Teaching a Parakeet to Talk

Video Transcript

"The clip we're doing now is on teaching your budgie to talk. This is a very difficult thing, and I wouldn't get a budgie, or many parakeets with the goal of teaching them to talk, because it might not happen. But I don't want to say it doesn't, especially if you invest the effort, you can get a few phrases. But some of these birds have been known to be able to say a hundred, a hundred and fifty phrases, almost as many as an African Grey. The big difference between parakeets talking and many of the older or bigger parrot species is that these guys do truly parrot what they talk. They don't know what they're saying. They just say it because they're trying to be part of their flock, and so they're trying to make the same noises of their flock. What's very important with these guys is that you be very consistent. I'm just calling this bird Bob. You say, "Hi Bob, what are you doing, Bob? You a good bird, Bob?". Say the same things over and over. Try and use exact same tone, and say it over and over and over again. Tell them, whether it's "pretty bird", or "I love you", or the same thing. Just, "I love you, I love you". So you'll say it over and over again and you'll find after a, it could take two to four weeks, with a younger bird it could take up to a few months for them to really start talking, but you'll start hearing that exact same tone, that exact same inflection in their voice. At first it'll just sound like tone and inflection, and as they get better and better at copying those sounds, they'll start sounding more and more clear, like words and not just repeating your tone and inflection. They're actually pretty talented talkers, as well, so if it's a man's voice it will very clearly be a man's voice. If it's a child's voice, it's also very clearly a child's voice. They'll pick up other sounds in the household as well. Not so much microwave beeps, but sometimes the sound of trickling water or a certain sound a door makes when it opens, the creaking in and out. If you want a budgie also that talks, it's very important that actually you only have one budgie. If you have two budgies, or more, it's very, very unlikely you're going to be able to teach that parakeet to talk. Mostly just because it's easier for them to mock their parakeet friends than it is to try and replicate human speech. So if you're it's only other source of sounds to try and copy, you're going to get a lot better response for, from your bird, in trying to learn to talk. So just work with them everyday. Be very consistent about the phrases that you want to say, and spend a lot of time with them. And just naturally, your bird will start picking up little tones and phrases that you happen to say to your bird everyday. "