This is aimed only really at novice breeders starting out. I see a lot of you and know this is a question you have and a genuine concern. How can I get breeders to sell me healthy known lines on breeding contracts if they only sell to other breeders they know? Well, you’re told, start with standards. That brings up the question, standard breeders quite often use contracts too. And I’ve seen some even more stringent than the average angora contract, so quite often you do have to compromise and get an unknown line.
An unknown line isn’t necessarily a bad thing. In angoras it’s a red flag because there’s so little genetic diversity and known health issues in some lines that are being “cleaned” by some breeders and… well not by less reputable ones. In Standards though we have a big population and less common health issues, especially if you avoid Fads in your lines. If you’ve been here a while you know what I mean. Anyone working with standards has to be more flexible with their use of unknown lines and someone starting a line is actually at an advantage. For example, if you’re buying a ferret in Stirling and a ferret in Edinburgh and the breeders are fairly knowledgeable, seem to know their lines, can tell you about the parents and where they came from, and all the parents of your kit came from different places, heck even if the breeders don’t know each other, there’s a really good chance they’re not related. If you health test them and they’re not suitable for breeding you can just start again looking for healthy looking kits, maybe ask around online, and ask the same questions. It’s not so simple multiple generations into a line.
Take our standard line for instance. We have been keeping it for, wow, about 14 years now. I’m not 14 generations into it, I only breed so often (that doesn’t just give me time to ensure parents are healthy but also helps dilute related lines since it means we can have a few generations between where I am and where their breeder, or anyone working on a parallel line is), but I have relatives in my standard lines all over the country. A line I brought in from south England is in angora lines, a line I brought in from Perth is in the borders, a line I brought in from Glasgow region is in the highlands and northern England. Potentially, if I don’t screen correctly, I’m going to be inbreeding my lines if I go to these locations because I know my lines history. At this point if I add an unhealthy line or inbred, I’m losing literal years of my life, or spending years trying to rub out my mistake rather than just turning off at the next crossroads.
There’s big risks to using unknown lines though. Let me tell you about Kebec. Yes, she’s still here. Her daddy was a rescue so NIL background and unfortunately, he developed genetic insulinoma a year or two after the litter. We did however have 2 girls from this litter. Due to their dad becoming ill we did the responsible thing and just didn’t breed the sisters. Indeed Kink, her sister, inherited her father’s illness and despite being born, bred and raised on only raw her whole life she developed insulinoma herself. But Kebec didn’t. She’s still here. She’s healthy. She’s 8. I really need to get her implanted…
Anyway, if we had not known, if we had bred the sisters, we would have had one branch we had to end and one that was vigorous and healthy. Ironically it was Kebec we had hoped to breed, and in some ways I wish I had, but I stand by our original decision and don’t regret it. If Kink had been bred, she would have developed her illness a year or two after her litter too, but this would have been in time for us to know not to breed her offspring since we delay breeding by that little bit. If Kebec had been bred we would have been able to delay litters from hobs until 4+ or jills until their last year of breeding age and run blood tests to be sure of no early signs of the illness before breeding. Then we could have had a very robust line with good longevity we could have worked carefully with. This is a reason a lot of people will withhold breeding rights at that. If it’s a new line to them they may want to wait until they’ve had it a few years to see if there’s any hitherto unknown (or acknowledged) issues.
My point is unknown lines are a bit of a double-edged sword. You shouldn’t be afraid to start a line as a breeder. There are much bigger risks to breeding than having to scrap a line you’ve just started. You could lose a litter, you could lose your girl. When it comes to breeding angoras you almost certainly will have to import as well and then although we can look at pedigrees we are still facing the same risks as people do lie. Terrible but a fact. It is why we have the crypto issue in certain lines. At that point you will have put in a lot of time and money to bring in your new line too so there's a lot more riding on it than an unknown standard line. As I so recently said to someone you need to be prepared to take risks if you want to move forward, or things to change.
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