# Pro's and Con's of Inbreeding...



## Dragonboy (Mar 18, 2013)

I know inbreeding is common when you want to concentrate on a specific trait but I am wondering about how many generations it would be healthy for. 

I have two clutch mates here (shield marked frillbacks) that are the product of a brother sister breeding. The cock bird is a recessive red shield and the hen is a black. I intended to breed him to a lavender and was waiting for an appropriate male for her. She is housed with a kite frillback hen who also does not have a mate. 

Long story short she went broody and really wants to breed. The lavender female is not but the RR Shield (brother to the broody hen) is setting and calling in the nest as well. 
Would it be problematic to breed the two shields together since they both seem to be in sync?

I know it would be my only shot at getting more shields here, but I do not want to produce inferior birds by inbreeding.
Thanks in advance for the input.


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## rudolph.est (May 14, 2009)

A good rule of thumb is to never inbreed inferior birds. I've seen genealogies with 10 and more generations of inbreeding in pigeons that showed no ill effects, but as soon as you inbreed on bad quality birds, the defects could get exaggerated. 

I've bred many father-daughter, brother-sister and mother-son pairs, with barely any side-effects except for the odd webbed toe (which is a sign that I should probably outcross to a different line because the birds are getting too closely related ). There is no hard and fast rule on how many generations of close inbreeding is safe, but I expect 3 generations of brother-sister mating will probably do no harm.

If you are somewhat mathematically minded, you can calculate the inbreeding coefficient for your birds, as well as a relatedness coefficient for prospective pairs. Google and wikipedia can direct you to sites explaining these terms In detail.


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## MaryOfExeter (Sep 30, 2007)

Well, you will not know until you try.


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