# Starting with brother / sister breeding pair?



## Buckeye_brian (Jan 14, 2014)

I line breed my rabbits. I will breed a daughter to the father and grandfather...or the mother to the son, etc, etc. I would not breed a brother to a sister in my program. I am working toward pedigrees for my rabbits, so I do not want this in it. Also when I got into rabbits I started with unrelated does and bucks...no need to breed brothers and sisters. Here is my question...

If you were starting out a breeding program with non pedigreed animals, would it bother you to start with a brother / sister pairing? If both rabbits had all the breed traits your looking for, they complimented each other, healthy and came from a "so called" respected breeder. Would this be something you would consider with the knowledge you have now?

I premise this by saying you only wanted to use this pairing as a beginning. You plan on introducing other bloodlines down the road.

I read somewhere (article online or a thread on this forum) about it taking 100 generations of continuous inbreeding to cause serious genetic complications.

I want to do the right thing. I have someone wanting to buy a breeding pair from me but I only have one grow out pen ready and they are all brother sister rabbits. I have 3 other grow out pens, but they are only 7-weeks and I can't tell a buck from a doe until they are real close to 10-weeks.

What say you? Is a brother / sister pairing "OK" in the above scenario or do I tell them to come back in 3-weeks?


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## Marinea (Apr 15, 2011)

If they are looking for meat rabbits, I say go for it. I would sell them a breeding pair, and recommend they go to a breeding trio down the road. Explain the benefits of having two does bred at once.


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## Renorei (Nov 5, 2014)

If it's just for meat I don't think it matters.


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## APPway (May 27, 2005)

Brother sister Breeding is Fine The Only thing is that the Breeding will not inprove at all
what you breed is what you get If there are Faults they can show up worse but it will not improve them at all 
But after they do it a few Generations fertility and litter size can be effected


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## Buckeye_brian (Jan 14, 2014)

Thanks for the responses...

I told the potential customer (a 4H kid) that it was not "optimal" to start with a brother / sister breeding pair. The "best case scenario" for him was to find a breeder that had pedigreed stock so he knew exactly what he was getting. I told him that I keep meticulous records and I was working toward pedigrees...and my rabbits are very good "meat rabbit" stock. Not sure about show stock yet...no one has reported back to me.

He said he just wanted to produce fair meat pens for himself. He said he would prefer them to not be brother sister, but he is impatient and didn't want to wait the 3-weeks for the younger rabbits...lol, kids. Plus he is having a lot of trouble finding FB Californians in this area and that is what he wanted.

So he is coming over tonight and I think I am going to sell him some brothers and sisters.


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## countryfied2011 (Jul 5, 2011)

I breed my brother and sisters but I dont sell rabbits for breeding...only meat.


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## Buckeye_brian (Jan 14, 2014)

This will be a first for me selling brothers / sisters for breeding pair. I have 4-separate bloodlines in my Cali's (2 unrelated bucks and 2 unrelated doe lines). I have 3-bloodlines worth of grow out pens...I just cannot tell the difference in buck / doe until 10 - 11 weeks old.

If he would have called 2-days earlier I would have had tons of rabbits to choose from that weren't related. I had 28 rabbits that I sold or sent to freezer camp on Saturday...


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## sn4k3grl (Feb 25, 2014)

I know it's probably a little late now, but I just wanted to add that with a brother and sister pairing, the offspring will ave a higher chance of showing recessive traits (could be good, could be bad) due to the parents having similar genetics. Theoretically, with proper culling, you could breed brother to sister for several generations, if you only breed healthy and productive ones. At that point it is probably better to breed for healthy traits rather than show standard (there's no reason to keep a rabbit with wolf teeth if it is the right color...). Ideally though, if you were going to run a closed herd like that, you should start with unrelated rabbits to maximize the amount of genetic traits you have to work with throughout the breeding program. 
Just my 2 cents... Hopefully the 4H kid will have a good turnout, and if not, hopefully he will learn some good lessons along the way.


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