Thursday, January 10, 2008
Third Time's A Charm?
Last fall, I was talking to a judge about breeding. His theory was that if you breed a buck to three generations, you can almost reproduce that buck. It worked for him with a big Convention winner (BOB, I think). I am working on a similar project. I hope it will work for me. Of course, I don't have a big Convention winner like that to work with, but I'm using the best I've got.
First of all, I'm sure you are interested in the science behind the idea. After all, superstition and luck sometimes work, too. But in this case, we can explain the process without superstition. Luck always helps.
The first step in breeding is quite obvious (F1). Breed your nice buck to a compatible doe. The offspring have 1/2 of their genes from their sire and 1/2 from their dam. We'll call this sire the specimen buck. He's the specimen worth replicating.
When you breed the specimen buck to a daughter (F2), the offspring get 1/2 of their genes from the specimen buck and then 1/4 specimen buck genes from the daughter, on the average. Now it's important to realize that it's just an average. It's possible that the daughter would pass on all specimen buck genes or none. But probably the doe will contribute 1/4 of the genes from the specimen. The other 1/4 would come from the first dam.
Now you've chosen the best daughters to breed back to the buck, so you've increased the chances of doubling up on the desirable genes. But you'll have to pick the best again to continue to increase your chances.
So let's say that the offspring are totally typical and now have 75% of the specimen buck's genes. We take one of these daughters and breed back to the specimen buck for a third generation (F3). The offspring get 1/2 of their genes from the specimen buck and an average of 37.5% specimen buck genes from the dam. That means that, on the average, the offpspring will have 87.5% of the same genes as the specimen buck. In a fourth generation, the number would go up to 93.75%.
It's important to continue to select good specimens because you could just as easily collect up and consolidate all of the faults (seen and hidden) in the specimen's gene pool. And if you are lucky, you can end up with an offspring as good as - or even better than the specimen buck. But there will be one advantage. The new offspring should breed truer than the original buck since there's a greater chance that there are two matching genes where the specimen may have have an undesirable recessive gene (for desirable recessives, there is no advantage).
So here's my real life example.
I bred Rio to May. I was very excited about this breeding. You may remember me talking about it. Back then, May hadn't taken her class at Convention, but as it turns out, I wasn't just breeding two Best In Show rabbits together, I was breeding two rabbits that have now taken their class at Convention.
May had six kits, which is usual for her. One died. One was a false dwarf. Three were fuzzy Charlies (one of which went on to produce last year's Convention BOG for Roman). And one was Padme.
Padme earned 9 legs (2 BOB, 3 BOS, and 4 BOSG). She was 17th at 2006 Convention in a total molt. She's a favorite of mine.
I bred Padme back to her father Rio. Padme, by the way, has only produced 8 surviving offspring for me (not including the two babies and one pre-junior she has now). Four of them have granded. But even with her great keeper rate, the first breeding with Rio produced three average rabbits. Or, rather, it produced two average rabbits and one gorgeous fuzzy. The fuzzy gave me enough encouragement to try it again.
The next litter had one surviving kit (this was during my feed and water problems - I lost two of them). That one kit was a blue point. Or so I thought at first. I was so frustrated. But as time went one, her points darkened and her eyes were clearly brown. She started showing incredible depth of body with very good overall length. She granded easily with two BOSGs and a BOS. I retired her to breeding immediately at six months of age.
So far, she's had a miss and a dead singleton. The reason this is all on my mind is that I plan to breed Evita with Rio today, if she's receptive. I'm hoping third time's a charm in more than one way.
I'll probably be dodging seal points, fuzzies, and peanuts, but maybe Rio and Evita will produce another Rio, just shorter like Evita, and with her great depth, but with Rio's head and bone. And in a fun color, just to make things really interesting.
This is where the luck comes in. Feel free to send good vibes in Evita's direction today.
The next generation will have approximately 87% of Rio's genes. With some luck, maybe it will have 110% of his potential.
When Rio took his class at Convention, within minutes I had requests for his offspring. I generally replied that I hadn't figured Rio out. I asked folks to let me work with him and see what works. If this next generation goes well, those kits will be much more valuable than first generation Rio offspring. To me, these offspring (or possibly the next generation) are the ones worth having. Everything else was just a work in progress.
Laurie
PS: Just think what I could have done if Mambo and Tango (Rio x May) had been does instead of bucks!!! ¶ 9:30 AM
First of all, I'm sure you are interested in the science behind the idea. After all, superstition and luck sometimes work, too. But in this case, we can explain the process without superstition. Luck always helps.
The first step in breeding is quite obvious (F1). Breed your nice buck to a compatible doe. The offspring have 1/2 of their genes from their sire and 1/2 from their dam. We'll call this sire the specimen buck. He's the specimen worth replicating.
When you breed the specimen buck to a daughter (F2), the offspring get 1/2 of their genes from the specimen buck and then 1/4 specimen buck genes from the daughter, on the average. Now it's important to realize that it's just an average. It's possible that the daughter would pass on all specimen buck genes or none. But probably the doe will contribute 1/4 of the genes from the specimen. The other 1/4 would come from the first dam.
Now you've chosen the best daughters to breed back to the buck, so you've increased the chances of doubling up on the desirable genes. But you'll have to pick the best again to continue to increase your chances.
So let's say that the offspring are totally typical and now have 75% of the specimen buck's genes. We take one of these daughters and breed back to the specimen buck for a third generation (F3). The offspring get 1/2 of their genes from the specimen buck and an average of 37.5% specimen buck genes from the dam. That means that, on the average, the offpspring will have 87.5% of the same genes as the specimen buck. In a fourth generation, the number would go up to 93.75%.
It's important to continue to select good specimens because you could just as easily collect up and consolidate all of the faults (seen and hidden) in the specimen's gene pool. And if you are lucky, you can end up with an offspring as good as - or even better than the specimen buck. But there will be one advantage. The new offspring should breed truer than the original buck since there's a greater chance that there are two matching genes where the specimen may have have an undesirable recessive gene (for desirable recessives, there is no advantage).
So here's my real life example.
I bred Rio to May. I was very excited about this breeding. You may remember me talking about it. Back then, May hadn't taken her class at Convention, but as it turns out, I wasn't just breeding two Best In Show rabbits together, I was breeding two rabbits that have now taken their class at Convention.
May had six kits, which is usual for her. One died. One was a false dwarf. Three were fuzzy Charlies (one of which went on to produce last year's Convention BOG for Roman). And one was Padme.
Padme earned 9 legs (2 BOB, 3 BOS, and 4 BOSG). She was 17th at 2006 Convention in a total molt. She's a favorite of mine.
I bred Padme back to her father Rio. Padme, by the way, has only produced 8 surviving offspring for me (not including the two babies and one pre-junior she has now). Four of them have granded. But even with her great keeper rate, the first breeding with Rio produced three average rabbits. Or, rather, it produced two average rabbits and one gorgeous fuzzy. The fuzzy gave me enough encouragement to try it again.
The next litter had one surviving kit (this was during my feed and water problems - I lost two of them). That one kit was a blue point. Or so I thought at first. I was so frustrated. But as time went one, her points darkened and her eyes were clearly brown. She started showing incredible depth of body with very good overall length. She granded easily with two BOSGs and a BOS. I retired her to breeding immediately at six months of age.
So far, she's had a miss and a dead singleton. The reason this is all on my mind is that I plan to breed Evita with Rio today, if she's receptive. I'm hoping third time's a charm in more than one way.
I'll probably be dodging seal points, fuzzies, and peanuts, but maybe Rio and Evita will produce another Rio, just shorter like Evita, and with her great depth, but with Rio's head and bone. And in a fun color, just to make things really interesting.
This is where the luck comes in. Feel free to send good vibes in Evita's direction today.
The next generation will have approximately 87% of Rio's genes. With some luck, maybe it will have 110% of his potential.
When Rio took his class at Convention, within minutes I had requests for his offspring. I generally replied that I hadn't figured Rio out. I asked folks to let me work with him and see what works. If this next generation goes well, those kits will be much more valuable than first generation Rio offspring. To me, these offspring (or possibly the next generation) are the ones worth having. Everything else was just a work in progress.
Laurie
PS: Just think what I could have done if Mambo and Tango (Rio x May) had been does instead of bucks!!! ¶ 9:30 AM
