunteer staff, including ...
master stewards:
  • Carla Burke
  • Nancy Reading
  • r ranson
  • Jay Angler
  • John F Dean
  • Pearl Sutton
stewards:
  • Nicole Alderman
  • paul wheaton
  • Anne Miller
master gardeners:
  • Christopher Weeks
  • Timothy Norton
gardeners:
  • thomas rubino
  • Jeremy VanGelder
  • Matt McSpadden

rabbit breeding

 
                                            
Posts: 4
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
i am completely new to rabbits...if i get a buck and 2 does from the same litter can i breed them or is that too close of relations for rabbits?
 
gardener
Posts: 582
Location: Lower Mainland British Columbia Canada Zone 8a/ Manchester Jamaica
11
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Can relation's get any closer than brother and sister?

You can do whatever you like inbreeding is nothing new to mankind, but I don't want the karma of that on my chest.
I assume your breeding for meat so the concept is there wont be any additional generations of damaged genetics?
An accident is one thing, but to specifically plan on it to save yourself time and effort. Any animal which would give it's life to support your live deserves to be respected our husbandry of it.

Your looking for someone else to tell you yes so your not responsible for acting on the advice, but I now am specifically telling you no I wouldn't, but nobody is stopping you other than your own conscience.

I've mulled over allot of temptations for quick gratification in my day and all I've learned is the quicker the gratification the more bitter and long lasting the aftertaste.
 
                
Posts: 51
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Rabbits can generally handle quite a bit of inbreeding but littermates are where most people won't go.  The closest most breeders will recommend is parent to offspring. 

Finding a buck isn't hard though and you may even be able to trade a male with someone else so you can both keep your gene pool diverse.

 
Posts: 37
Location: Asheville, NC
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I have to agree with Saybian and Blue.

For just starting out and learning about rabbits almost any buck will do. Five to ten dollars will get you a decent buck. Assuming you are producing meat, I would find out if you have the stomach for dispatching with your current buck and replace him if it goes OK for you. Then the rabbit meat was cheap and you don't have to worry about inbreeding.
 
out to pasture
Posts: 12524
Location: Portugal
3406
goat dog duck forest garden books wofati bee solar rocket stoves greening the desert
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
I've used litter mates as breeding stock before - if it's all you can get it's either use them or don't breed.  The babies seemed perfectctly ok.  But I replaced him with a 'new' buck as soon as I could find one.  I figured it made more sense to buy a new buck every couple of years and breed my own replacement does.
 
                        
Posts: 66
Location: San Diego
  • Mark post as helpful
  • send pies
    Number of slices to send:
    Optional 'thank-you' note:
  • Quote
  • Report post to moderator
Rabbits will (arguably) tolerate more inbreeding than any other farm animal. With careful culling you can keep linebreeding going for quite a few generations. One thing you have to remember with inbreeding is that you are intensifying ALL of the traits in the line, not just the desirable ones. Some undesirable traits are not apparent to the eye but will doom a line to failure such as small litters or infertility. An occasional outcross can keep the line stronger since most "invisible" bad traits are recessives and unlikely to show up in a cross. You can then work the cross back into your linebreeding to help eliminate the recessives.
 
I'm not dead! I feel happy! I'd like to go for a walk! I'll even read a tiny ad:
permaculture bootcamp - learn permaculture through a little hard work
https://permies.com/wiki/bootcamp
reply
    Bookmark Topic Watch Topic
  • New Topic