Jossie
New member
I've seen a few people asking if they can breed offspring with parents or siblings, so I decided to make a post on the topic, as my lectures are currently covering inbreeding.
It seems to be mention in a lot of places, but there doesn't seem to be a topic solely on it (please correct me if I'm wrong about this)
Some of this is my opinion, and I completely respect your right to your own opinion.
Inbreeding is defined as the breeding of individuals with alleles identical by decent.
This means that they can/do have the same alleles for some traits, which may be deleterious. Which means that if they have the same recessive allele, their offspring are more likely to have this gene.
Domesticated animals tend to be a lot more inbred than wild populations (unless of course the wild population is small), because we like to breed animals for specific traits.
Which can be a very bad thing.
Even in animals where breeding records are kept, this still happens.
While these animals may be pretty, it can have severe effects on their health, making them more prone to disease, have a genetic predisposition to developing some health problems (eg; cancer, heart problems) and deformations.
In inbred populations the rates of stillborn (dead) young, deformation, and heightened environmental sensitivity are increased.
You could breed them.
Axies don't appear to care who they breed with (some species will stubbornly refuse to breed with anyone who is related to them because they can detect who is genetically similar), which could suggest that it hasn't been an issue for them in their evolutionary history.
Inbreeding can cause some novel traits, such as new/variations in colour.
Albinism, for example, is recessive, and appears more frequently in inbred populations.
Because they are kept as pets, genetic variation in regards to survival [as a species] in the future is not really a concern- as long as they are kept as pets they probably would not need a lot of genetic diversity, as they will not really experience much environmental change, which would affect their survival.
Individuals are most likely related anyway, and I doubt that breeding closely related individuals would 'muddy' their genetics more. It's already pretty muddy looking to me.
But it will increase the rates of bad mutations
That said you probably shouldn't. The population is already inbred, and knowingly breeding directly related individuals won't really help this. You'll probably end up with less successful eggs, young that are sickly, or carry mutations that could affect their survival and shorten their lifespan.
Adding less related stock can increase the genetic diversity, which can reduce the rates of stillborn and deformed offspring.
Ultimately it's up to you to make your own decision on whether or not you should breed them.
Feel free to add your own arguments to this.
It seems to be mention in a lot of places, but there doesn't seem to be a topic solely on it (please correct me if I'm wrong about this)
Some of this is my opinion, and I completely respect your right to your own opinion.
Inbreeding is defined as the breeding of individuals with alleles identical by decent.
This means that they can/do have the same alleles for some traits, which may be deleterious. Which means that if they have the same recessive allele, their offspring are more likely to have this gene.
Domesticated animals tend to be a lot more inbred than wild populations (unless of course the wild population is small), because we like to breed animals for specific traits.
Which can be a very bad thing.
Even in animals where breeding records are kept, this still happens.
While these animals may be pretty, it can have severe effects on their health, making them more prone to disease, have a genetic predisposition to developing some health problems (eg; cancer, heart problems) and deformations.
In inbred populations the rates of stillborn (dead) young, deformation, and heightened environmental sensitivity are increased.
You could breed them.
Axies don't appear to care who they breed with (some species will stubbornly refuse to breed with anyone who is related to them because they can detect who is genetically similar), which could suggest that it hasn't been an issue for them in their evolutionary history.
Inbreeding can cause some novel traits, such as new/variations in colour.
Albinism, for example, is recessive, and appears more frequently in inbred populations.
Because they are kept as pets, genetic variation in regards to survival [as a species] in the future is not really a concern- as long as they are kept as pets they probably would not need a lot of genetic diversity, as they will not really experience much environmental change, which would affect their survival.
Individuals are most likely related anyway, and I doubt that breeding closely related individuals would 'muddy' their genetics more. It's already pretty muddy looking to me.
But it will increase the rates of bad mutations
That said you probably shouldn't. The population is already inbred, and knowingly breeding directly related individuals won't really help this. You'll probably end up with less successful eggs, young that are sickly, or carry mutations that could affect their survival and shorten their lifespan.
Adding less related stock can increase the genetic diversity, which can reduce the rates of stillborn and deformed offspring.
Ultimately it's up to you to make your own decision on whether or not you should breed them.
Feel free to add your own arguments to this.
