Training Parrots to Talk
by Heike Ewing Ott
What is the best way to train parrots to talk? Do those training tapes work at all? Learn about several training methods for teaching birds to talk. Some thoughts about training parrots to do tricks are included towards the end of this informative article.
I’ve seen several questions lately about training tapes…
I know quite a few people who’ve used the records and tapes of people talking. Mostly they produced little result in the larger parrots, although tiels and budgies may learn to mimic from them.
Our Quakers learn to talk in order to communicate with us, much like small children do. Hearing “sounds” repeated over and over again from a mechanical device is not communication from the bird’s point of view, and although they may learn to make the sound they don’t attach any meaning to it. In the few cases I know of where birds DID learn to repeat things from the tapes, they most often became closet talkers that talked when alone, since that was when they heard the sounds they learned to repeat.
In my opinion, talking to your baby Quaker as if it were a human baby that you expect to learn to communicate by language produces the best talkers. Also, constantly repeating a word or phrase that you want your bird to learn may not produce the desired results. John has been trying for weeks to get Bear to learn “Ooooh, Baby!”, but she’s not even showing any interest in it. What she is learning to repeat are the words that have =meaning= to her, such as Hello, Pretty Bear, Step UP, and of course Dammit! She USES these words to communicate, such as saying Pretty Bear and Step Up when she wants attention or out of her cage.
Another excellent method is “modeling,” where a human ally or another bird models the desired behaviour in front of the student and is rewarded for performance. You can learn more about modeling from the articles that have been written about Alex the CAG, at:
http://www.cages.org/research/pepperberg/index.html
(sorry, link no longer works)
where there are several links to articles that describe the techniques and methods used in training Alex. This method is also good for trick training.
The method of trick training that has worked best for me is to expand on a “natural” behavior and turn it into a trick by beginning to reward the bird for doing it. For example, I taught Beaker to “eagle” (spread out both wings and stand tall) by catching her in the middle of a natural stretch and rewarding her with effusive praise and/or a treat while saying “Eagle! Eagle! Good bird, Eagle.” After only a couple of weeks she would spread her wings upon hearing the word “Eagle.”
The lifting of one foot can be turned into a hello or bye-bye wave, and a tendency to lie upside down is easily turned into a “play dead” routine. Using the bird’s own natural and unique behaviours also results in “original” tricks that not everybody’s parrot does, and ensures that the learned tricks are things the bird is comfortable doing.
Step Up, Step Down, and some equivalent of No! are necessary commands that all birds should learn for basic discipline and safety, much as all dogs should learn Sit, Come, Stay, and No, but beyond that take advantage of your bird’s unique personality and traits to develop original and unique “tricks” that will delight and entertain your friends, you, and your bird. BTW, since parrots have short attention spans in general, short (10 – 15 minute) training sessions conducted frequently are more productive than a few long sessions.
Awsome. That was exactly what I was looking for. Thanks. As soon as we get our Quaker, we will keep you informed of it’s progress. thanks
I have a quaker, that I bought about 4weeks ago. I bought her when she was approx. 8-9mths old, is she capable of speaking? she is very annoying with her squaking, and the only good thing she does is step up when I want her to. What can I do with her to make her more obedient, and train her?
I can never get my quaker to talk when i want him to. but i have noticed then he does want to talk the feathers on the back of him head puff up and this wierd body language i cannot explain he kinda walks back and forth VERY slowly and SLOWly moves his head up and down.
then i walk up to the cage and he walks toward me and if i nod at him and say one of the words he knows he’ll say it.i also notice when he wants to talk alot he opens his mouth and his tongue sticks out and goes crazy.
i dont know if its just him or it other quaker react like that when they talk or are learning a new words. its so cute lol.
I have had birds my whole life. When I was a child, I bred a beautiful pair of parakeets, my brother had a gray cockatiel, and my Mother acquired a blue and gold macaw, an umbrella cockatoo, a red-headed amazon, an african grey congo, and we also tried to rescue a conure whose owner couldn’t deal with, but we soon felt the same way…lol. I taught most of our birds to talk, and I definitely agree that a tape would most likely be worthless. A bird speaks to an owner it’s bonded with because they’re extremely intelligent, and once its accepted you as its flock, it has a natural desire to communicate with you. Talk to your quaker as if it were a baby. Tell it how much you love it, say its name, repeat the words and sayings you’d like it to learn in a very soothing voice, when the bird seems receptive and interested in your speech and begins to watch your mouth and moves its mouth, you’ll know ur getting somewhere, but, I also agree that it may simply show no interest in learning some words, for whatever reason! Stick with the ones they show interest in, keep sessions short and repeat them several times a day when its relaxed, and try to say the words and/or phrases in the same intonation and with the same cadence each time, and if ur persistent and start young, there’s no reason ur bird shouldn’t develop quite a repertoire!!! I hope this is helpful!
Good luck! p.s.- I just brought home MY new quaker today!!! 
Talking tapes may not work but they can produce funny things. My friend has a bird that never learned a thing off the tape but her tape player had a “rewind and restart” function so that it would play, rewind and start again. the only thing the cockatoo picked up from the tape was the “Click, whirl, click” which he would show of to anyone that came in the door or do for hours upon hours each night to the fustration of his mum!