Incestrial Bred And Behavioral Issues

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Bun~Bun

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As whith alot of animals(Yes, we are animals too.), incestrial bred(Family inbred.) can turn out whith behavioral issues and disfuntions. Most likely when an animal especially humans concieves whith a closely related family member(Like Brother X Sister or Father X Daughter.) the offspring comes out whith mental problems, like retardation. Some animals like Dogs,who concieve whith a close family member the offspring can come out whith aggression problems and emotional issues.
Like whith my rabbit, Bun-Bun, he is naturally aggressive towards cats and won't hesitate to fight till it's split up or the cat curs out.Bun-Bun is also very solid for a fatish 8 pound rabbit. I've nevered tortured my Rabbits.
Could he be incestrial bred? If not, what is it from?
 
You would have to do a lot of line breeding in rabbits before you really start to see serious birth defects. Line breeding is actually okay in animals because it brings the gene pool in closer and allows for breeding certain traits. In rabbits Kits usually are not born retarded per se, but rather they die after birth or the doe will not be able to carry to term, or they will not be developed orbe missing body parts. Breeding a Father to a daughter in a line that was not really line bred perviously will not suddenly create deformed kits or genetic behavior problems if thats what you are thinking. Is your rabbits spayed/neutered? Some rabbits are just not as "domestic"as others, I've noticed that if they were socialized oftenas kits they are usually not as receptive toward people. You don't have to harm a rabbit to have it be territorial, oragressive toward known preaditors,or i.e. dislike being picked up or held, that's just instinct in rabbits.

Julia
 
Maybe he just doen't like the cat... I'm not sure. Right now I'm trying to learn about all four breeding programs myself :?
 
Like Julia said before, some rabbits just aren't that social.

I do linebreeding regularly... about 95% of all my breedings are to rabbits related somehow to each other by various degrees.I've breed full Brother/Sisters before to find out what "defect" genes may be in a specific line - the only thing I've noticed is hydrocephalus (water on the brain) - and those kits were either stillborn or passed within an hour from kindling.

I prefer to line breed because I KNOW what traits and genes are in my lines - both good and any bad. A good breeder will utilize these line breedings to breed out the bad traits while focusing on the good ones. Any kit produced that exhibits a bad trait has to be taken with a grain of salt, so to say... because without doing that breeding, you would have never known it was even in your line. I want to ensure that the rabbits that I produce do not carry these unwanted bad genes... so I breed it out by line breeding.

When you cross to other lines - whether they be toothern on-relatedlinebreds or a completely new rabbit that was never linebred - you inherit more unknown genes that could ruin a herd... take malocclusion for example. Just because this new rabbit does not have Malo itself, doesn't mean it doesn't carry the genes to produce Malo in it's offspring.

If I may ask, did you acquire Bun-Bun from a breeder or from a Rescue / Pet Store?

It could be that the environment he was in before sealed in these instinctual "fears". Cats are natural predators to Rabbits,so it only makes sense that Bun-Bun attacks the cat. Just a thought to consider.

~Sunshine
 

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