Talking

I know we are a long way off from getting words, and I am aware some CAGs never talk but I'm curious as to how long it took your bird to learn a word or a sentence once they learned to talk. In otherwords, they're speaking already with a good vocabulary and you begin teaching a new word. How long does that take?

My Rickeybird is not a Grey, and not among the talented talking species, buttttttttttt, as we await the Grey experts...
He spoke his first words on the way home from the bird store... "HELLO, RICKEY!" I almost drove off the road.
He has continued, very erratically, to add/detract words/phrases/songs over the years/decades...
I guess I'd say... be open for anything and prepared for less?
Good for your for reaching out!

I can't give you a time frame.
My CAG is a rescue and I am unsure of her age.
I have never tried to "teach" her to say anything she just picks up speech like a sponge picks up water.

Just speak consistently to her. If you are going out to run errands tell her you'r going out.
Giving her water tell her "hears you fresh water" and so on.
They will learn and learn in context.
Greys are amazing.

They'll surprise you...
I'll give you a few examples from our life... I've never attempted to teach Red (my CAG) to talk...
Once her treats are over I use the word over to indicate the treat session is over or the training session is over. She picked up on this and says over when she drops her toy to say play time with that toy is over or gives me a kiss & says over & walks away...
Phone rings she says hello...
Give her a treat or a new toy or a new perch or carry her to the play stand... You'll get a good girl.
She calls me exactly the way my girl friend calls me if she needs to be picked up.
She's just a year old.
Include your grey in your day to day activities & place them somewhere where they can observe everything in the house... After that they'll do the talking...

cheers

really it just depends on how much they want to talk. I had a conure not the most well known of talkers and within 3 weeks he learnt 3 phrases (what you doing?, Thank you and night-night) you had to listen carefully but they were there

Try showing videos of other birds talking, they learn a lot quicker that way

My CAG Nigel is a real talker. We talk to him all the time and he spends all day in the main area of the house so he is exposed to chatter all the time. He speaks in context, says no to things he doesn't want, and interacts with us. He has a couple of times each day that he talks non stop. We love it! For greys the key is interaction and socialization as they are vocal.

Tsali is just over 2 1/2. He started talking around 7 months. We use clicker training w/modeling to encourage vocalization. I am home most of the time and his cage is in the busiest most central part of the house so when he is in his"house" Tsali is still in the middle of the action.

I actively work at teaching/encouraging Tsali to talk. It took a couple of months for him to learn to say his number when asked (his number is actually my cell phone number). It seemed like it took him forever to be willing to tell respond with his email address. I feel certain that he learns new words/phrases quite quickly, because during his most active talking times you can hear him having conversations with himself.

He uses many of his words in context - hello, bye- bye when coming in or out of sight. He will tell you, "I'm not talking to you" when he is carrying on a conversation with himself and you ask him what he said.

My best advice to encourage two way communication is to talk to you feathered family member a lot and use modeling and lots of favorite treats. Tsali picks up on what is interesting to him very quickly. He learned to call my daughter's two boxers in a couple of days, "Whistle, whistle, come on girls.", AND for a long time he called everyone " Hey, Goober". He doesn't seem to forget words, but goes through phases when he uses some words quite frequently and others not so much.

I never tried to teach Smokey anything really.. My Mom would always say "How are you?" every morning when she uncovered Smokes house. One morning Smokey beat mom to the punch line..yelling 'HOW ARE YOU??" clear as a bell.. the moment she was uncovered..Mom said she almost fell on the floor lol.
After that,she just picked up whatever she liked. Smokes was probably a year old when she started.

Even with Amy I didn't try teaching her to talk. Mom's best friend would come to the back door and yell out "Ellen...ELLEN??" my mom's name..Amy picked that up fast.
Mom has been gone now almost ten years,and just the other night I heard Amy.."Ellen..ELLEN??" Amy hasn't forgotten Mom
Scarry sometimes.




Jim

IIRC, it was about four or five months. His first word was, 'what?' with the end of the word up as if asking a question. Why is that? Because every time he made a noise that we thought was a word, we'd say "what?" so that was his response, After that, it gradually escalated until a year in, we were hearing new things every week or even every few days. He lived with the radio or TV on most of the time, so when he wasn't hearing us talk,he was hearing English spoken pretty much all day long. We used to use a steno notebook, with each page for one letter of the alphabet, and we'd write the new word with the corresponding letter. As we gradually started to fill up the pages we gave up. He no longer learns as many new things, but when he goes through his reportoire at dusk or dawn, I occasionally hear him doing voices of people he hasn't seen in over 20 years. BTW, I think he's learning Polish from the people who talk outside our front window. But I can't be sure, because I don't speak Polish, so the random words just sound like gibberish to me.
The way I taught him new things that I wanted him to say, was simply to turn off all the noise, and just repeat the word to him while he was sitting on my shoulder. Other than that, he just chooses what he likes to say. He's particularly fond of the Pillsbury doughboy's 'ooo hooo' (like when someone poked him in the stomach). One of my favorites? "I'm a coooooool bird. I'm a coooooool bird. Are you a cool bird? I'm a cool bird". I still don't know why he knows to pronounce the word cool differently, other than maybe he considers the whole sentence one word, because the inflections are different.
Also, it helps to say whatever you're doing. Every time you open the door to the cage, perhaps say 'open the cage'. When you give him new water, say new water. If I accidentally forget to give him fresh water, sometimes he'll say "water".
So good luck. Keep talking to your birds!

Hard to remember Tusk that far back, but I think he started talking words in about four months, and complete sentences within six.

Tusk is a cognitive bird though, he uses language in context.

Perjo started speaking words this past summer at about 14mos , this past month she has spoken her first sentence "what ya doin" at 21 mos.

She uses all of the 4-5 words she now knows in context. Matter of fact everything she does is within a relative context. When she flies off her cage (unscheduled) she whistles a "phew" than says "whoa" and she acts all dramatic like nd pretends to be breathing heavy. It's really hysterical but yet cool she does that.

Levi my CAG started trying to say words very early on, but we couldn't make them out. He was 10 months old when he said, "Levi". Less than a month later he said, "Hi Levi". 3 days later, "See you later Levi". One day later, "Hello Levi" 3 days after that, "Good night Levi" about a week later he started saying, " What's Up Levi" "Hi Levi, can I have a kiss?" "Kisses" than makes kissing sounds.
"I Love you" ....
Than the words started coming faster & faster & I stopped documenting them. Ha I get such a kick when I hear him say something new. SOO FUN!! :04:

My 12yr old seems to have picked up a few words in the few weeks ive had her, and several words she already knew she now says in my accent. She's also 90% learned the theme tune to the adams family in this time as well.
Interesting to try and associate words with actions though, ive not tried that. She does say 'come on' quite often if im not in the same room or im not joining with her to explore or play, so she is actually asking me to 'come on'. She seems to be teaching me as much as she is learning from me.

something else that I think is hillarious, when my phone goes, she says hello in another mans accent and a couple of minutes in to the conversation she says 'ok, bye', often the caller/callers think its me and tell me to hang on the line