Language Regression- normal?

[kave70]

Hi,

Sam came to us only two months ago, from an unknown background. When he first arrived he had a potty mouth and made loads of noises and sounds.

As he is settling in and getting so much friendlier and adjusted, he language has diminshed to next to nothing, but screeching.

He used to say his name (which is why we call him Sam) in a whisper, and had such an assortment of sounds. Now he has one or two and keeps mum, except to screech or he makes a high pitch beep everytime he sees my husband (his very favorite human). We do our best not to encourage the screaming, and we talk to him all day long.

Do you think this is a normal part of his settling in? Is there something I should be doing?

Any advice would be appreciated.

Thank,

Karen (and Sam, of course)

[JDS5607]

Karen (and sam )

We got Sully as a baby, and there was a time where he talked all day and made the SAME noises over and over... but it seems like he goes through them in phases. He would call our cat, saying "Gizmo? Giz? PSS psspsssss" for hours.. now he only says it once a day..

Then he used to make a noise like a bomb dropping and do the ever-so-funny fart noise at the end. He did that for about three weeks, and I haven't heard it in months.

 

Then there are the words he says once, and that's IT!

I think it's all about their mood. Sam may be settling in and watching his new surroundings, or he may be observing you and your home to see what he can pick up next.

 

Sully has a scream he does, and the high pitched beep too, and you're doing the right thing by not encouraging that... it can get repeatative, can't it? Right now, it seems to be the only noises Sully's making, unless we're not in the room, which is when he starts to whistle and say "hello?"... kind of annoying when you're trying to show off that new word he can say to family, and he won't make a peep! lol

 

I think this is all probably normal. If you are super concerned, you could take him to the vet, just to make sure his nose & ears & eyes are clear and check his weight to make sure he's where he should be. Is he still active and playing as normal? If he seems fine otherwise, I would just say he's in a quiet mood as of late

[Luvparrots]

Some days my parrots are quiet and some days noisy. I do know that they will only say what they like or what gets a reaction or has a meaning for them.

[Elvenking]

I have often wondered this as well. Isaac will pick something up, like the "Uh - Oh" game and do it all the time....then he will go 2 weeks without even anything close.....then he will start up again. I love it when he does talk in the limited ways that he does, but it seems no matter how much I love it, he is on his own schedule and does it when he likes.

[judygram]

I think it is all part of his settling into his new home and just two months is not enough for him to show his true personality, his chattiness at first may just have been his way of dealing with a new home and new surroundings so be patient with him as he adjusts and feels at home.

As far as the screaming you will just have to ignore it for any acknowledgement of it will only reinforce the behavior, reward him when he is quiet or talks, I know it is hard to do when he is making so much noise but its the only way to stop it and it may never stop completely but should lessen gradually over time.

 

Also it could just be a test to see what you will do when he does it, they are so smart, too smart in fact.

[Barbara2]

I was thinking that it might have something to do with the change in locations. In the beginning, he may have been calling for his "flock". When that didn't work, he switched it up. I think a time will come when he will start calling his new "flock" with the calls of the house.

[kave70]

Thanks for the insight. I think he has come so far in just a few short months; I just want to make sure we're doing everything we can for him.

We've started clicker training and he LOVES it. He has learned how to wave already.