What % of Greys never talk?

[kingsnake]

I've been reading over the forums and understand not all greys will talk but many will copy sounds from around the house. I'm curious what the % is (if anyone really knows) of greys that don't talk?

 

Just curious

[Dave007]

There are no %s that are known. It's nature that dictates that ability. All parrots talk naturally in their own natural languge which starts at a very young age and is known as parrotese. That natural language can't be taught to them. They're birds and talk like birds. Human talking is a mimicing of human and other outside things that greys pick up. The sound of a microwave, door closing or opening, gurgling of water is simply mimicing sounds that they won't do in the wild. Some of those things are attractive to greys and many times, none are attractive to a grey. For the person who owns a grey that doesn't mimic human language, the next step is to try to understand what the bird is saying to you when they're using their own natural language and many times, it takes quite a while to do that. I have 3 greys. All of them are adults. One of them will immitate all types of words and sounds besides it's own natural language. The other 2 won't say a human word and they never have. Both of them naturally talk in their own language and I can understand what each and everyone of them are saying to me in their own parrotese language. They're always talking to you about everything.

[kingsnake]

Ok, maybe I should have put it, "What % of AG start mimicing human speech". I just was wondering if their has been any sort of study. (EXAMPLE: 1 out of 10 AG will mimic human speech etc...)

[Birdnut]

My grey does mimic human speech, as well as the sounds of the other birds in the house. But when he really wants to communicate with me, he does so in his own native sounds, as well as with looks and gestures.

 

I don't know of any studies, but from talking with other bird owners, I have the impression that the majority of greys do imitate human speech to varying degrees.

[judygram]

I don't think there has ever been any kind of study on what percentage of greys will actually speak the human language but most do even though Dave has 3 pet greys that only one of them speaks words but it is just the luck of the draw if you get one that doesn't ever utter a human word.

[Pi_1]

I was a bit worried about this when we got ours since I REALLY wanted a talker, but I guess we were lucky. She started talking well before 6 months and by the time she was a year old knew a ridiculous amount of words. She is now 2 going on 3 and knows hundreds of words, mimics animal noises on command (some quite good - other just ok), and will play games like doing a noise and asking what it is or asking me to do a certain animal for her. She knows the names of many of her foods (peanut, etc), knows my name and my fiance's (also calls her mama, LoL), knows her own body parts (I taught her to make checking her out and vet visits easier - if you ask her she will give you her beak, wing, leg, tummy or foot to look at and check on command and will ask us to rub her beak often - tailfeathers not so much yet, although she'll let me grab them). She picks up words just out of our conversations that we've never tried to teach her and often uses them properly. She even speaks in nearly complete sentences sometimes, although she often mixes up "you" and "I", saying "you wanna come out" or some such phrase instead of "I wanna come out". I work with her about 15 minutes a day on speech and have since she started talking. She says "I love you", "Mama gotta go to work", "Mama's home!", "wanna come see you", "wanna come out", etc in the right context. I often stay up late, long after she goes to sleep, and if I switch the light on in the kitchen to look for something she'll scold me by saying "Night night time!" and a good screech, which she knows I hate. She even threatens to screech if she wants something she can't have, saying "Gonna screech" before she does it. She also loves learning new words, and when she picks up something new says it constantly.

 

Anyway, my point is that you can never tell when they're babies so it's hard to pick one out that you know will talk, but I think with some work many will - and some are just prone to it. Be careful what you wish for, though - it's often like having a child around.