Teach an old bird to speak?

Timgeorgr

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Sep 24, 2012
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I'm not sure how old my alexandrine is and I would like to teach him or her to speak. He makes loud screeches of various sounds and whistles the "sexy whistle" lol. Is there a certain age where they cannot learn to talk? How do I start on teaching him to talk? Are there cheap DVDs or books I can buy to teach him? How did you teach your parrot to talk? Thank you! :green2:
 

BradGC

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Jul 31, 2012
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Gold Coast, Australia
Parrots
Alexandrine parakeet
Just sit down with him and have no other distractions in the room and keep talking to him and make him excited, just say anything to start with "hey, hallo buddy, go birdy, hey ya" and pretty much as soon as he makes any sort of noise at all, like a chirp or screech, then laugh and get excited and let him know that you liked it, also give him a treat and keep going till he makes another noise and repeat.

Then after a while he will know that you like him talking, from there you can teach him specific words like hello or hey buddy.

Good luck!
 

antoinette

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Jul 6, 2009
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Sunny South Africa !!!
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African "Grey"
"Mishka"
Male
7 Years old
Hi there
I taught a 16 year old African Grey to talk, it is never too late
After a year, Jessie was talking nonstop, knowing exactly what she was saying, and replying to answers correctly.
I am sure the thread below will assist you
Need any assistance, please just ask
Good luck


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Teach Your Bird To Talk

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Ian

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Sep 10, 2012
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My male started talking clearly at about 9ish months....most of his vocab was stuff he copied from seeing other Alexandrines on youtube (just search "alexandrine"...there are loads). Its a 'quick fix' to get started and you get the added bonus of him trying to 'look behind' the monitor...

BUT....he doesn't associate talking with me....and he will rarely respond to me or learn new phrases from me. He just yabbers away to himself (although he often talks to try and beg food, knowing it gets attention). I'm restarting training the 'old fashioned way' as below so I can 'talk to him'.

It is working...very slowly....he has an attention span of about 10 minutes and I need to time it carefully or he won't be in the mood, but it's worth it when he does respond. I can often get him in the mood for the training with some tongue clicking and 'wolf whistles'. If you say words and his eyes flash you're getting through (apparently!).

They have a great voice but they aren't in the same league as Greys IMO
 
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Timgeorgr

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Thank you very much guys.
I'm just talking to him. And repeating "hello, what's up, how's it going" stuff like that with him/her. I'm gonna keep doing that until he catches on. I want him to communicate with me and interact with other humans as well. He haven't said any words yet all he does is whistle and make a whole bunch of random sounds. I'm not sure how old he or she is. But if I had to make a guess its probably a little under two years. He or she is 18" and i read that their adult size is 23" so I'm just waiting to see. I read that they mature at 3 years old.
 

Devann

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Aug 2, 2012
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Ontario, Canada
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Vino - Alexandrine, Spot - Congo African Grey
My 6 year old Alex apparently used to talk but stopped when the other parrot at her first home passed away. I've been trying patiently since I brought her home with no success yet... I'll love her regardless

As for your birds sex, Alex's are dimorphic so if he/she has a black ring around the neck then most likely male. If not, most likely female. You can google pics to compare :)
 
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Timgeorgr

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@Devann I'm really sorry to hear about your Alex. I wish you both the very best on her learning to talk.
I'm working with tiki on talking, no results yet but one day we will get there.


I've been looking at the pics on google and nothing helps because apparently he or she is too young. There is however a light shadow of what seems to be a ring; a darker color green / grayish but it's very faint around the neck. Does your girl have that? I'm thinking of contacting avian biotech to get a dna test but I'm not quite sure yet.
 
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Timgeorgr

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From head to tail, what is the length of your Alex? Since Tiki is 18", and your Alex is 6 years, I want to get an idea of age to length ratio; I know that they will grow at different rate but, it will just be an estimate.
 

Devann

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Vino - Alexandrine, Spot - Congo African Grey
my girl has no ring whatsoever and she is roughly 22" long. Your Tikki might just be a bit too young to tell like you said.
 
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Timgeorgr

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Thank you very much.
What are some of your speech training techniques?
 

Devann

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Vino - Alexandrine, Spot - Congo African Grey
right now i just repeat the same word and give her a treat when she makes a little chirp in response... she's starting to catch on
 
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Timgeorgr

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Cool. I wish you luck on that!
I've been doing the same thing with tiki but he wouldn't accept treats from me. I've tried a lot of treats and he just wouldn't take any.
 

Devann

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Vino - Alexandrine, Spot - Congo African Grey
Vino goes crazy for almonds and sunflower seeds, i use the unshelled ones for training
 

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