# Viability of products of incest



## squirrelpot (Aug 5, 2017)

I have a doe who has unexpectedly given birth just a week after I acquired her.

This is a bit of a surprise, as she arrived looking like a skinny runt. Yesterday she was suddenly suspiciously bulbous.

The most likely father of this litter will be one of her brothers - I'm assuming the breeders were not careful about separating the boys from the girls in good time.

Assuming the litter is a product of incest, does this mean that the babies will be non-viable/unhealthy/deformed, or have other problems?

Is euthanasia of the litter normal in these circumstances?

They were born today so it's far too early to examine them in detail. They are making quite a bit of noise, so I'm guessing at least some of them are vigorous.


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## SarahC (Oct 3, 2008)

the babies will almost certainly be 100 % healthy and can be treated like a regular litter.


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## Mr. Jangles (Sep 14, 2017)

Inbreeding or linebreeding, that is the breeding of related animals is an accepted practice across the field in the production of pure or pedigree Livestock.However, Continuous and injudicious inbreeding, that is breeding from already weak or ' runty' related animals, will lead to loss of size, vigour and fertility.


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## Fantasia Mousery (Jul 16, 2011)

Please don't call it incest...


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## Amtma Mousery (Jan 29, 2015)

Hi Squirrelpot,

Inbreeding/incest is a common practice in the mouse fancy. The babies will most likely be healthy and fertile. However, you stated that the doe arrived skinny and runt-like. Depending on how she and her babies develop, you may not want to breed them due to these qualities.



Fantasia Mousery said:


> Please don't call it incest...


Curious, why do you dislike inbreeding being referred as incest? Both words represent the same activity.


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## SarahC (Oct 3, 2008)

[/quote]Curious, why do you dislike inbreeding being referred as incest? Both words represent the same activity.[/quote]

most of us use inbreeding for describing breeding between animal relatives and incest for the taboo of human relatives breeding together.We don't describe animals mating behavior as rape either at least most of us don't.There was someone on here that described mouse matings as such and it generated the same negative reaction. Rightly or wrongly.


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## squirrelpot (Aug 5, 2017)

Thanks everyone for all the responses, very helpful and reassuring.

I was exaggerating when I said 'runt', I was using the word sloppily, trying to convey the idea that she was smaller than the other two in the trio. Apart from the fact that she was small a week ago, she is lively, strong-willed and vigorous 

Chris


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## Amtma Mousery (Jan 29, 2015)

> > Curious, why do you dislike inbreeding being referred as incest? Both words represent the same activity.
> 
> 
> most of us use inbreeding for describing breeding between animal relatives and incest for the taboo of human relatives breeding together.We don't describe animals mating behavior as rape either at least most of us don't.There was someone on here that described mouse matings as such and it generated the same negative reaction. Rightly or wrongly.


Hm Ok. Thank you for sharing.

However, we are animals... **** sapiens.


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## Agoutigoo (Nov 8, 2013)

Lake Mousery said:


> > > Curious, why do you dislike inbreeding being referred as incest? Both words represent the same activity.
> >
> >
> > most of us use inbreeding for describing breeding between animal relatives and incest for the taboo of human relatives breeding together.We don't describe animals mating behavior as rape either at least most of us don't.There was someone on here that described mouse matings as such and it generated the same negative reaction. Rightly or wrongly.
> ...


Incest is usually used a negative and derogatory term for inbreeding. Most people hear it and automatically think it's something disgusting and wrong. I favour the term in-breeding for this reason, although they're the same thing it's how people respond to both words which differs.


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