tips on getting them to talk/whistle?

[animalfanatic!]

Hello all-

My Kokomo 4 months old tomorrow and I am constantly whistling, and talking to him and he makes noises but never the ones that I make, for example he will try to do a "cat call" whistle but he does it slower. Do you have any tips or cd's that you know of that help them to learn how to talk/whistle?
Thanks Stacey

oh and btw I got my other cage so now Kokomo has a cage in my classroom and a cage at my house so we are together all day and night and he loves it!!!

[sweetrsue]

It is always better if he learns from you rather than a CD. CD's can bore a bird. If you say the same thing while you are doing something in particular they come to understand that the two are related. Also when you talk to you bird watch you bird. She how he reacts. If it seems that he in interested in what you are saying he's likely to give it a try. Often you will just hear it being practiced even when you're not around.

[atvchick95]

first if you want them to talk Do NOT whistle! if they learn to whistle they will not talk (so the books say i just read that in a Older Bird talk magazine last night)

do not use CD's or t.v's or anything else, Yes it'll teach them but they won't associate the word with the action

you'll end up with a bird Like the cockatoo I just rehomed Sunny (he went to my b/f's brother in law and sister by the way Great home ) All Sunny said all day long is "hello" Sunny would be in a room with just the other cockatoo Charlie no ppl around and just sit there and repeat Hello ALL day long

now on the other hand I have a 13 yr old Quaker who will go hide his face (or just his eyes) and then jump out and say Peek a boo, you walk in a room he says Hello, When he gives my b/f kisses he will say Kiss then give a kiss, When he wants scratches he'll tell my boyfriend to scratch and then moves under his hand where he wants scratched at , when he goes to bed he'll say nite or Good nite, when my b/f tells him he'll be back Billy (the Quaker) tells him either by or bye Bye when he gets a drink of my boyfriends kool aid he says "good stuff" afterwards now he only says this after a drink or after he gets to eat something we are eating

He also asks us alot "what are you doing" or "whatcha doing" if we're moving around a lot

we moved into a new house over the weekend, and the other day we were hanging my Dream catchers and other indian stuff on the living room walls (where all the Quakers are and Charlie the cockatoo), and We were pounding nails and movin around and talking and Billy was trying to take a nap - he came out from under his bed and yelled "watcha doing" - I guess that is nicer then saying " hey pipe down i'm trying to sleep" LOL

but Billy only says things that go with what he wants. and he used to NOT play Peek a Boo right he used to just say it and wait for one of us to repeat it

But he was on the couch with me one night and he wanted to play it really bad (he'll repeat it over and over if he wants to play peek a boo and no one repeats it and the K in Peek is more of a scream -to get our attention)

I told him "billy if your not going to play the game right I won't play with you at all" And i had a blanket on the couch and pulled up a corner and told him Hide your eyes then Come out and say peek a boo - after the 3rd try he got it right and I played the game with him for a hour LOL

[Avalon_Princess]

Are you sure your birds male? If he's only four months old, could be a female...

Echo just picked things up, we often said whatcha doing, hello Echo and byebye birdie to him and after a while he started saying them. We never really taught him to talk, he just says words he finds interesting.

Repetition is the key though, right now we are teaching Echo to say "I'm a brat" and we've found the more we say it to him, the more often we'll walk in on him practising it, though he won't say it to us.

Common words cockatiels pick up are their name, whatcha doin?, byebye and hello, so maybe try with those? Say Hello every time you walk past the cage, and byebye when you leave. When spending time with him use his name often in sentences and ask him whatcha doin, it may help him pick up words faster.

LOL although I agree with teaching them to talk before you teach them to whistle it didn't quite wqork for me Echo knows 20+ words but I can't convince him to do even a basic whistle, he prefers bird calls and words.

[elijahfan]

really greta wish i ahd know that before teaching jojo all the tunes under the sun lol, jojo started off slow they get it evetnually now he sounds just like me,

[Danielle]

Harley hasn't worked out how to talk yet, but he does get very excited if he hears songs he recognises. He's very vocal, but it's just tiel calls.
Quinn's very vocal, he never stops hissing. He has stopped biting, though, so that's something.

I think association is probably a good way of teaching them to talk. Just say the same phrases and words when you do things like feed him or first see him in the mornings, so he associates the words with an action. It's a very good way of teaching any animal pretty much any given thing in my experience.

[atvchick95]

Are you sure your birds male? If he's only four months old, could be a female...

Echo just picked things up, we often said whatcha doing, hello Echo and byebye birdie to him and after a while he started saying them. We never really taught him to talk, he just says words he finds interesting.

Repetition is the key though, right now we are teaching Echo to say "I'm a brat" and we've found the more we say it to him, the more often we'll walk in on him practising it, though he won't say it to us.

Common words cockatiels pick up are their name, whatcha doin?, byebye and hello, so maybe try with those? Say Hello every time you walk past the cage, and byebye when you leave. When spending time with him use his name often in sentences and ask him whatcha doin, it may help him pick up words faster.

LOL although I agree with teaching them to talk before you teach them to whistle it didn't quite wqork for me Echo knows 20+ words but I can't convince him to do even a basic whistle, he prefers bird calls and words.

The article i was reading said cockatiels normal "calling" are whistles - That i didn't know - i wouldn't consider what mine do whistling lol I consider the wolf whistle a Whistle, or Whistling Andy Griffith, or even jingle bells Thats whistling Their normal daily "chirping/callings" i don't consider whistling lol

How ever Bart is teaching the others One of his most favorite mimics - The Car Alarm when we got him a year ago he did it the very first night he was at our house - at 9 p.m and he's done it every night since at 9 p.m lol

he'll do it off an on during the day as well but its a nightly thing with him Now we hear it during the day and have to sneak in to see who's doing it (unless it's muffled then we know barts in the nesting box giving his Woman a car alarm sound lol)

my 4 oldest babies are all about 4 months old 3 of them sing all day long (all are pearls) So The 1st batch of tiel babies I had I only got one girl LOL (which is Sadie my Cinnamon white face pearl)

[PtsRPpl2]

Oh, I did so love reading everyone's stories! My pearlie girlie is, of course, quiet - unless she wants something. But my male tiel that I had could learn about anything just from hearing it. He both talked and whistled a lot. I tried a cd but he never repeated anything from that - only things he heard. I had a senegal who was even better, of course, with both talking and sounds. He would learn my roommates pager and cell phone sounds that she had to change quite often b/c she couldn't tell the difference! My tiel was a great whistler though. And he would perform for anyone and everyone. My senegal, however, would let me brag and brag about all the words he could say and the sounds he could make - then sit there all quiet and stubborn, refusing to perform for anyone else!!