Hybrids... Just a friendly Conversation please.

[texascowboy1979]

hello everyone. I would like to bring up a topic. HYBRIDS. I would like to keep this topic friendly and not mean. I know that its a two sided coin, Some support, others do not support. Im both, yes it sounds off, but I support Hybrids on some level and do not on others, even thow its the same thing.

I was asking for Camelot Pictures on an other site and I apperantly hit a nerve with everyone. and I mean everyone. I know that many people dont support hybrids because you contaminate the blood line for lack of a better word. Many say to leave mother nature to itself and do her own thing. yet I know of instances where safari parks have had baby Zonkeys born at random when a zebra in the park breed a donkey. No one expected it until the baby was born.

Cattle have been crossed so many time to produce more meat and milk. They have gone as far as being crossed with a Bison to yelid better meat. Being in Animal Husbandry and a 4th generation rancher, I dont have a problem crossing breeds. I Belive its called Hybrid Vigor, where the offspring gets the best of both worlds, and just like one gets the best of both worlds, they can also be the worst of both worlds. Its all a luck of the draw.

the intention to cross breed animals is never to harm the offspring, but to improve the tempermant and express colors. I cross my cochin chickens with polish, frizzle and turkens to create wonder little babies that are just breath taking... End result, they are still good eating.

Im at a loss for expression. I understand preserving the blood line which is why I have my pure macaw blood lines set.

does anyone here support Hybrids, and if so why? I got an ear full of why people dont, but wanted to see the pros on hybrids...

another thing that gets my goat is that people claime that the hybrids will have a horrible life with a shorten lifespand. I dont know of anyone who has had hybrids from birth to ripe old age, so why is it that people jump the gun and start rambling about health and well being of the baby when they have really no clue?

Baby mules seem to have a wonderful life, and i have seen Zorses and Zonkeys live great an happy lives too.

 

[The Yakima Kid]

Well, I'm in favor of hybrid animals because too many animals have been bred for form and have lost their utility value. I can remember when Quarter Horses were a good practical horse and not a neurotic pseudo-TB with a nasty tendency in some bloodlines to have a muscle disease that causes them to fall on their rider when they start to get hot. These days the only QH I'd own would be from Foundation stock. Ditto with Shetland ponies.

A lot of cattle and other breeds weren't graded for feed conversion or carcass quality - so you wound up with some really strange ideal standards over time. I've got some great pictures around here of a Hereford bull that won under a former standard - legs so short it looked like he couldn't cover enough ground in most ranges to avoid starving.

I'm also very partial to mules and I think they are cute, intelligent, and a lot of fun.

Chickens - well, even in the early 1900s Professor Dryden, the man who essentially founded modern poultry science, noted that many breeds had lost their utility qualities because of an emphasis on an appearance standard. He then went on to breed Lady McDuff, first hen documented to lay more than 300 eggs in a year from a careful selection of Rock and Leghorn stock. He also bred Oregona, who laid more than 1,000 eggs in her laying career, and was still laying at five years.

I think it is a matter of what one is trying to do; and they all pretty much taste the same - it's what it takes to get them there, and can you keep afloat doing it.

Nadja

 

[Whispering Winds]

Interesting, and too in depth for me, but I do know that hybrid roses do not have near the scent of the old fashioned roses, and your greenhouse roses have almost no scent . . .but as far as animals, if you are careful and breed the best of the best and if a mistake happens, don't do it again, and keep careful records, why not?

 

[texascowboy1979]

Thanks... I appriciate your imput.

 

[kla37]

I think hybrid chickens are pretty!

Maybe this is too deep for me.

I know that a lot of "pure" bred animals, like dogs, can have a lot of health problems. As long as they are functional, healthy, and fun to keep, I don't see what the big deal is. I think some people get so wrapped up in how they LOOK that some breeds lose their usefulness.

 

[texascowboy1979]

good point, Dogs, for example, Pure bread dogs have all these health issues, yet getting a wolf dog does not. wolves do not hve the health issues of dogs, because in the wild, the wolves with health issues die. End of story, Crossing a dog to a wolf allows the ofspring a better chase to avoid the health issues. I own a wolf dog and people are always going on about how that not right and how she will have a sad life. To this day, My wolf dog lives better lives that normal dogs. She has not one issue with health, and has more energy. her hips are in great condition, her attention and focus is amazing, she really got the best of both worlds.

 

[mom'sfolly]

I think it depends on what you are breeding for and why. Many of the foods we eat are hybrids, things bred for a certain flavor, or vigor, or disease resistance. Many named flower varieties are hybrids, and we all have heard of the Cornish X. I think if you want to breed cool looking chickens, or introduce new colors into a known breed then hybrids and cross breeding are the way to do it. Quarter horses, Morgans, and Tennessee walkers didn't just suddenly appear with all the breed characteristics intact.

 

[Mahonri]

Forget Jersey GIANTS... lets make Dinochickens!!!


We can build whatever animal you want to eat!

 

[texascowboy1979]

Quote:
I So support that!, Im a beliver... its too deep to get into, but I belive in that.

another story:

Here are the pictrues of the baby hybrids I got today! Oh, and the blue and gold and my Vosmaeri

Vos

Blue & Gold

Camelot Babies Clutch 2

Camelot Babies Clutch 1

 

[featherbaby]

Truly the most unusual coloration of a Macaw I've ever seen! Is it a cross between a Blue and gold and a Scarlet? I thought that combo made a Catalina? I would love to see adult plumage on these beauties!