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BWR Ad Astra Per Alia Porci x BWR Houyhnhnm
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Father
BWR Ad Astra per Alia Porci
Russian Blue Rex ("velveteen")
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Babies
Born: February 14, 2010
Health Records |
Mother
BWR Houyhnhnm
Russian Blue
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Background and Purposes: This litter is a close inbreeding between half-siblings and is part of my out-cross. An out-cross brings in new genes and traits to a line, and now I need to determine what those genes and traits were and how well they work in the lineage. The quickest and most reliable way to do so is through inbreeding, which will concentrate the genes and bring out otherwise hidden traits. Although there is a bad connotation associated with inbreeding, it is used as a tool in breeding animals to select for desired traits and weed out undesired traits. While some animals do not tolerate inbreeding very well, rats do tolerate it very well. Many people think of pet store rats as being inbred, and since pet store rats often come with a number of health problems, inbreeding must be the cause of those problems, and thus be bad. While it may be true that pet store rats are inbred, it is also true that pet store rats are very often randomly bred with no selection other than for production and perhaps for colors. It is this random breeding and lack of selection that accounts for the health problems, not the inbreeding. In my rats, inbreeding, and line-breeding, is used as a tool to help me tease out traits and select for or against those traits. Since my rats are very selectively bred, I strongly select against undesired traits, such as poor health, and strongly select for desired traits, such as good health and temperament. If you are interested in more information about this practice, please feel free to email me. In this particular litter I am using inbreeding as a tool to select for good health. By inbreeding my outcross, I concentrate the genes brought in from both sides, and determine what has been introduced to the line, as well as how well those traits work together. Outcrossing always brings in new genes and new traits, some of which might be good and some of which might be bad. By inbreeding I will be able to select against those undesired traits (poor health) quicker and more reliably, while also selecting for those desired traits (good health and temperament). Porci and Winnie were chosen as parents for this litter because they share lineage from the out-cross, while also complementing each other best. Both have excellent temperaments, which will be passed on to the offspring.
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