COMMERCIAL RABBIT RAISING 



were not so, we would not have 

 the infinite number and variety of 

 species that exist in the world, 

 many of which are known to have 

 existed for mau}^, many centuries. 

 But even nature slips. Species are 

 known to have been lost as a result 

 of circumstances with which they 

 were unable to cope, and mal- 

 formed offspring are known to oc- 

 cur sometimes in the wild. Na- 

 ture's success is essentially due to 

 the size of the gene pools of each 

 species, plus the ruthless elimina- 

 tion of the unfit as they appear. 

 These combine to insure a high 

 proportion of successful individ- 

 uals, and some individuals adapt- 

 able to any ordinary change which 

 may occur in the environment in 

 which they live. Ability to adapt 

 to differing environments is the 

 feature which makes for survival 

 and is the mechanism by which 

 species have evolved. 



When man steps in, success or 

 failure of his breeding system de- 

 pends on the genes maintained in 

 the pool and his ability to select 

 those genes intelligently. The 

 first task of the breeder becomes 

 one of devising methods of ascer- 

 taining the sort of genes his ani- 

 mals possess and the second is the 

 elimination of undesirables. To 

 accomplish these objectives there 

 are tools at his disposal, the use 

 of which must be clearly under- 

 stood. Such tools are: selection, 

 outbreeding or outcrossing, and 

 inbreeding. 



Selection has been called the key- 

 stone of the arch of animal breed- 

 ing. It has been practiced in the 

 wild since the beginning of life on 

 this earth. In free-roaming ani- 

 mals, such as the rabbit, where the 

 chances of uniting between closely 

 related animals are small, unfavor- 

 able recessive genes seemingly are 

 rare. Actually, there are many but 

 they tend to be covered up by domi- 

 nant favorable genes and by their 



interrelations in the gene pool. 

 Over a long period of time, a wild 

 population continually- mating in 

 this way appears to achieve a rela- 

 tively high degree of homeostasis, 

 or stability, in a variable environ- 

 ment, Avith seemingly a minimum 

 of variation. "When man steps in 

 with artificial selection under do- 

 mestication, and an artificial small 

 environment the chances of un- 

 favorable recessive genes coming 

 together in any one mating are 

 greatly increased. In standard- 

 bred strains, selection over a long 

 period of years by one breeder un- 

 der one type of breeding may also 

 lead to homeostasis, but when such 

 a strain is put in inexperienced 

 hands, or under a different system 

 of breeding, it may not produce 

 the same results. Selection, al- 

 though in itself something of a 

 breeding system without the ruth- 

 less objectivity found in the wild, 

 becomes highly dependent upon 

 other factors only controllable by 

 the skill and understanding of the 

 breeder. Two factors are of ma- 

 jor importance. First is the quality 

 of the gene pool when selection is 

 first started. It is obviously im- 

 possible to select for a characteris- 

 tic, such as high performance, if 

 the genes for this characteristic 

 are not there in the first place. 

 Second is a good environment 

 which will allow the results of the 

 genetic selection to be fully ex- 

 pressed. Feed, housing, and man- 

 agerial practices are most impor- 

 tant. Overfeeding and pampering, 

 however, may cover up poor genes 

 and thus not lead to permanent 

 improvement or stability. 



The supports of the keystone at 

 the two outer extremes of the 

 breeding arch are outbreeding and 

 inbreeding. 



Outbreeding, or the mating of 

 unrelated rabbits, differs from na- 

 ture's usual procedure in no way 

 except in the degree of selection. 



