Breeding

Breeding ethics

Way too many "advice for rabbit breeders " groups on Facebook have a wishy washy or down right unethical stance on "pet" breeding. This was again posted after yet another new breeder who is in need of guidance and hearing hard facts was coddled by group members and admins.

administrators support unethical breeding  pratices by deleting comments and facts laid out as to why a pairing is not a good pairing and why the resulting kits should be culled.

In this case :

• 1.The mom may be salvageable on type but the buck being paired with is a poor example of the breed and should be culled out of any future breeding programs. Their are times a out cross or a suppar in one area may be used for a very select out cross, maybe a poor ear set buck is a lop breed has a fanatasic body and the breeder is willing to take a risk that a body improvement is worth messing up ears for a generation. But out crosses like this come with the expectation that kits will be culled hard for quality and the very real possibility that none will be found worthy

• 2 Breeding broken to broken is not recommended. In this post the OP had bred a broken to a broken, new breeder who probably dosn't have a mentor ,and didn't do the research to understand why that is not recommended. Broken to Broken breeding be gives a 40% chance of the kits having megacolon a digestive tract deformity carried on the KIT Gene tied to charlies, which are double homozygous English Spot gene affected rabbits. Their are again occasions that a broken to broken breeding may be done but again like I mentioned in earset, out crosses come with the expectation that kits will be culled hard for quality and the very real possibility that none will be found worthy. The risk is calculated by the breeder.

• 3. Ear set is poor in dad, the Buck used in the breeding pictured by the op, is thin lanky has an upright earset, I doubt he is even a mini lop. So even with cavates as above this buck was never a candidate to be used in any program.

• 4. If your going to breed you need to remove emotions when evaluating stock. Herd blindness and "awe cute babies" is a thing. But in order to breed ethically you must evaluate the rabbit in front of you .

• 5. Their is no such thing as " breeding for pets" people whose goal is the pet market with no consideration to the health ,type or wellbeing of future generations of the breed are unethical period. Either get a breed mentor and breed towards a set standard for your breed or don't breed. Every pairing should have a long term goal in mind.

• 6. If you can't terminal cull , don't breed rabbits . If its not sound quality it shouldn't be leaving your farm . These are bred broken to broken so they all have a chance of megacolon which means unless they are absolutley perfect type, and you as the breeder are going to use them as part of your very select breeding goals, you need to cull them at home and not risk sending them out to some family to deal with a failing rabbit as they mature.