twice inbred rabbits?!

[Chickenlover0810]

my friend got two rabbits from the same litter, she thought they were both boys. one of them turned out to be a girl and they mated. I got a male and a female from the inbred litter. last night we brought all of our rabbits in the house because it was heatstroke weather and the male and female from the inbred litter got together! and we fear that the male and female inbred rabbits might have mated! will this injure the mother? will we have to cull the babies? every time that any of the rabbits in this article were accidentally bred. and both the male and female from the first inbred litter turned out as GREAT family pets and they were soooooo gentle, but some of the rabbits had little nodules on their nose or by their abdomen. any info I should know about being inbred twice. with in siblings? thanks in advance!

 

[JacinLarkwell]

You really don't want to let this continue. Sibling matches are way less forgiving than offspring/parent matches. Remember how most royal families in history started having birth defects? It's the same cause

 

[JacinLarkwell]

Once is okay and twice might still be okay, but make sure not to let it happen a third time. Those rabbits that are born should be culled if there are any obvious problems at birth. If not they should probably be raised for meat and not sold mmmnor given as pets

 

[Chickenlover0810]

Once is okay and twice might still be okay, but make sure not to let it happen a third time. Those rabbits that are born should be culled if there are any obvious problems at birth. If not they should probably be raised for meat and not sold mmmnor given as pets

ok, thanks!

 

[JacinLarkwell]

What breeds are they?

 

[RiverOtter]

It won't hurt them at all. Rabbits naturally inbreed in the wild constantly. Most rodents do.

Do you know how they develop laboratory strains? You breed brother to sister for 20 generations and by then they are all genetic clones of each other.

What you have to worry about with rabbits isn't inbreeding, it's stress. Any little thing will set them off and they eat the babies. Literally yesterday I ha a doe give birth in the wire floor of the cage, where the babies were sure to get chilled and die. I put some hay under them (because I know better than to try to move them to a nest box if she didn't want it) but even that was too much and this morning they were gone.

Don't examine them at birth! Its too easy for you to stress her and she'll kill them. Don't get attached or really even look at them until they are fully furred and coming out of the nest box. Just keep Momma's routine intact and everything as stress free as possible.

 

[JacinLarkwell]

It won't hurt them at all. Rabbits naturally inbreed in the wild constantly. Most rodents do.

Do you know how they develop laboratory strains? You breed brother to sister for 20 generations and by then they are all genetic clones of each other.

What you have to worry about with rabbits isn't inbreeding, it's stress. Any little thing will set them off and they eat the babies. Literally yesterday I ha a doe give birth in the wire floor of the cage, where the babies were sure to get chilled and die. I put some hay under them (because I know better than to try to move them to a nest box if she didn't want it) but even that was too much and this morning they were gone.

While stress isn't good, you do still have to worry about inbreeding. Brother sister pairing bring out the best and worst traits. The same litter can have award winning kits as well as some that naturally shouldn't survive

 

[RiverOtter]

Now, obviously if you were getting into rabbit breeding, you'd have to learn how to examine the nest box and young, but to raise just one litter from beloved pets - let them be.

 

[RiverOtter]

While stress isn't good, you do still have to worry about inbreeding. Brother sister pairing bring out the best and worst traits. The same litter can have award winning kits as well as some that naturally shouldn't survive

If they naturally shouldn't survive - they won't. It's as simple as that. Newborn rabbits are not hardy creatures at best. Any that are naturally deformed will die, or be killed by the mother.

But those sort of genetics deformities are incredibly rare in rabbits, and all rodents. As I said, they evolved naturally inbreeding. The occasional male rabbit leaves the warren he was born in, and MIGHT be able to join a different one, or might be killed by the resident males. But most of them stay with the warren they're born in, breeding with their brothers, sisters, parents, cousins, etc. Nature took out the recessives you're worried about centuries ago.

 

[Chickenlover0810]

What breeds are they?

Both are Dutch harlequins mixes