teaching 8yr old to talk!

[rayyan]

hi everyone i hope tha some of u more experianced parrot people can help me,i have a male grey called george, he is 8yrs old and can say a few words, i was wondering how difficult is it goig to be to get him to learn more new words and can it b done? he is very brave no shy or scared of anything, he has never growled or got nasty, he likes a bit of a scratch on the head but on his terms and loves to sit amongst us but not being held, i heard shy birds r more difficult to teach to talk.

 

i have tried to get him to say "hi" he looks interested and his pupils are changing and he makes little noises after i have said the word.

 

also i dont expect him to talk straight away but if u have any idea of the best way to teach him and maybe some good starter words it would be a great help!

 

thanks!

[Talon]

You won't have to teach him at all. He will pick up just about EVEYTHING you say around the house. Sometimes, I will say specific things to them as I make eye contact over and over again, it usually is within 2 days they will get it, providing they WANT to say it! :blink:

[BaxtersMom]

Baxter was 12 years old when I brought him home last summer. Within a week or two he already had my dogs name down and started calling him "Come ere Jackson Come ere" There were a couple other phrases that he picked up on right away so they can definately pick up new words. 8 Years is not very old in grey age.

Baxter can talk and talk quite well but he would rather whistle and make sound effects. Which is fine with me but does bother me some that he can talk but chooses not to most of the time. It will probably be on his terms if he chooses to pick up new words or not but they definately can learn them. Good luck with it. Baxter just says what HE wants to WHEN he wants to:laugh:

[judygram]

That is it in a nutshell, they have to want to say it, you can talk to them, repeat words over and over until you are blue in the face but if they don't want to say it they won't, then again you might say a particular word or phrase only once and you hear them repeat it exactly word for word.

 

Just talk to him normally, use words in context with what you are doing and he may surprise you with a bigger vocabulary.

[ShonaRayJoe]

Thank you all for these words.. I was wondering the same thing. I have had ShonaRayJoe now for about a month or a little more. The previous owner told me he made lots of noises but only talked when she was in another room. The first day he began saying HERE whenever he wanted my attention. Then he said MINE when he wanted to show me which parrot food was his. LOL Then it was WHAT when I asked him a question and a week later he made the sonic boomb sound of my phone ring and proceeded to say HELLO whenever it rang. LOLOL That's it and I wanted him to say much more but it's still early and I don't mind whatever he does as long as he's happy. I think he is!

 

ps...I'm so glad that I found this board!

 

bye for now

TaMarah and ShonaRayJoe

[Dave007]

Not to make you feel bad but at the age of 8 yrs, the odds of your bird starting to talk as you would like is small. Any words he may know now were more than likely picked up when he was very young. This doesn't apply to every bird but out of 100 greys, maybe 10 to 15 will revert to talking and not many words will be taken in.

 

Many people talk about the rehomed greys they've gotten but they also say that the bird doesn't talk and they refuse to pick up on words. Many of those birds are expert in sounds though. Most greys are experts in sounds.

 

PS--if he was a talker, he would've already picked up words from past homes that he lived in. Most greys don't need to be taught to imitate words that they accidentally hear frequently.<br><br>Post edited by: Dave007, at: 2009/04/24 23:12

[rayyan]

thanks for ur replys,

 

george is sill not talking very much just his usual words! but even tho hes stopped sitting on me he lets me now give his head a good scratch which he didnt before, hes still very vocal and he has learnt that the very hih pitched alarm noises dont get him any attention but the ditties and dancing and talking get him praise and reward!

 

he also has sooooo many facial expressions!

[SarahDavid]

Find out what your parrots love is it seed peanut an almond or extra petting ? once he mimics you one time react to it in a extremely excited way and give him whatever he loves he will soon try everything to get what he loves. That worked for me. but i'm still in the process of working with my baby Noah on that. good luck.

[danmcq]

Greys learn by association and words that they consider important enough to learn or they just like the sound of it.

 

The best thing you can do to try and encourage him to pick up new words, is to associate them with items or actions and say them with an enthusiastic voice. Just as humans, they learn better from enthusiasm, rather than just doldrums comments.

 

When giving him apple, grape, nut, seed, water etc. say it is your giving it to him. When your doing something like making coffee, feeding the other critters like dogs, leaving, going etc. say what your doing and a short two or three word sentence.

 

It may take weeks or months before you start hearing them, but you will if he determines they are necessary things to learn in associating with the flock and getting what he wants.

 

Just time and patience will tell, but I will tell you, whether he says he whether he says the words or not, when you say them, you will see him act accordingly to what you just said. They understand them whether they say them or not. :-)

 

Kind of like your dogs, say "wanna go for a walk?" and watch them run around in excitement while your trying to settle them down to get the leashes. :-)

[HeatherStrella]

When I first got my Grey, the vet told me that Greys will only talk if they "like" what they hear. Also, she said it helps if they can see your mouth...so if you want him to say a particular thing, make sure he can see you forming the word/s. I recently taught AnnaBella to sing "How Much is that Birrrrdie in the Window???"...I sang it a lot while she couldn't see me but also while she was about 2 inches from my face. She looked right at my mouth. (she'd be looking in my eyes but as soon as I started to sing, she zoomed in on my mouth instantly)..She learned it in about 2 weeks. Of course, she'd say parts of it...when she was close to it, she sang "how much is that birdie in the gooooooooooo". I think she sang that cuz she says "ready, set, gooooooo" a lot. LOL. But, soon after that she sang it correctly. I've "taught" her several things like that...but most of the words/phrases she knows are what we say around the house like the people above have said.