Talking Parrots

A young parrot bonds easily with its owner, that is you, which makes teaching it to talk a lot easier.  Just like with any other young pet, if you treat it gently and with patience, it will learn to trust you and feel comfortable when handled.  Most talking parrots were trained at an early age, and as they get used to training, they progress further into expanding their vocabulary or performing tricks.

What do you when you bring a newly purchased young parrot home? Give the bird time to settle in its new environment.  Be around the bird and talk to it gently.  It is common for the bird to retreat back when you attempt to touch it in the cage.  Build on the relationship until the bird shows no sign of nervousness.  Do not let children to come near the bird at this stage.

Offering food from your finger is a great way to build trust and confidence.  A millet spray is useful for this purpose because you don’t need to extend your hand too close to the bird.  As trust is built, you can gradually shorten the millet spray to get closer to the bird.  Even when you are not teaching the young parrot to talk at this moment, it is still absorbing the sounds around it and that includes whatever you say to it and the sounds of appliances in the home such as the door bell, telephone, microwave, tv etc.

Once confidence and trust is built, and you are the best person to know this, your training program to teach your parrot to talk can begin.  There many ways to do this and I have written about this in my previous posts.  I recommend that that you use modern technology to assist you so that you can save your energy for other purposes.  When I say modern technology, that includes the use of CD recorded sounds specially made for teaching parrots to talk, or your voice pre-recorded on tape and played at different times of the day when you not at home.  You can be creative too by letting your bird listen to catchy phrases, or songs from famous singers such as Pavarotti.  You will be amazed by the results your parrot come up with.

Talking parrots are fun to have around as pets.  African Greys, Cockatoos and Ringnecks are popular talking parrots as they are easier to train and absorb and retain sounds better.  If you go to any bird aviary or zoo, you will find that most of the talking parrots are from these species, and you will see that talking parrots receive the most attention.  Even businesses are turning to talking parrots to attract more attention because they are crowd pullers.  It is not uncommon to see Macaws and Cockatoos at car dealerships, or outside a supermarket, or a fairground, with people getting amused at seeing these wonderful talking parrots