How do you breed a Dutch frill canary?

Answer 1

For a start Frills are difficult to breed and are not recommended for beginners. It would be better to start with an easier breed like Fifes. If you are determined to proceed with North Dutch or South Dutch Frills read on.

First call your nearest canary club and ask if they have any Frill breeders. If they do join the club. I recommend this because there are a lot of rogues out there trying to sell poor quality Frills at inflated prices. Club members have their reputation to protect and look after new members.

You want young club rung stock no more than two years old. The year of a birds hatch is given on the birds ring. Tell the breeder what colour you want and ask them to pick out a pair for you.

Ask the breeder which bird is frosted and which is non-frosted so you can learn to tell the difference. It is usual to pair frosted to non-frosted but there can be exceptions if one of the birds is white or blue.

Ask him/her whether the vents should be trimmed for good fertility and if so could he show you how to do this. Most importantly ask the breeder if you can swap back either of the birds if they turn out to be the wrong sex.

Considering the Frilled breeds are relatively expensive, moving Frill eggs out to foster pairs is recommended. The ideal foster pairs are proven breeders of a less expensive variety that you bred the previous season. A foster's eggs are discarded and replaced with the Frill eggs allowing the Frills to lay another clutch. Having six pairs of fosters for each pair of Frills increases your chances of having fosters available at the right time.

If you really want to breed Frills I encourage you to start with an easier variety first and only buy your Frilled breeding stock after you have one season of experience. Part of the reason these birds are expensive is because they are so difficult to breed.