[pigsatlesrues]

New Zealand White rabbits for meat.  Does it make a great difference to breed brother with sister?

Having bought a breeding pair which I assume are related since they came from the same person, my French neighbour 'borrowed' the male and now owns it. She had the female also - long story!, but  on the basis that I would get some back with the first litter. I am having two girls, but am now stuck because I would really like a male to.

She says the offspring will be smaller. 

Any info please?

Thanks

Kate

[pigsatlesrues]

Where is Russ and Chrisgod?

These are the chaps who will know the answer to my problem.

There is only so much gardening you can do in a day lads!

Kate 

[rustyme]

Hello Kate,
           it is never a really good idea to breed brother and sister of any animal . Inbreeding leads to all sorts of problems. Linebreeding however is ok , nearly all pedigree dogs etc are linebred to some degree, thats how the different breeds become fixed. In line breeding it is normal  to breed say a buck to a doe then father to daughter and mother to son , each time picking the ones with complimentry traits that you want in your rabbits .This type of line breeding also goes g/father to g/daughter etc....once again picking those with the traits that you want. Take a look at a dogs pedigree, you will see again and again the same names popping up . When this happens you will soon notice that it is proper line breeding NOT in breeding . On rare occassions they do breed brother to sister but that is normally if numbers of a certain animal are low and the animals in question are of complimentry traits. However this is done rarely and should only be done by someone who really knows what they are doing .  In your case you want rabbits of a certain size for food , and you want them to get to that weight in a reasonable amount of time with as little feed as possible. If you were to cross brother and sister and then cross mother to son, father to daughter  you are on a loser before you get going . I can only remember the very basics of it , as it was my dad that kept bunnies. If you really want to go into detail try and get hold of a copy of Gregor Mendel's book on Genetic Theory:
 http://books.google.com/books?hl=en&id=jyIBKNJLAZQC&dq=mendel's+theory&printsec=frontcover&source=web&ots=bgOOIku60A&sig=dtJMEvy2yzd6vmKN1yubLZc7dMI&sa=X&oi=book_result&resnum=9&ct=result#PPP1,M1
     I would stear clear of brother sister cross though , even start with unrelated buck and doe , of good quality , and then line breed from then on . ALways using unrelated would be almost as bad as brother sister crossing.
    Sorry I can't be of any more direct help than that , but the basics will get you going on the right track and you can then later, get more into it and improve from a good base.
 
cheers

Russ
    

[pigsatlesrues]

As always good advice, thanks Russ.  I have had mixed advice here, and am really miffed that I let my neighbour have my original breeding pair or NZ whites.  Oh well never mind, now to seek out another male of good size.

Hope all is well with you.  I guess you are working flat out, so thankyou for taking the time to help me out - again!!

Have a good day

Kate 

[dan_golding]

We've always kept our blood lines "clean" but our French neighbours don't seem to bother.

Apart from our social "distaste" of bunny incest, our neighbour has just as many and just a big rabbits as we do and they all have only 4 legs and 1 head