Genetics?

[Swordsman2]

I was wondering if it hurts the genetics by breeding brother and sister. The reason I'm asking is because I'm getting six juvenile red turks in hopes of getting a pair out of them.

[ericNH]

Well, I'm sure it does, otherwise breeders wouldn't have to introduce wilds back into their stock to re-vitalize their breeding lines. But I don't know how many generations it takes for that to be necessary. Judging by the way you phrased your question, I think you already know all of this. So my answer is probably useless.

I'd like to hear some thoughts about this by other more experienced members here.

[Rod]

Inbreeding aligns genes, including bad genes. In other words it makes the progeny more similar to each other. Great if you want to make the family line look as similar as possible which is the goal of many breeders, not so good if you introduce a negative gene as this will also become common in the line. Nearly everyone does inbreed the discus, for better or worse.