How do I train my Parrot to Talk? ~ standard rules pls

Hi,

I have a young Alexandrine Parakeet which i bought recently.

I am in the process of getting it to stop biting. I'm enjoying his company though. He's very interesting and curious.

Can anyone of the experts please tell the forum members the standard and most successful methods to Teach a Parrot a Talk please.

Thanks in advance

Shaji

The most standard way to teach your parrot to talk is spend time with him repeating the words to him like hello hello hello do this two or three times a day for around ten minutes each time.
The other way is to record you voice useing the words that you want your bird to learn also played two or three times a day for ten minutes each time.
With time and patence you should have a talking bird.

Keep in mind that birds associate words with action, like a child. So if you want your bird to say hello, every time you walk into the room say hello, and when you are leaving say good bye. What will happen is that the bird will see the word with the action and put the two together.
Couple of things to keep in mind...

Just because a bird has the ability to talk does not mean that it will, there are a lot of greys that don't speak a word.

Some birds take a couple of years to start talking, some greys don't talk till around 2 years of age, my vasa didn't talk untill 4 years old.

The more socail the bird can be the more likely it will talk.

Great!

How about the technique in which you cover the bird cage and play a recorded voice over and over for a while?

it's told to be quite effective too.

It would be an asset to this forum if we had more specific answers to the 'how tos', we could even make this one a sticky if we had some more good people with experience answering please.

thank you in advance and cheers to the ones who contributed their two pennies

Well, in my opinion the recorded voice idea to me is silly.
Our birds learn to talk becasue they want to comunicate with US not a machine.....
As Kimba said..the easiest thing to teach them is "routine" things. Everytime I feed my macaws I ask them if they want a bite Now when they see food they will say "wanna a bite" When I fill water dishes I ask if they are thirsty..now when I begin to fill water dishes all the birds say "thirsty".When they her the shower they will start to tell "SHOWER!"..
Also excitment helps alot The more excited your tone of voice..the more apt they will be to try to say that word. And repitition..I never thought my quaker would learn to talk.I swear I said his name 5000 times before he uttered it the first time

It's true you could repeate the word hello till your blue in the face and your bird might not ever say it, but drop something on your foot and yell @#$#@! once, and your bird says exactly that. Drama and excitment along with action teaches a bird good and bad things. A bird want to learn to communicate with the flock for survial reasons, not because it is fun. Therefore if you just repeat a word without an actoin, from the birds point of veiw what is the purpose?

well thanks guys, looks like there's a looooong way to go... hope it's a nice and exciting trip.

all da best to me!

it is really great to hear from some one that has an alexandrine.they are such an amazing bird..but because they aren't around much we know little about them..i had one and he wasn't much on being held but we gave him alot of attention..when he was only 4 months old one day i heard a real soft voice saying good morning sunshine.at first i thought i was crazy but it was sammy talking..after about a month of this he got louder and saying almost everything we was saying to him..my daughter even taught him to sing opera..now that was funny.i do hope you enjoy yours as much as we did ours..like some dummys we listened when we were told to not clip their wings when they are molting..so we didn't ..he got scarred during a bad storm and flew out our door he was 2 rooms away and still got away..now i clip them when they need it..yes i normally put my bird up in bad weather but that one caught us all off guard and the wind blew my door off!! it was so sad but i learnt alot..i have looked every where for another one..but no one around here breeds them they are so sweet..good luck..believe me..if it is going to talk..if you talk even in the same room to them they will pick it up..i once bought a recording..it drove me nuts in a few min..i forgot that ides real fast..

thanks deedee!

that was encouragement much needed!

i'm perching him on a chair in the living area for a couple of hours before sunset and some time after too these days.

He's screaming a lot if i put him away.... trying to battle that as well

he's developed an attachment towards me... i think... he screams really hard when he sees me going and tries to come flying to me.... his wings are cut, so he goes thud on da floor... sheesh

lets see if he'l talk.and stop screaming too!

You are so right, Kimba. Although I've read, and understand, that one should never adopt a bird for the sole purpose of acquiring a 'talking' bird, I have to admit that I was very excited about the prospect of communicating with my Grey. She was quite average with regards to her timing, and began forming words just after her first birthday.

Today she talks up a storm. She's typically silent when strangers are present, but is getting more and more verbal when others are in the house - especially if we ignore her.

She does scream and whistle quite loudly, but I have recently purchased a training video which I'm hoping with train 'me' to break the bad habits.

I had researched training methods for getting her to talk, but the natural way, described by Kimba, of just communicating with her in the same way that you may communicate with a child, is the most effective, enjoyable, and fun way to get your bird to really talk up a storm!

It typically takes her a week or two to actually start using a word or phrase that she has picked up and is interested in remembering. I'm always tickled pink when I realize that she's beginning to say something that I incorporate into my daily routine. At first, you may not recognize what they're saying, but soon enough you realize when and where they picked it up.

Our morning routine is probably the one that has added the most words and phrases to Lucy's vocabulary. Because I ask questions, tell Lucy exactly what I'm doing, and am very happy and excited when I react to her, she has come to learn, understand, and speak the following words and phrases:

"Do your poo poo" (Lucy must do her 'poo poo' before she can come off her cage onto Mommy's hand)
"Step up"
"Let's go take a shower" (Lucy stands on the shower door every morning while I shower)
"Wanna come out with Mommy?"
"Lemme get some water"
"It's good, good food" "It's good stuff" "Mmmmmmmmmm" "It's got juice" (Referring to her apple)
"Eat your good food"
"Eddie, Eddie, come here buddy" (Talking to our Burman Siamese)
Once I tell her I have to go to work, and that she be a good girl:
"You be good girl"
"Good Bye Lucy" "Good bye"
"I love you"
"Be good girl"
"Bye Lucy"

I could go on and on, but I'd better bring this rather long post to a close. Just talking to them naturally while doing your every day routine will bring both of you joy, and further enhance the bonding process.