Beeding Question

[NCdonkeygirl]

This question is for those of you who breed mini donkeys. We just started raising mini donks a few months ago and want to ease into the breeding thing. We recently bought some jennets at an auction that are too young to bred yet. I noticed the other day that one of them is pretty cow hocked. The vet said she should widen some as she ages (she's only 6 months) but he also threw in there that most people would find that pretty undesirable in terms of breedng. We obviously have to wait until she's old enough to know how bad it going to be, but my question is, how important is conformation when breeding a mini donkey? Her disposition is so sweet. She's the sweetest donkey we have-whereas the really pretty one won't even come near us. I'd hate to not breed her because of bad conformation-is that wrong? I think our aim is to breed donkeys that people can enjoy and love on rather than champion show donkeys, but I'm just curious as to how you all feel about this. Do you as breeders find that conformation is more important than disposition? Is disposition even genetic? How much thought do you put into which donkeys you breed and which you don't? Should I even be worried about this?

I've included some pictures. The jennet I'm talking about is in the first picture. She's the one grazing. They're hard to get good pictures of because they're always up under me :bgrin The second picture is of the "pretty one"-easy to photograph her-she won't get close to me

[/img]

 

[MeadowRidge Farm]

Nice looking girls you bought

: As far as conformation is concerned, I do believe that anyone who is breeding should try to breed for the best possible conformation, because a bad conformation/faults can lead to other problems down the road. Alot of people who are buying donkeys are going onto showing them or use them as working donkeys..a good conformation is definitely needed. Disposition is another factor which should be taken into consideration when breeding...no one really wants to deal with a donkey who has a nasty disposition, and alot of times those are the donkeys you will find are being passed from home to home..no respectable breeder I know wants that to happen to there "babies". Regardless if your breeding for a show animal or pet quality~~ disposition and conformation should be on the very top of every breeders list. If it were me and I had a donkey with a bad conformation I would not breed her,( and I do have a few rescue jennys here who I wont breed,) alot of faults can be passed on. I put alot of thought into who is being breed. Sometimes a person can become barn blind to there own animals, and breed every one thinking they are all perfect. Corinne

 

[RJRMINIS]

[SIZE=14pt]I agree that conformation is very important.....you wouldn't want to pass any faults on to the foal. You know I have had cases where donkeys with perfect conformation and bites have thrown an off-bite, so flaws can happen with the most perfect donkeys in their offspring, even if it is just a one-time rare deal, so I wouldn't purposely breed something I felt was to severe.[/SIZE]

[SIZE=14pt]Some youngins go through a gawky stage and fill out and straighten up, so give her time and then when she is full grown re-evaluate her.

: [/SIZE]

 

[NCdonkeygirl]

Thanks for the advice. I certainly don't want to breed an animal just for the sake of breeding them. And I don't want to breed animals with obvious flaws either. It's really sort of a guessing game isn't it? I mean it's possible that her mom wasn't cow hocked and at the same time the jennet we bought with her baby jack (both are also in the picture) is a little cow hocked too and the jack doesn't seem to be. Hopefully she is just going through a gawky stage!

 

[h2t99]

Give her some time, I had a jack that was terrible cow hocked until he turned 2!! Once he quit going through the growth spurts he finally started to widen up some and he straightened out!!! I kept waiting to geld him because he had a perfect temperment and I am so glad I gave him a chance to grow up!!! He is just as straight legged as you would want them to be!! So sit back and enjoy her and when she is old enough to breed then evualate her, you may be surprised!! I know I was!! :bgrin