# breeding half brother and sister



## billyg2131

i have a friend who had a half brother and sister breed he got out of his pen into hers. they have same dad but different moms. is this okay or are we gonna have messed up goats? thank you


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## peggy

I ended up breeding half brother and sister this year because I didn't have access to another buck and the resulting kids are just fine. They are healthy and look great. Hard to say how they will turn out as they get older but at this point I am really happy with them. However, I would not normally do this mating.


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## nancy d

There are things in life we have no control over as in this situation.
The kids will be fine.
Last year I was too cheap to get an outside buck so he covered his daughter. Kids turned out great.


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## billyg2131

thank you very much


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## Selah123

Thats good to know. My buck just got at his daughter! Was like watching a train wreck!


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## spot

I bet things like that happen in herds in the wild quite often. Sometimes it works to an advantage. Sometimes inbreeding makes problems. I bet the problems start only after several generations. I will have a similar problem next year. What to do with my buck. Maybe I find an exchange.


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## ogfabby

I'm thinking I may do mother son this year if I cant find a good, outside buck.


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## ogfabby

Either that, or mom won't get bred this year. They have a great pedigree, I've just never done it before...


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## StaceyRosado

breeding that close will exaggerate good and bad faults - so it can be a great thing if both animals are structurally good.


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## happybleats

there is a fine line between line breeding and inbreeding...as Stacy said depends of the qualities and faults : )


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## milkmaid

I have a wether that is the result of a father to daughter breeding. He is good-looking and very healthy.

I am aware of only 3 possible problems with close breeding.
1. If the line carries a recessive defect, it is more likely to show up.
2. Many generations of inbreeding results in goats with a much lower vigor.
3. As Stacey said, all traits, both positive and negative, will be exaggerated.


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## clearwtrbeach

Agreed with above. It will double on good and bad traits. Some dog breeders will do it as a test to see what is locked in. I would just be willing to cull anything that you feel was too heavy on the negative side.


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## lottsagoats

I've had to do it on occassion and everything turned out great-very nice kids. I will possibly be doing a father/daughter breeding next year.


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## neubunny

half sibling is only a 25% genetic distance (assuming the parents weren't already related to any degree). That's the same as breeding back to a grandparent. Full siblings and parent-offspring are 50%. 

In small animals (rabbits and cavies) that have large litters, 25% is perfectly acceptable. The fewer offspring and longer gestation (= less willing to cull) the lower breeders generally try to keep that number. Humans we are probably the least tolerant -- 1st cousin marriages are discouraged as 'too close' and that's about 6%. 

Inbreeding/linebreeding aligns genes from the same ancestor -- and tends to unmask hidden recessives, both good and bad. Most new mutations (and 90% of random mutations are going to be bad) are recessive. Most common result in very early miscarriage - which mimics infertility (fetus reabsorbed before you know it is there). In an animal that has large litters, you are barely going to notice 'missing' kits/pups - but over time may notice your average litter size declining. Next most common defect is probably immune system issues of varying severity (the immune system is incredibly complex with thousands of genes coding for it -- lots of room for one mutation to screw things up a bit). Third seems to be various forms of dwarfism or stunted growth (which may be immune related in some fashion). 

Incidentally, an outcross to an unrelated animal instantly restores heterozygosity (you get one gene of each pair from each parent - so crossing to an unrelated animal scrambles the pairs again). Keep that in mind if you decide to keep any kids from this pairing -- be sure not to breed them to any closely related goats.


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