#Keep it in your pants how to#

The litter produced wolf teeth and poor immunity and we ended up culling it from the breeding program and vowing to never repeat that breeding. We have personally bred a brother/sister combination of rabbits that we knew nothing of the genetic history about. It was only after 18+ generations the researchers began to see problems like malocclusion (wolf teeth), compromised immune systems (sickly rabbits), and other common problems associated with inbreeding. He told me in scientific studies researchers have deliberately inbred their rabbits, trying to get the most genetically similar test subjects possible. I spoke with a friend who is a geneticist and his experience confirms this philosophy. Additionally, traditional wisdom says if you get a brother/sister pair, produce one mating out of that pair (inbreed) and from that point forward switch to line breeding and you wonвЂ™t run into problems. Most of the top breeders utilize line breeding regularly to вЂњstamp inвЂќ the breed characteristics they find most desirable. The Domestic Rabbits publication by ARBA had a great article about the differences between inbreeding (breeding siblings) and line breeding (breeding father/daughter, mother/son, grandparent/grandchild, etc.). That being said, weвЂ™re planning on sticking with these animals and their offspring until we have a very solid вЂњMad Hatter RabbitвЂќ stamp on any animal that comes from our barn. We have worked pretty hard to get unrelated animals to start our herd, importing bloodlines from all over the United States.

#Keep it in your pants how to#

When youвЂ™re thinking about how to get the healthiest herd with the least amount of animals, thereвЂ™s no doubt you have to consider how closely related you want your rabbits to be over the long haul. As a practice for human beings we are 100% against it. WeвЂ™ve talked about the dangers of inbreeding our family. I overheard the 7-year-old talking to her about this crush: вЂњYou canвЂ™t marry him! HeвЂ™s our cousin! If you get married your kids will have two heads and three eyes!вЂќ

We went to several family reunions this summer and, truth be told, our 5-year-old daughter developed a bit of a crush on one of her cousins.

Occasionally thereвЂ™s just something a littleвЂ¦ offвЂ¦ about a pairing.