A question for breeders...

[Orchid]

Not that long ago when I was speaking to a rescue...which was for awhile...I told them all about Simon...and at one point I said what I told he was...

Rex, because of his fur, Lionhead because of his do and mutton chops and mini lop because of his ears and what not.

The woman I spoke with said it is not a wonder he had issues being of all three.

Is that true? Is there more probelms with buns who are mixed up like Simon? Do the genes get all crossed and messed up? Or is it simply based on the original line and what the problem was there and not that he was of three breeds?

Just curious....

Thanks...

 

[pamnock]

Crossbreeding actually lends to hybrid vigor - producing stronger, more healthy offspring as opposed to linebreeding to create consistent characteristics. This is why cross-breeding is so popular in vegetable and beef production.

Pam

 

[Orchid]

The vet felt it was in his Genes...said to stay away from any in his line...hard thing about that though...he came from a pet store....

 

[pamnock]

If he's a mixed breed, he really doesn't have a "line", he just ended up with some undesirable genes predisposing him to illness.

Pam

 

[SilverBirchRabbitry]

I agree with Pam!
What she said is all true

 

[tonyshuman]

To get some of the rarer traits that are desirable, like soft rex fur, fluffy lionhead mutton chops, and floppy lop ears, you have to cross rabbits that are somewhat related. The mutations in the genes that lead to these traits don't occur very often, so to build up your stock, you may have to breed relative bunnies to each other, called inbreeding. This preserves the rarer trait for another generation, but can cause other rare traits to show up, particularly ones that you don't want, like GI issues, tooth issues, or plain failure to thrive issues.

This also happens a lot with genetically modified mouse lines used in research (which I know a lot more about). The initial researcher probably made one or two mice with the genetic modification, and then bred that mouse a lot to get a colony of mice (100+). If you imagine, that means all of the mice in that one colony have a common ancestor, the one where the genetic modification was first made, so it's hard to keep that many related mice free of other genetic defects. In the proper management of a colony, you must introduce new genetic material to keep the mice healthy and reduce the occurrence of undesirable genetic traits, called outbreeding.

A very good rabbit breeder will also do outbreeding, but some unscrupulous ones (backyard breeders, etc) may not. Then they accumulate other genetic defects in their lines, like megacolon in black-lined eye rabbits. Even when crossed with other breeds, these genetic defects may be shown. That's how you get a mixed breed rabbit that doesn't have the hybrid vigor that Pam mentioned. If you look back at the bunnies that have lived the longest, mixes usually do the best.

By luck of the draw (because genes sort themselves into sperm and egg mostly randomly), the genes that came together to form Simon gave him the physical characteristics of many breeds, but they may have also carried some undesirable traits accumulated over years of selecting for those physical traits you mentioned. Hope that helps you understand.

 

[Orchid]

Thank you to all of you for responding and yes I feel I have a better understanding now. It makes sense....

 

[SilverBirchRabbitry]

I just thought I would mention, Simon is cute

 

[Orchid]

SilverBirchRabbitry wrote:

I just thought I would mention, Simon is cute

Yeah....he was...thanks.....

I wish he had had the GOOD side effects from mixing....

I always joke...he defied bunny law...lol Always went against the grain and did the opposite of what a general bun would do.....

He had style...

 

[SilverBirchRabbitry]

lol
he definitly sounded like he had style!
He was lucky to have someone to appreciate him and love him