[SquashNut]

I bought a pedigreed NZW white buck and a pure bred california doe at the last show I went to.
There are 2 more shows coming up over the next 2 weeks.
I want to buy 2 rabbits to go with the ones I have .
obviousley I need 1 nzw doe to go with my buck.
I am trying to figure out weather to buy either an additional nzw doe or a california buck.

If I get 2 nzw does should they be related? If so how closely. Should I go out of my way to make sure they are from different rabbitrys?

 

[KSALguy]

in rabbits and really in most any livestock as long as you breed responcibly you dont need to worry too much about how closely related you are breeding because all the culls go in the freezer anyway, but honestly as long as you keep only the best to breed then you shouldnt run into any problems, and just starting out even if you just had two or three does and one buck you could technically keep breeding for several years to come with just that genetic material as long as you know what to keep and what to cull,

if you wanted to you could get a second buck but wouldnt need too as thats just another mouth to feed, and unless you want to have quite a few does you wouldnt need a second buck,
get two or three more does what ever you like, and use your NZW on them and keep the best from what ever litter you need to get a replacement from

 

[March Hare]

Somewhere on the net you should be able to find a linebreeding chart. Essentially, it shows how in three or four generations you can end up with rabbits that are genetically pretty darn close to the original stock because of offspring breedings to parents/grandparents.

Linda, who posts here pretty frequently, knows more about what seems to work in a commercial setting. Our barn is pretty close overall, but we do have a couple of different lines and occasionally outcross to a buck or doe from outside to help prevent negative recessive traits from showing up too frequently.

Russ
www.marchharesrabbitry.com

 

[rabbitgal]

Russ, what I wonder is this: if you do have "negative recessive traits" show up should you try to breed it out or simply outcross to "bury" the trait?

I've had things show up in a line of tightly linebred rabbits and my first reaction was to do more inbreeding and try to pinpoint the rabbits carrying the trait so I could cull them -- but they're so closely related that I think every animal of that bloodline carries the trait.

 

[March Hare]

Our barn is pretty small, and we have gotten to the point that sales are not as important as what we sell. Thus, we only sell animals good enough to be kept in our barn if we did not already have what we need. So for us there are only keepers (many of which really get sold) and culls, which end up in our freezer. Animals with undesirable traits end up being culled from our herd.

This is not to say that all the animals we have are ideal. Some just have certain strengths and others have different strengths. Often that is how we breed -- strengths in one area to strengths in a different area.

Our barn is pretty close --genetically speaking. Outcrosses are usually kind of a crap-shoot. Some work well and others just don't. What we try to do is find stock to bring in that is from the same lines as ours but separated by several generations in another barn. We recently brought a buck whose line goes back to the same herd that most of ours do if you look back six or eight generations. This is an outcross that we have high hopes for because it isn't very far out.

As always, your mileage may vary. This is just how we have been doing things.

Russ
www.marchharesrabbitry.com

 

[dlwelch]

I've had things show up in a line of tightly linebred rabbits and my first reaction was to do more inbreeding and try to pinpoint the rabbits carrying the trait so I could cull them -- but they're so closely related that I think every animal of that bloodline carries the trait.

Give an example of the things that "showed up", please?

Russ, are the undesirable traits you mention related to "production"
or "conformation/show" qualities?

 

[March Hare]

Most of the undesirable traits that we have culled for are at least partly genetic, but not production related. Examples would include malocclusion, undescended testes, bad hocks leading to chronic sore hocks, Martinized tail on the Californians, hernia, a propensity for certain health problems like ear mites.

We do cull on production when a doe doesn't successfully breed for three times when we know the buck is not a problem. Also, I would cull a doe that did not successfully raise her litter, unless it is a first-timer.

We might cull a buck if he repeatedly had failed breedings, but so far that hasn't been an issue. Usually when we breed, one buck will breed more than one doe, and so far at least one of the does has always had a litter later.

Russ