thenabrd Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 i have a question and i'm not sure there's even an answer/solution to it. kallie is 3 years old and we've had her almost 1 year. she doesn't have a huge vocabulary, which is fine. she communicates fairly clearly in lots of other ways. we didn't get her for the speaking ability (to us that's just an added bonus), but because greys are truly interesting birds, she needed a home and we were in a position to give her one. currently she LOVES to say everything athena does, exactly like athena does. kallie also likes to do sounds and has a few things she says in her own beautiful voice. i'd love for her to speak more in her own voice though. we'll ask her "can you say it in your voice" or "can you say it in kallie's voice" and sometimes she'll say what she knows how to say in her own voice. she doesn't use her own voice to say the things athena says, she uses athena's voice. whenever she does use her own voice, we make a big deal over it and praise her over and over, telling her how much we love her beautiful voice. we don't put her down for speaking in athena and respond to her like we do when it's athena talking. is there a way to encourage or teach kallie to speak more in her own voice? like i said, its a beautiful voice, soft and gentle most times, and sometimes a bit deeper, but always with lots of emotion/humor and emphasis included. i'm hoping this is a phase. kallie does watch athena a lot and i know takes "hints" about situations, new people and experiences from her. thanks! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Mistyparrot Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 (edited) That is the way Greys learn human. They don't hear human words as words in the way we do. They hear the whole sound and this is what they mimic. In this respect they are unlike human children who tend to learn phonetically. However they are quite capable of associating the learned words and phrases with objects, actions, emotions and events. They will use the voice of whoever they learned the word from. They can sound uncannily human. Or dog or cat for that matter. They can faithfully reproduce many sounds they hear. Grey can reproduce sounds that most humans would struggle with like the sound of flowing water! They do impart their own feel to the words as well but a Greys natural voice is formed in quite a different way from humans. They don't have vocal chords or a diaphragm like we do, instead they have a special voice organ called a syrinx at the bottom of their windpipe as it divides to the lungs. It is unlike anything we have . That said Amazons that I have heard seem to have a much more characteristic voice. Steve n Mistyparrot Edited January 3, 2012 by Mistyparrot Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
Talon Posted January 3, 2012 Share Posted January 3, 2012 Yes,, Mistyparrot is correct. They only speak in the tone they hear. When I first adopted Rikki, she spoke in a man's voice, (that was her favorite person from her 2nd home) but as there is no man at my house, she now speaks in my voice or my daughters. In fact, I hear her call me in my daughters voice, and I say...What Melissa? Cause it is identical to my daughters voice... All 3 of my birds speak in my voice, or my daughters. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thenabrd Posted January 3, 2012 Author Share Posted January 3, 2012 thanks! i really appreciate the info. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
judygram Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 Josey talks in either my voice or my hubby's voice and usually with what she hears us say, she can laugh exactly like me. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
CLB Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 That's funny....Shadow laughs just like me! Actually she has picked up quite a few things that sound just like me. :rolleyes: Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
birdhouse Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 And Phenix laughs exactly like me. But it's almost the only thing left. He learned to talk here & he talked like me. But somewhere along the line he stopped & I never realized it. The only time he sounds like me now is when he's ordering the dogs around. They don't pay any attention when he uses his own voice which ticks him off to no end!! But I can't tell you how long it took before his voice changed. lol It was quite a while, though. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thenabrd Posted January 4, 2012 Author Share Posted January 4, 2012 i guess time will tell how long kallie will prefer to speak in "athena" versus her own voice, lol!!! i don't mind that she does it and it's funny the way it fools my husband. we're always so surprised and pleased when kallie does "herself", so at the moment, i'll just treasure those times more!! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
judygram Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 Josey has my two other bird's voices down pat and sometimes I have to figure out just who is calling, its amazing how they can mimic the voices so accurately. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
lovethatgrey Posted January 4, 2012 Share Posted January 4, 2012 I think she has chosen the *voice* she prefers best to communicate in. I also think that the fact that she *talks* at all is delightful and a gift. I'd just enjoy it and enjoy her as she is. Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thenabrd Posted January 4, 2012 Author Share Posted January 4, 2012 thanks! we are very happy she talks and makes sounds. speaking ability wasn't our major reason for wanting a grey. they're just awesome birds, speaking or not!! i just wasn't sure if this was a phase or was because she's intrigued so much with athena or something else all together. i didn't know if others with multiple species of birds had greys that preferred to use the other birds' voices over their own or if we were doing something wrong that wasn't encouraging her to use her own voice. it's nice to know other's greys speak in their other feathered flock's voices and that we're not discouraging her in some way! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
kins2321@yahoo.com Posted January 5, 2012 Share Posted January 5, 2012 thenabrd... encourage your bird, no matter who they sound like. They immitate. That is their specialty. Sophie immitates all of us. She has confused us all. I would think Sean is yelling back about dinner, it was Sophie. LOL They don't have their own sound. Sophie can immitate me 100%. She makes me sound like a valleygirl! Kids laugh at my denial. Yeah mom.... thats what you sound like! LOL Nancy Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
thenabrd Posted January 5, 2012 Author Share Posted January 5, 2012 when kallie's doing athena, we respond to her just as we do when athena is saying the same things. when kallie says things in "her" voice or makes sounds we respond to that as well. i talk and do my best with sounds (lol) with both girls on and off during the day since i'm not working right now. kallie at this point doesn't sound like my husband or me, she has her own soft, gentle "voice". it's not really female or male, somewhere in between. my husband doesn't mistake her for me, i don't mistake her for him if you know what i'm trying to say. it's the weirdest thing that she isn't imitating either of us, but does have this pleasant voice. even the lady we got her from, hasn't heard her mother's voice from kallie (who owned kallie from weaning until about 2 years of age before she passed away). we love them no matter what!! like i said, i just didn't know if this was normal or if we were doing something wrong since kallie speaks "athena" more than anything else!! of course, athena is a chatter box most days, hahahaha! thanks for all the info everyone! Link to comment Share on other sites More sharing options...
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