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Accidental inbreeding

22 10:47:35

Question
I have 4 rabbits finlay (male) saphire(female) moon (2 weeks old) and logan ( not sure the gender but about3 months old) finlay and saphire are the parents of both logan and moon on two seperate litters. however I had thought logan was male because he had what i thought was a scrotum but now i see is just thicker fur near his bum.since I thought it was a boy i let finlay the father and it interact once logan did not seem to like finlay so I seperated them within a few min but finlay did hump logan. logan has been distant lately so i decided to check again just incase and I am about 90% sure that he is a she. I also think she may be pregnant because she is gaining weight. she has not ripped out any hair or shown any other signs of pregnancy but my question is what are the odds that the babies will have problems due to the inner breeding ?? finlay is a netherland dwarf I got at a pet store saphire I got from a friend of mine who was from a mini lop and a netherland. as far as I know. which would make finlay an eight lop I guess. I know in past answers you have said not to inbreed but this was an accident otherwise i would never!

Answer
Hello, Amy.

Around 26 days after the breeding, place a nestbox (see - http://islandgems.net/nestbox2.html) in his/her cage. Gestation should occur between days 28 and 32.  

In the future, regardless of gender combinations -- you should make sure all rabbits have their own cage. Even unaltered rabbits of the same gender may fight and injury each other.

Parent to offspring breeding is not uncommon in breeding programs. It is called line breeding, not inbreeding. Anything further is not desirable though as it does cause genetic defects and other issues (inbreeding). Dwarfs carry a dwarf gene. Even dwarfs that are not closely related may produce offspring with a double dwarf gene. These rabbits usually do not live more than a day or two.

Without knowing the exact genetic makeup, it's really impossible to say. It is good that you are trying to be prepared for the outcome though. The only thing you can really do is wait out the gestation period and see what happens.

Good luck!