| Breeding by the moon Does this stuff really work? By Teresa Wooden |
**Update, December 2003..... See Below** I consider myself a fairly scientifically-minded person... I’m not much for superstition or hearsay. So I pretty much dismissed this breeding-by- the-moon stuff as so much folklore, and paid no attention to it. But when Anna started getting nothing but bucks in every litter, we were wondering what on Earth was going on. So, in looking for answers to this dilemma, I ran across some moon-breeding charts and thought – well, what the heck. It may be silly, but we couldn't’t be any worse off than we were, so we gave it a try. Besides, my good friend works in ER at the local hospital and absolutely swears that full moons bring in more weird cases. Well… what do I say. I can’t explain it, but at least in this very limited experiment it actually seems to make a difference. You could knock me over with a wet noodle. I was sure I’d be writing this article to debunk the myth, not support it! I’ve included in this chart breedings that were made either two days before or two days after the moon phase (full or new), because not every breeding was made exactly on the moon date. But it still seems to affect the outcome of the breeding to some extent. It’s not 100% successful, but you will see that there is a definite tendency. Supposedly, you should breed on the full moon to increase the number of bucks in a litter, and on the new moon to increase the number of does. Some people also claim that breeding "hard-to-breed" does on the full moon never fails to be successful. Add to that the claims that there are "particular" moon phases during the year that will result in the best quality of animals, or increase "sturdiness". Go figure. All I can say is that, although my scientific side isn’t ready to proclaim these ideas as fact, I can’t really look at this little bit of evidence and completely discount it, either… not yet anyway. Maybe we’ll keep track of this for a year or two and I’ll get back to you… Update, December 2003 -- When we returned from ARBA Convention in November, Anna decided to breed several of her does right away. The night she bred coincided with a lunar eclipse on a full moon.... very unusual and neat to watch! I told Anna that I wondered if we would see any unusual outcomes from those breedings, if indeed the whole "moon breeding" thing was for real. Well, it turned out that we did actually see some anomalies, and not in a good way... It was the most disastrous breeding cycle Anna ever had! Almost all the does settled (became pregnant) but there were problems abounding. We saw an unusual percentage of "peanuts", or double-dwarf- gene babies, which of course all died. Some of the does, previously good producers, had only one baby, and it was a peanut. Some does, veteran excellent mothers, scattered their litters on the cage floors for the first time ever. All those babies died of exposure. Some does had very difficult deliveries (even though they had produced without problems before) and the entire litters were born dead. All these litters came from a few different bucks, so we couldn't say that it was just one gene pool with problems. Of all the litters she bred, only one survived, born to a first-time big old "BUD" ("big ugly doe", not a dwarf), and guess what.... they were all bucks! (Full moons result in more bucks.) So..... no more "lunar eclipse" breedings for us!! Too weird....... Below are two charts showing the results of full moon and new moon breedings: Full moon Breedings Chart (full moons should result in more bucks) Eleven litters were recorded, with from one to five kits in each litter. Bucks are charted in blue, does in red. New Moon Breedings Chart (new moons should result in more does) Eight litters were recorded, with two to five kits in each litter. Bucks are charted in Blue, does in Red. |
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