[EMAIL PROTECTED] wrote:
> no later than 8 weeks, you should keep the female with the mom because
> otherwise she may mate w/her son!!!Inbreeding is a defintite NO-NO!!! but you
> could put the son w/the dad if you want to keep him!~!
I am sure the GML has discussed this before I joined, but...
What are the opinions on in-breeding gerbils?
The parents of these pups are unrelated (I got them from two different pet stores
in two different states). And was planning to breed the brother x sister. I
thought with gerbils and other rodents it was fine as long as you did not go too
many generations.
Donna A.
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For example: from a gerbil breeder on http://members.aol.com/Emandkel/policy.htm
"My policy on inbreeding: --I will not inbreed past two generations, nor allow
any pups to be inbred past two inbred generations. Moreover, if the parents are 2
generations inbred, any pups
must be outcropped to an unrelated gerbil for 2 generations before inbreeding
again."
And on an article on breeding laboratory rodents in general -- they were
inbreeding up 20 generations (and at that point line failed to thrive/survive)
-- http://www.ahsc.arizona.edu/uac/notes/biorodent97/
"Inbred Strain- A closed population of genetically-uniform animals that results
from 20 or more consecutive generations of brother � sister (or parent �
offspring) matings. Inbreeding reduces genetic variability by increasing the
probability that animals homozygous at a particular locus will be mated with each
other. Approximately 98% of gene loci are homozygous after 20 generations (F20)
and 99.5% are homozygous after 40 generations (F40). Inbred animals are less
vigorous than non-inbred animals because of chance fixation of deleterious
recessive genes in the homozygous condition. This is called inbreeding depression
and many attempts to establish inbred lines fail because of this (less than 50%
of attempts make it past 20 generations). "
