Hi!Meet my Princess Parrot-Samson!

[timothychacko]

Hey! I have a 4 year old Princess of Wales Parakeet. He loves to be with me, but has crazy mood swings:30: I want him to talk more, but sadly, he doesn't. Any suggestions on how to get him to talk? My grandfather told me that back in India, he would use palm leaves to get parrots to talk-and it worked. Here's a pic-http://s7.postimg.org/x67z8w5ez/IMG_8586.jpg

 

[Flboy]

Hey! I have a 4 year old Princess of Wales Parakeet. He loves to be with me, but has crazy mood swings:30: I want him to talk more, but sadly, he doesn't. Any suggestions on how to get him to talk? My grandfather told me that back in India, he would use palm leaves to get parrots to talk-and it worked. Here's a pic http://s7.postimg.org/x67z8w5ez/IMG_8586.jpg

Very beautiful bird!
Hope you didn't mind, I fixed your link!

 

[Peppo]

What a beautiful bird! What's up with the palm leaves? How did that work?

 

[RavensGryf]

Welcome! My mother has a Princess of Wales as well. Patches is about 10 now, and he talks surprisingly well for a parakeet species. He basically has learned the things she commonly says to him. I have also witnessed him picking up new sounds and repeating almost instantly, but I don't know what makes him pick up some words and sounds readily, and others he doesn't. Each is individual too. Some birds of the better talking species don't ever talk.

 

[timothychacko]

Thanks! I just started with the palm leaves-dried. It's been two days, I'll tell you if I see a difference!

 

[BEWolf]

Not all parrots learn to speak human words, but the world record for the number of words spoken by any parrot is held by a budgie and is just over 1000 different words. Of the parrots that do learn to speak human words, they appear to pick up words that are spoken either dramatically such as when you are excited or even angry, they also tend to pick up on words that are spoken in a sing song manner and in a higher vocal range than what we normally speak in, and of course they need frequent exposure to us talking at first and then once they begin to say words they will sometimes pick up on a word after hearing it only a very few times, but mostly words that are used most often and appear to have meaning to them such as hello, breakfast, nut, or other such words.

 

[BirdLover80]

So, you are male and the bird is also a male? Am I getting that right? If so, that may be the problem. Birds are funny in that 9/10 a male bird will bond to a human female but not to another human male and vice versa; female birds bond to human males but not human females. I have experienced this will all of my birds. The females will almost instantly bond with me but males never do. The males tolerate me but that's about it. If you have a male bird, the chances of you getting him to talk to you are very slim unless he bonds to you. Would love to know more details. Cheers!

 

[Anansi]

So, you are male and the bird is also a male? Am I getting that right? If so, that may be the problem. Birds are funny in that 9/10 a male bird will bond to a human female but not to another human male and vice versa; female birds bond to human males but not human females. I have experienced this will all of my birds. The females will almost instantly bond with me but males never do. The males tolerate me but that's about it. ...

While I don't doubt this has been your experience, I believe it's more a function of coincidence than any true indication of a parrot's innate preference for a human companion of the opposite gender.

Don't get me wrong, this does seem to happen from time to time. But in most cases it appears to be a function of the bird's experiences more than anything else.

In my own experience, every male bird I've had has bonded to me over anyone else... male OR female. (Just to clarify, I'm a man.) And the one female bird I've had has also bonded strongly to me. So I wouldn't jump very quickly to the conclusion that gender is an issue, here. It's possible, perhaps, but far from a foregone conclusion.

 

[BirdLover80]

Anansi, thanks for clarifying. I guess I was drawing a conclusion from my own experience. I've only owned birds for about 4 years now and I'm sure you're a lot more experienced than I in that respect. I've read of similar experiences on other sites about birds preference for a human companion of the opposite gender. It may be more common that you think. Then again, every bird is different so who really knows?