My Grey only cat whistles and piercing screech

[Kasia]

Hi, my African Grey doesn't seem to be picking up on words . She has the "cat call" wwwo hooo-oo down pat. Then she randomly in second intervals has a high pitched piercing sound that makes me wonder what I am doing wrong. .

 

I say "Hi Billie, Momma loves you" so many times in so many voice ranges (staying away from higher octave voices of course) that I am wondering if she isn't going to ever talk.

 

She watches TV when I leave the house (the Animal Planet station). Perhaps she should watch CNN or Real Life.

 

I also say repetitively "hello" "hi" -- keeping it simple just to hopefully have her say one word.

 

She is less than a year old. When she was younger she would experiment with her vocal chords and used to grumble and make various sounds.

 

Any suggestion is appreciated.

 

I love her to pieces and probably am over-coddling, if that's possible. She's just my little baby girl. Even if she said "boo" I'd be excited.

 

I was thinking of taking her to the bird shop where other talking African Greys are for an overnighter just so she can see and hear other Greys talking and maybe join the bandwagon.

 

Thanks again.

[siobha9]

She is probably just too young. I COMPLETELY understand your frustration. I remember begging with her, please just say hello and I will get off your case. I used to imagine that sounds she made were this word or that word and my family would laugh at me and say don't be ridiculous, she can't talk. Well almost to the day she turned 13 months she started with Hello, all day long. Then she added her name. By the end of that month she had 2 or 3 more phrases. And now I have no idea how much she can say, she is now 20 months old.

 

If she can do the wolf whistle, it is possible that she will talk, as that it is still an imitation, not a natural sound. BUT, not all greys talk. And not all greys talk in front of people. We have one member here who has a closet talker, will only talk when her mammy leaves the room. Have you tried hiding and listening to her? Honestly, hard as it is, I recommend you give it time. If you are frustrated talking to her, she will pick up on that. Keep it natural.

 

I feel your pain, I have given you some karma to cheer you up

 

Siobhan

[Kasia]

Thanks Siobhan, I have tried listening to her when she's alone. She's pretty quiet -- probably waiting for me to come into the room and when she hears me she starts the high pitched toots. Such a stinker. But, no closet talker yet.

 

At least there's hope. I just love hearing African Greys talk in general. It's so sweet. I think I'll lower my tone even more -- and add some grovely coarseness to it -- maybe she'll think that she can mimic that.

 

When I first got her I was singing the song from Green Acres -- I guess I was just entertaining her -- the ape in the jungle sounds probably didn't set the stage for learning a vocabulary either (along with cat sounds, dog sounds and crow caws). I think I was just entertaining myself in hindsight! :blush:

 

Thanks again!!

 

[Louisejane]

Hi Kasia

 

As already said, I'm sure that she will statrt talking soon, she has a few months to go yet and is already mimicking whistles, thats got to be a good sign.

 

Eddie is a bit of a closet talker. When we fist got him, we had to stand in the kitchen to hear him talk and he would have some crazy conversations with himself but the minute we went back in the room he played dumb! Now he will talk with me in the room but no one else. The other night, he learned to mimic the cat and was doing the best meow! I had him dancing too which was another first. Everytime I bobbed up and down, (which looked ridiculous) he did the same then laughed. I shouted my husband down the stairs and the minute he got there Eddie stopped flat and refused to do either. Now my family thinks I've been on the pop all weekend! The minute they leave the room he starts again! He knows exactly what he's doing too as he laughs at me when they've gone as if he knows he's got me into trouble!:laugh:

[judygram]

She has plenty of time to start talking, Josey did not talk until she was a year old and she started out with the wolf whistle, my hubby made sure she learned that. Now she says all sorts of words and phrases, just give her some time and be patient and it will come.

 

They usually will do the mimics first then the words and some will only talk when you are out of the room, hence the name closet talkers, but my Josey talks in the room with us and even answers back. She even talked a little on the ride up and back over the weekend, she was in the vehicle for 4 hours straight and she was also trying to whistle some tune I haven't been able to identify yet.:laugh: