Talking is one of the most important things for parrots to learn, and in fact, it’s been shown that they rely heavily on their ability to speak as young birds. As such, it is very important for you to begin teaching your pet bird how to talk as soon as possible.
Luckily, there are several ways to teach your parrot to talk! This article will discuss some easy strategies that can help get your little chatterbox going. Best of all, these tips don’t require any special tools or products! You can easily use the ones that you already have at home.
Don’t worry if your new talking partner isn’t doing so well right away– this is totally normal! Many dogs and cats take time to understand what kind of sounds they should be making, and just like us humans, different animals seem to find certain noises more interesting than others.
It may help to look into the possibilities before deciding whether or not to put forward effort into teaching your dog or cat to talk.
Buy a parakeet
As with any new pet, teaching your bird how to talk is a process that will take time. Birds are not necessarily easy to deal with, especially when they want to show off their beautiful colors or sounds they can make.
Birds require frequent attention in order to thrive, which makes it hard to keep them under control unless you have experience raising birds.
If you are just starting out as a owner, do not worry! Hanging up outside the house for hours at a time is not a good idea, nor is letting it free-range around the house.
These practices could hurt or even kill your bird. Luckily, there are some simple ways to teach your bird to speak! Here are 10 tips to help you get started.
Clip a recording of your friend talking to the parakeet
Now that you have your voice, it’s time to look for a companion! You can go into a pet store or online shop and purchase some bird toys and sounds to use as lessons.
You will also need to find someone to help teach your new talker how to speak!
Bird owners usually begin by speaking very slowly and clearly so the parrot can learn what sound goes with what object. As the two get closer, the speed increases and the tone gets louder.
If you are ever struggling to get the conversation going, you can refer back to our tips above about starting conversations.
Play the recording for the parakeet
The first thing you will need to do is find a way to get your parakeet’s attention. If you start playing the recording for it when it calls, then at least it has something interesting to listen to!
You can try holding its cage up so that it cannot reach the speaker, or even put the speaker outside of the room where it can hear it from a distance.
Alternatively, you could use two speakers and have one be general noise such as music or white-noise app software, while the other more clearly structured voice command program.
Feed the parakeet
When your little bird cries for food, put some seeds in their beak! Make sure they have a good amount of seed so that they are busy eating instead of waiting for you to give them more.
You can also use a spoon to feed them. Never stick your hand into the cage or pull the cover off as this may scare away the birds.
Never hit the cage with your hands or feet- it will only hurt the bird even more. For tips on how to care for a new pet, check out our article here.
On top of feeding the parrot, let it explore its surroundings. This way it will learn about different textures, sounds, and environments.
If the bird seems comfortable around you, then start teaching it phrases.
Let the parakeet pick its own words
Even if you never teach your bird any specific phrases, it is still important for them to know how to communicate.
Most birds are highly social creatures that enjoy interacting with other animals of their species. If you watch bird videos online, you will see that many birds seem to talk to each other.
Birds have been known to use elaborate calls to tell each other about intruders or potential mates.
By giving your bird free access to source materials (like toys and treats), they can learn what sounds go together and connect those sounds to their own.
They also must understand word similarities in various languages to truly speak like a native!
You should definitely check out more tips here: How To Train A Bird To Listen And Speak.
Use a mirror to get the parakeet to talk to
The first way to teach your bird to speak is by using a mirror! Many people begin teaching their birds to talk when they give them a call name or say “hey, birdie” and then nothing happens.
This can be frustrating for both you and the animal. You want it to respond, so you try again with another name or saying something like “what?” but there is no response.
It may seem impossible at times, but if you use a mirror as an intermediary, the parrot will eventually learn how to back down and reply to its own reflection! This technique works very well in helping teach other things such as walking or flapping wings.
Use treats to get the parakeet to talk to
If you are trying to teach your parrot how to speak, then using food as a reward is a good way to start.
Most birds learn by observing other animals or people around them so they will be looking at you when you give them some food.
If yours does not seem to be picking up any words, try giving it one thing and see if it repeats this word later.
Buy a recording of your friend talking to the parakeet
If you are willing to spend some money, you can buy a device that allows you to connect to Wi-Fi and record someone else’s voice. You can then edit the recorded speech down to only the important parts like “Hello!” or “Come here often?”
You can also add in some background noises such as music or other people speaking so the listener does not have to worry about what is being said. These devices are very popular because they help beginners learn how to speak and hold conversations.
There are many apps and websites where you can upload your own voice recordings which you can then edit and share. Many people use this technique to teach their children how to talk and it works wonderfully for kids who struggle with communication skills.