Happy Pets

Both the male and female Cockatiel learn to talk quite proficiently, and although their voices are somewhat shrill, the words they learn are quite distinguishable. The male does much more whistling and can be taught to repeat complete bars of certain tunes. The female is not so adept at this, but she can wolf whistle, and is as quick at learning as the male.

It is almost impossible to teach birds to talk, unless they are in a cage by themselves. Hence, step number 1 is to isolate the bird. He must not be distracted by any of his toys or mirrors or other objects in the cage, and they should be removed. The room in which you work with him should be quiet and free from confusion. All his attention should be directed at you. As an extra assurance of this, place a covering over the top and sides of the cage, leaving only the side facing you open.

For the most part, birds hear through vibrations, rather than through sounds. Therefore, your voice should be as highly pitched as possible. To begin with, you should try to teach him only the words that end with vowel sounds—hello, pretty, bye bye, etc. Repeat these words or others of your choice, one at a time, over and over, or whistle the same tune repeatedly. You will notice that your bird will be watching you intently. He may try to imitate you immediately, but do not become discouraged if he does not. Do not try to teach him too large a vocabulary in the beginning, but concentrate on one or two words at each session.

The length of these lessons should not exceed 15 minutes, for your bird may lose interest and completely ignore you. After each lesson, a bit of his favorite treat should be given to him.

Any time you are near the cage, or feeding or cleaning the bird, repeat the words you are trying to teach him, and always try to maintain the same level of pitch and tone of your voice. Cooperation by other members of your family to do this helps also.

Unless it is unavoidable, the bird should be kept isolated from other birds until he has learned to talk. When they talk among themselves, they are less interested in what you wish to teach them. Once they learn words, even if they are not coached regularly, they do not forget them.

When your bird has learned one word, go on to the next one. Each time he says a word he knows, reward him with his favorite treat or a scratch on the head. Once he has gotten the idea, you can try coupling words, later graduating to sentences.

The first words are the most difficult, but with patience and perseverance, you can have a talking bird. The secret is in working with the bird daily, maintaining the same pitch to your voice, and working with him in conditions where you have his undivided attention.

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This entry was posted on Thursday, October 16th, 2008 at 9:30 am and is filed under Birds, Cages. You can follow any responses to this entry through the RSS 2.0 feed. You can leave a response, or trackback from your own site.