Anyone have a quiet Quaker?

My Yoshi is much, much quieter than I expected him to be. He has his louder moments but he mostly only does a few random calls a day. He's 2 years old (hatch date is 10/10/2013 which was my 30th birthday!). He only says a couple of things like pretty bird, whatcha doing, and he mimics the guinea pig's squeals and the annoying squeaky rocking chair.

He's a very sweet bird and I adore him but I do wish he'd talk more. Unfortunately I'm a quiet person and I think it's rubbed off on him!

I had a quiet female quaker for a couple of years, she was an older bird when we adopted her, she only said a few words and phrases but she had a very sweet nature.

One of our forum members has a male quaker that I have admired for years. Ralph doesn't talk much but he is a well mannered boy and so very smart.

Quakers love to mimic noises, they have a knack for imitating the most annoying sounds, car alarms, coffee makers, barking dogs, crying babies, yowling cats, electric drills and so on.

Both my quakers are noisy and obnoxious, I think it's safe to say there is a wide range of personalities among quakers. If you want Yoshi to talk more, try playing word games with him. Every time he calls, call back to him. Try associating words and short phrases with daily activities, good morning, night night, give me a kiss, lights out, yum yums, peek-a-boo, step up, thank you, tickle tickle, and so on.

That's what I've been trying recently. We kind of fell into the habit of just repeating the known words to him instead of teaching him new ones. I'm not sure why. So the last few days I've been saying good boy, hello Yoshi, and kisses.

That brings up a question! Is it better to teach one thing at a time or is it ok that I've been repeating different things?

I think it's fine to repeat different things. Both my quakers talk, they pick up most words, phrases and noises on their own with no help from me. If they get a positive response, for instance a giggle they will usually repeat the word or phrase again and again. They have mimicked words or noises after hearing them only once. They both love music and animated movies.

My quakers love to imitate sounds, they quack, bark, meow, cry, they imitate car alarms, microwave beeps. My girl does a perfect imitation of an electric drill. They also learn from each other. Have you thought of adopting another quaker? A lot of the little stinkers are looking for homes.

Allee said:

Have you thought of adopting another quaker? A lot of the little stinkers are looking for homes.

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I would LOVE to adopt another Quaker! Unfortunately my husband would not! We have a small house with several pets and 3 kids so realistically I know it wouldn't be the best idea. Husband likes birds but isn't really a bird person. He's currently pouting because he never spends time with Yoshi but today decided that he wanted to hold him. Everything was fine until he let Yoshi climb up to his shoulder and Yoshi gave him a pretty good bite on his cheek. So then he was done!
He thinks birds are pretty and fun but he doesn't really put the time in. Which is fine because I do, but then the birds prefer me and he gets pouty. Lol

cnyguy said:

Ralph is a quiet Quaker. He knows a lot of words but doesn't often say them out loud-- he'd rather whisper them along with me when I'm saying them. He has days where he's more talkative than others. Normally, even his squawks aren't all that loud. And that's not a bad thing. It's fine to try to teach a parrot more than one word or phrase at one time. Try using words in context as much as possible though-- if you're teaching a parrot to say "good morning," for instance, it's best to only say it when you first greet the parrot in the morning.

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Ralph sounds a lot like Yoshi. His sounds normally aren't very loud. Sometimes he sits on my shoulder and quietly grumbles.

Jarvis is pretty quiet. He only really calls out a lot when I leave his line of sight.

Otherwise, he only makes much noise when we're playing, or he accidently hits the sore spots on his wings.

Occasionally he'll go all grumpy boy and fuss at me, but hat's not often at all.

I love when Yoshi grumbles. It's not really grumbling, I guess...more like mumbling? Hes not grumpy when he's doing it. He usually does it when he's on my shoulder and playing wih my hair or nibbling me. It's a very sweet, content seeming noise.

I probably call it grumbling because it reminds me of what our old GCC used to do when he wanted us to cover him and go to bed. He'd climb into his happy hut and grumble like a grumpy old man. That's actually a sad memory because he died because of that stupid hut. So no more "happy" huts in this house.

But anyway, back to Yoshi... I've been trying this week to make myself talk more to him and say different things instead of just repeating the stuff he already knows and I feel like he's been a little more vocal and making different sounds already!

PeterPan is a very quiet Quaker she has tons of words but only uses them now and then and mostly when she flock calls me or I flock call her and she always responds to me in english usially with "Hello how are you" or "OK" or "hi"..she doesnt often talk to me when Im there beside her as she is often too busy giving me kisses or shaking hands with me after which she sometimes says thank you but otherwise she doesnt say alot just keeps coming out with new words and sentences every now and again that blow me away as they come out at the most appropriate times. Im convinced she knows what she is talking about. PeterPan doesnt mimic any of the sounds around her apart from laughter or maybe another bird sound but she doesnt bark my White Fronted Amazon does the barking

Bacca has settled down a lot. She'll give a couple of whistles to get our attention when she wakes up but we've trained her that we wont respond to shreeks. She's learned to say "give me a kiss" or "beak" when she wants attention.