03/05/2026
LONG POST AHEAD
Nung nagsisimula ako sa rabbits, ang mindset ko talaga
“Dapat unrelated lahat ng stock ko.”
Gusto ko lagi unrelated x unrelated kasi yun ang itinuro ng mga nakikita kong nauna sakin.
New genetics = good,
related genetics = bad?
Mali pala.😅
And its actually NOT how you improve your lines. At all. If you want to breed good rabbits with excellent type towards the Standard of Perfection for your breed, you absolutely have to linebreed/inbreed.
Kung gusto mo ng consistency sa herd mo, mag-linebreed ka. Kasi pag unrelated animals binreed mo, ang nangyayari nadadagdagan mo pa yung faults instead na ma-fix mo.
For Example:
May buck ka and 2 does, lahat sila unrelated.
Buck: may depth pero maliit, pinched, kulang sa loin, mahaba shoulders
Doe #1: flat, walang depth, kulang sa loin, pero maganda shoulders + wide feet
Doe #2: sakto lang depth, medyo long shoulders, straight pero narrow feet, pero malaki size
What are you going to get?
Negatives: lack of depth, long shoulders, small size, pinched, weak loin
Positives: good depth, shorter shoulders, large size, wide straight feet
You will have some with good depth and terrible everything else. You have some babies with some of the positive traits of the parents and some babies with the negative traits of the parents.
So how do you know who to keep?
Now let’s compare sa linebreeding.
Kumuha ka ng trio na related (cousins / half siblings).
Buck: good depth & shoulders pero pinched at narrow
Doe #1 (half-sis): good depth, mas wide feet, good shoulders
Doe #2 (cousin): malaking size, medyo flat top, weak shoulders
What are you going to get?
Positives: good depth, good shoulders, wide feet, big size
Negatives: pinched, flatter topline, mediocre/weak shoulders.
The positives and negatives arent as all over the place now. They all have good qualities but where they have negative qualities, they kind of balance each other out. You need to pick and choose what you want to work on. These three arent going to throw you wild cards structure-wise. Sure, you may get some babies who are pinched and long shouldered, but the chance of getting babies who are improvements on their parents is much easier.
Ngayon, what if may kulang?
Example: pangit fur ng produce mo.
Diyan papasok ang outcross.
Mag introduce ka ng rabbit na may good fur kahit medyo sisira sa consistency.
Baka sabihin mo:
“Eh Sir edi bibili na lang ako ng perfect pero unrelated rabbits?”
Hindi pa rin ganun kadali. Why? GENETICS.
Yes, genetics. Just like rabbit colors can be inherited, so can structure. Type and structure isnt like a light switch like color. For example, black and chocolate. Either the rabbit is BB, Bb, or bb: homozygous black, black carrying chocolate (heterozygous black), or homozygous chocolate. Either the babies get the black gene or get the chocolate gene, depending on what the parents carry. Like a light switch - on or off.
Type isnt like that. Type is more like a modifier in which you can select for good modifiers (good type) but not all of the babies will have that.
Best thing you can do? Buy the best animals you can afford, and breed them. Then pick the best babies that improve their parents and breed them. And then cross back to grandpa if you lose a trait he has. Keep a baby from that litter that has all the traits you want. Cross back to great-aunt for another positive trait. Keep breeding with cousins, aunts, uncles, etc.
“Baka lumiit naman yung rabbits ko sa inbreeding” 😅
Hindi ganun sa rabbits.
Yes, pwede lumabas hidden defects pero hindi ka naman mag-iinbreed forever.
Every 3–4 generations, mag-outcross ka rin para ma-fix bagong flaws at mag-refresh ng genetics.
So yes, this is a long post. But I wanted to share WHY linebreeding and inbreeding can be very useful if you are really trying to improve your herd. I say this as someone who has only really recently learned all of this. I thought I had to have unrelated stock and all that but nope. If you are breeding for SOP, you are better off starting with a good related trio than a good unrelated trio. 😉
