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How did you teach your bird to talk?

Hibiki

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Hi all, my CAG Oz is almost 6 months old. Although it might be too early, I think it shouldn't hurt to start teaching him speaking. He definitely has the potential to speak, as I had heard him saying "step down" once when he wanted to get off my hand, but that was about a month ago and he never did that again.

Browsing the Internet, I've learned two approaches. One is to passively wait until the bird says a word, then rush over and give a treat. The other is to actively repeat the word to the bird, reward the bird whenever it vocals back, then be more and more strict with the pronunciation. I've been taking both approaches. The problem I have with the first approach is that, as I mentioned, it took a month for me to hear Oz saying one phrase. For the second approach, I'm stuck in the phase where I began trying to be more strict about pronunciation, Oz doesn't get the idea and loses interest very fast.

I'm well aware that no matter what the approach is, it takes time and patience to be effective. I just want to know if I am on the right track. At what age did your bird start talking? How did you teach your bird to talk and how long did it take? I'd love to hear your stories! Thanks in advance!
 

Shezbug

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I personally don’t encourage or discourage the mimicking of human speech, if the bird chooses to attempt to copy us then so be it, if they perfect the sound/word they’re trying to copy then I realise how often I say that particular thing lol and if they don’t try to copy human speech then that’s perfectly fine too.

I have two birds that chat up
a storm, one practices new words regularly, the other is mostly hard to understand and I’m pretty sure he chants to some otherworldly beast mostly but he does say some clear things and I have one bird that only mimics the whistles and certain sounds he hears from me regularly.

I’d personally never do the repetitive thing that many choose to do (taped repeated words playing all day) as I would find that torture if I had to listen to it so I’d not ever allow my birds be subjected to it.
I’m really not bothered whether my birds copy speech or only make bird sounds.

My macaw started attempting to copy words at about 6 moths old and now copies way too many phrases, sounds and words and my cocky arrived at my house last year as a 13-14 year old chatter box who says many things but they’re not all clear.
 

Pixiebeak

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I've never tried training. But I've found they say the things you say to them a lot , with emotions or context.
I'm always saying things like Are you a good bird ? All baby talk and cute. So they picked that up. Or give me a kiss, cuz I'm always asking for kisses. So they say that

One of mine would say good morning and good night because I always do. While the other here the same thing and never do.

Sometimes they just like how a word sounds. My mom asked do they say banana, while we were unpacking banana's. I was like no they don't say banana. I'm like I don't go around saying banana. My mom asked how long would it take them to learn banana? Me I don't know. My smart Alec bird hollers out banana!!! We laughed so much that I heard banana for a long time after that...till it fell out if favor with them.

Meanwhile I've tried repeatedly to get certain words or phrases, buy saying them all the time...over years...with zero success ;)
 
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Fergus Mom

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Mine only speak Budgie speak. I have no translator, sadly! :sadhug2:
 
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