talking question???? advise please

[bigbird519]

Hello! it has been about 6 months or so since i have been on here, finally got my internet back up and running.

 

little history.......... Mojo is a TAG and is 16 months old. i took him in when he was 7 months old. He is fully flighted and more than social. his diet consists of pellets in the a.m. and veggie mix with quinua and koos koos in the p.m.

 

at about 10 months my wife and i both heard him say "give me a kiss" on two different occassions. when he was just about 13 months old we had to give him up for 3 weeks or so to replace the carpeting in our home. after it was safe we brought him back home. i visited him daily and he seemed fine. When he came home, he had seemed to regress a bit. He was making chicklet sounds as though begging for food. that lasted a couple of months and very seldom do i notice him doing that anymore. he is still very cuddely loves to take showers with me, and makes alot of noise. All whistles.... this is where i am curious...... how long does it take before speech kicks in?

 

is it norm for greys to say a few words at some point only to never speak again?

at what age do i just forget about having a talkin parrot.... lol

 

I don't want this to come across the wrong way....I LOVE MOJO! talk or no talk!!!

can't stress that enough! I am just curious because i heard that they talk by one year.... but then i have also heard that it may take as long as two.

 

how long did it take for your parrot to "never shut his trap"? lol

[Dave007]

There's a lot of variables here. He's already said things so he's a bird that talks. How much he talks depends upon how much a person talks to the bird and how those sounds are embedded in the brain. Some talk very little and others will talk alot and then you have a middle of the road talker. Many find that making sounds is enough because they're not sounds heard from a person such as what you said about chickling sounds. Some find that the human voice is very appealing and will lean towards that.

Whistling is probably the most natural sound a grey does. I tell people not to practice whistling with their baby because it'll come naturally and adding to that isn't necessary.

***is it norm for greys to say a few words at some point only to never speak again? ***

Yes or least they'll only speak those words on a regular basis without adding to the vocabulary. On the other hand, there's those that are late bloomers. Birds can start at 6 mts up to 2 yrs. These times are variable.

Both CAGS and TAGs can go thru all of the above. As far as deciding the bird isn't a talking bird, there's really no way to answer that concerning a bird who is under the age of 4 yrs old. The words he originally said were words that you said and he may have been words that he found to be pleasent.

Constant talking to him and around him will help you decide whether the bird is attracted to human sounds. you may say things to him and he'll respond by doing a certain sound consistently. Well, he's talking but not in human lingo but he does understand and has his own response.

One of my birds has to verbally kiss a nutraberry before taking it from me. He also has to nudge it. Why, I have no idea. I know he didn't learn it from me or my wife.

****how long did it take for your parrot to "never shut his trap"? ***

That depends up on how pleasent the bird likes the words he's heard.

[bigbird519]

wow, thanks dave, you have pulled communication out of the box that so many people put it in. he does communicate to me, just not so much in english.........

 

funny thing.... when i take him up for a shower i always shower first then he is allowed to take a shower. as soon as i get nude to get in the shower.... he does a "cat call" whistle ---don't tell him, but i think my bird is gay lol

 

he also beeps like the microwave when it is time for dinner....

[Dave007]

You'd be surprised at how much birds communicate with their owners using parrotese. It would take time but a person can actually learn what a bird is saying. The one thing you can be assured of--no matter what it is, your bird will say the exact samnething when it applies to an actual sound or noise or human talking that it hears.

A bird may start to cluck when a person comes home or for the human taliking bird, he may say *how are ya*. A talker would have leaned that from the owner. The clucking is something the bird has incvented and can't come from a person. Both birds are doing the exact same thing but using different languages.

Microwave?? Buy another one with a different sound, put both on and your bird will have double the fun. So will you.

 

PS---that cat call whistle will probably remain and will be associated with you and he showering together.

 

You're nude? He may do a wolf whistle.

Edited January 31, 2011 by Dave007

[hammco]

Im with Dave...the more you talk to him, the more he will want to say and relate the noises (words in this case) to what you want him to say. My wife talks more than any human should be allowed to, so Timmy hears plenty! hahaha

[Acappella]

My wife talks more than any human should be allowed to, so Timmy hears plenty! hahaha

 

Hope she's not a forum member, or you may be in big time trouble!

 

As for Mojo's talking, there's no predicting it, but the best thing you can do is talk to him, and let him see his human flock members talking to each other. Dorian is most likely to imitate either things he hears all the time (although he has yet to say Good Morning, go figure) or things said with excitement/animation (resulting in the swearing parrot ) Example: He started saying "I love you" last year, but only really started repeating it after I started playing with the phrase, stretching out the words, changing tone, singing it etc... Now he's started playing around with the words too. Guess I finally made it worth his time and attention.

[BenzMama]

My little Sweetie Pie didn't speak until just the past 1-2 months ... at 3.5 years old! We figured it was from the trauma in her last household where she'd lived for 2.5 yrs as the former owners said she never spoke. So at just under 1 yr being a member of our family, imagine our surprise to hear her 'bray' out her name! She's gone from braying like a donkey (my Greys LOVE the old cartoons) to braying "Sweeeetie Piiiie" followed by clucking like a chicken. Her usual banter was braying & clucking, in that order ~ so she simply modified it to our great delight.

 

We don't know why she finally began to speak. Perhaps she was just content to add other things ... such as barking exactly like our mini-Doxie & "Woooo!" which are frequently heard. To us, it never mattered. Perhaps it was the addition in early Sept of 2 more Greys (1 rescue; 1 foster) who are both good talkers. We've always provided repetitive phrases & such when talking to her, being sure to use the same word(s) & phrase(s) in situations. And maybe hearing "Sweetie Pie!" for the 1000th time made a connection. She has begun to practice other words that we haven't quite figured out as yet. And, yes, she also 'brays' them ~

[Morana]

Cool!Congrads!:-)

I'm happy for both you and your birdie!:-)

 

My birdie started to talk when he was 1 year old. He wistled and made other sounds (telephone, ambulance, kis sounds, laughhter,....) which he liked better in the begining. Now, when he likes a sound or a word, and if you repaet it to him frequently in one day, he'll learn it the same day. But if not repeated after that, he doesn't use the word anymore. He likes best when something is pronounced in various tones.. These words are most interesting to him..

Edited January 31, 2011 by Morana

[reggieroo]

Well we've had Murphy now for nearly a year & he's now nearly 14 months old. He made sounds that sounded like he was trying to talk at 12 weeks old & that continued on & off up till a few weeks ago when he really got into the human speech thing. Now he sits in the cage yapping away, clearly trying his hardest to practise our language. I wondered when he would start talking to us, I wonder no more, just need to wait for him to master it now so I can understand what he's saying.

[MeginAL]

I experienced the same frustration with Katie, a CAG. I haven't been able to teach her to say anything. However, she is a big, big talker! Katie learned to talk from talk radio and TV, and from listening to our conversations, especially one-sided conversations on the telephone. Her first phrase was "And, what do you mean by that?" from a FOX talk host. When she is learning a new phrase she spends about a week saying it to herself. Then when she's perfected it, she will proudly speak. All I do is keep track of what she says so that I can say it back to her for practice. She learned to say Ho, ho, ho, Merry Christmas from a babble ball. Katie wants to do everything herself. Instead of me training her to talk, she's been training me!