Teaching a parrot to talk
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Teaching your parrot to talk
One of the reasons that draw some people to get a parrot as a pet is the possibility of teaching a parrot to talk.
It can be highly amusing and fun to hear your pet bird say words or phrases. Teaching your parrot to talk can take a lot of training though, and some birds learn better than others. Depending on the age and socialisation ( with other birds) of your pet, he/she may not even learn at all in some cases.Also, some species are better at this than others.Some of the best talkers are African greys,Yellow-naped Amazons and mynah birds, (although mynahs are not of the parrot species). These birds can collect extensive vocabularies, and are very popular among serious bird people who like talkers.
Some very good popular medium-sized talking birds are Indian ringnecks, Quaker parakeets, male cockatiels, blue-crowned conures, and chattering lories, but the best ( and most affordable by far!) small talking bird is the Budgie. Budgies, also known as parakeets, have been known to say hundreds of words and phrases in some individuals. Male budgies are more likely to talk than a female, and one bird is more likely to talk than a pair of birds. In pairs they tend to be too used to " bird language" to learn.
If you would like a talking bird, you have much more likelyhood of success if its a single, young bird. You'll have to talk to it regularly, as in, repeating the same word over and over, being clear and precise yet simple, nothing too complicated,. Choose a simple word like " hello" or the birds name.
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Don't move onto the second word until they have mastered the first, you don't wanna confuse their crazy little parrot brains!
It's also a good idea that only one person trains him to talk, otherwise the sounds of different voices will confuse him when you're trying to have him pick up on a word.
Some people say that you should avoid teaching your bird to whistle until it learns to talk first, as once it learns to whistle it can get carried away with whistling all the time.
Rewarding your parrot when he talks by giving him a treat can sometimes work wonders.
Often some of the better talkers will learn words or sounds all by themselves, they can mimic things they hear on tv or radio or in conversations, as well as sounds such as telephones.
If your bird fails to be a " talker" don't be upset, he's still an intelligent animal and just because he can't communicate in sounds us humans recognise doesn't mean he (or she) is any less intelligent or lovable!
If you have success teaching your parrot to talk, leave a comment, i'd love to hear about it!
African Grey talking
For a lot more detail in teaching you how to train you parrot to talk,
Check out the extremely well written "Talky Parrot Training System"Budgie (Parakeet) talking
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Comments
Free tracks to teach parrots to talk. Also free mp3s of 'hello', 'goodbye' etc. Teach your parrot to talk today. No catch. You can play them on your computer or burn a cd with them. Also spacer tracks you can use with your own voice.
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Athlyn Green says:
3 months ago
I found that using much vocal expression worked well in teaching my parrots to talk. Parrots are attuned to musical sounds so using expression seems to capture their attention.
I also made sure I was always consistent so that they would learn to recognize objects.
I found that my parrots had certain times of the day when they would rehearse their words; however, at other times, it was obvious that they weren't merely mimicking because they would create unique sentences that made sense. Greys and Amazons have actual reasoning ability--especially if, as you mentioned, you get them young and work with them to develop their cognitive abilities.