Expert: Chrys Meatyard - 3/16/2008

Question
Hey, my family and I have had a cockatiel for many years, steve is his name!  Any way, he's learned to do wolf wistles, and a whole bunch of other wistles, but we want him to talk.  Is there any specific words or phrases we should start out with.  Oh and he is very well at imitation, like he makes kissy noises, phone wrings, and water runny.  He also chuckles and moves his head up and down.  Right now he's trying to immitate my typing, so he likes to learn, so to speak! thanks for your help and please reply Asap!
PS. tvvvlgnt, Ha ha he just walked accross the key board:)

Answer
Hi, Mackenzie,

Your tiel sounds like a riot!

In order to teach your bird words/phrases, start out using small words/phrases with hard consonants, such as "pretty bird," "good bird," "bad bird," "no."  Repetition is key...keep repeating over and over again what you want your bird to learn.  Birds don't talk, they mimic.  Having said this, not all birds learn to mimic words/phrases.  However, since your tiel is so vocal, you shouldn't have too much difficulty with words.  Also, words/phrases birds repeat are repeated at a much faster rate than we speak.  Therefore, when teaching your bird words/phrases, pronounce the words/phrases slowly/slower than you normally would say them.  Then when the bird repeats the words/phrases, you will be able to understand what the bird is saying.  For example, I had a blue front amazon that used to talk up a storm, but I couldn't understand most of what Pepper was saying.  Therefore, I tape recorded his words and played the tape back at slow speed so I could understand his words.

Chrys