Do i do anything extra to encourage him to keep talking?

[Fidgit_Green]

I am so over the moon tonight as Fidgit said his first word earlier.
at 7 months and 5 days old i am so happy that he say started to talk already.

over the last week i have been saying "hello baby" to him repeatedly when ever he was in a chatty mood because i had noticed he had kind of mimicked the way that it sounded in his bird noises.
yesterday he almost managed to say "hello" in the way i am sure most of you know when they almost say a word but not quite, and then tonight when he tried to say "hello baby" the "hello" wasnt even close to a word, but when the "baby cam out it was as an actual recognizable word.
i was so giddy for a while after that, it made me so happy. but unfortunately he hasnt said it again since.

so my actual question is, do i do anything to encourage him to say it more? like give him a treat when he says it, or something else?
i know that the obvious thing is to keep saying the things to him to get him repeating them more, but is that enough for him to start saying the words on his own without being prompted to do so?

i do realize that i am probably just being a little impatient right now wanting to get him talking more.
i know that i will have to be patient for him to talk more, but im just wondering if i need to do anything else to get him to know that it a good thing to get him to talk more.

still a little giddy about it, but would like to hear some others point of view.

Cheers
Paul

[ellieelectrons]

Hi Paul

Congratulations! That's really exciting.

Both my birds talk a little but I've never particularly tried to get them to talk. I notice they practice a lot before coming out with words frequently. My Charlie tends to go through his repertoire when he is half asleep. Sometimes at these times, I hear him say words I've never heard him say before.

I thought this blog post might help you:
http://goodbirdinc.blogspot.com.au/2011 ... -talk.html
Whilst it is mostly an advertisement for you to buy a resource (which I don't own, although I own others of her DVDs and they are really good), there is a little bit of info there too.

Best wishes.

Ellie.

[leo1955]

Congratulations for making your bird talk. How I wish my Rich would do the same. All she does yet is whistle the "sexy whistle" and some sounds I don't recognize. But I am hoping one day I will hear her talk and say "hello", the word I always say to her. Rich is 6 months old. Is it true that when a bird first learn to whistle, it will hardly talk? Hope this is not true, coz my bird always whistle.
anyways, congratz again.

[MissK]

Leo, my bird has some words, albeit not very many or very great, and he also has some non-IRN whistles, both human tune and other bird species. He learned almost all this before I had him. With me he has learned one word that comes out very well and a human whistle I taught him. Most astonishing, however, is that he can repeat my words immediately after hearing them, just at that time, and never seems to say them again. I almost never solicit his speech, so it really just comes as he is inclined. Definitely, knowing whistles has not kept him from learning or, at least, repeating new words.

Paul, I think you would do well to talk to Fidgit when he is excited about something or paying extra close attention to you, even when the eyes are pinning. Rocky seems most likely to talk when he and I are having a close face to face, or when I interrupt him getting really into something. Another thing to consider is that birds seem more likely to pick up human speech presented with some degree of emphasis, so put some feeling into it when you talk to him. And eavesdrop on him when he is getting ready to sleep. You may hear things you never heard before!

-MissK

[ellieelectrons]

Just to add to what MissK has said, my guys tend to learn words that have some emotional connection and/or action associated with them. For example, I was never going to be the type of person that would encourage my birds to "give me a kiss". However, I found that it's something they trained me to do - it seems to be a natural thing for them... so I let them touch their beak to the outside of my closed mouth. The verbal prompt to to do this is, "gimme a kiss" or "another one?". They seem to quite enjoy this interaction... and Charlie can say both "gimme a kiss" and "another one?" quite well and after he says it, tends to crane his neck. Charlie has also learned to say an encouraging, "c'mon", the word I use to coax them to come to me - all words that have an action and emotion associated with them. Janey has learnt her name - she doesn't say it very often now, but she normally uses it to call me if I leave the room and she wants me to come back. The other thing that I've noticed is that they can learn call and response. For example, when my husband was trying to teach Janey to say, "wotchadoin'", he'd say, "hey Janey!" first to get her attention... so now the prompt for saying "wotchadoin'" is "hey Janey!"... not ideal, but it works. That's a way you can try to get them to talk on command - just choose a better call for your response (eg. call: what's 3 plus 1, response: 4).

Ellie.

[Fidgit_Green]

Fidgit only gets talkative in 3 situations.
if i leave him sitting on top of his cage to long (well to long for his liking anyway)
if he is on my should and there is a fair bit of back ground noise, e.g. the fan on in the bathroom, noise in the kitchen or having the radio on.
and on the odd occasion if he is sitting on my chest and gets sleepy (but if i talk to him to much he perks up to much and stops).
when i was hand raising him he would respond when i called to him (call with a little squeak)
but then one day, sometime between 2 an 3 months old he just decided to stop and since then he hasnt talked to just me at all, only when he gets in a general chatty mood and just goes off all on his own chatting away.
its a bit disappointing that he doesnt talk right to me, but i figure given some time and he will start talking to me rather than just in general.

when he sits there a chats away i just love to watch is eyes pin with every little squeak, squawk, beep an peep. its so fascinating.

does anyone actually know why their eyes do what they do when they talk?

and thanks for the advice, ill try putting more emphasis and emotion into the words i want him to say. i know it will take time, but now that i know that he can talk i just want him to start saying everything i want right now. lol.
i have never really been to good with patients, but clearly i have no choice.
i just cant wait for the day that i can have an conversation with him.

anyway, babbling on again.
thanks for everything.

Cheers
Paul

[ellieelectrons]

Hi Paul

You'll get there! These birds certainly do teach you patience!

Mine like to make noise over background noises too. It's amazing how similar in some ways, yet different in others, IRNs can be!

Somehow my Janey has trained me to respond to a quiet, little squeak too - I'd much prefer that to a loud scream any way.

I presumed the eye-pinning was because they were excited when they talk, but I don't really know.

Also, my guys absolutely will not talk if they are feeling scared or uncomfortable. Today, I took them outside in their travel cage, and I was able to cage their level of comfort by whether they would talk to me or not.

Does your bird respond to you when you whistle? For my birds whistling and talking is all part of the same package. In fact, a normal conversation between Charlie and I will go something like this:
>> Me: Hey Charlie
>> Charlie: Whotyadoin'
>> Charlie: <whistles the beginning of a wolf whistle>
>> Me: <whistles the end of the wolf whistle>
>> Charlie: <chatters happily but unintelligibly away>
>> Me: <telling him he's a good boy, etc.>

Ellie.

[Fidgit_Green]

hey ellie,
unfortunately due to my medical condition and its effect on my body i am unable to whistle.
which it has really sucked for me because i have really wanted to teach him some whistling tunes.
i have thought about recording something and playing it over and over for him, but that just seemed to be a little to impersonal and would do nothing towards any bonding or conversation.

Cheers
Paul.

[ellieelectrons]

Sorry Paul. The other place my guys like to talk is in the shower.

Ellie.

[Fidgit_Green]

i tried Fidgit in the shower the first time just the other day because i have been trying to get him to bathe on his own instead of only liking the spray bottle.
he really wasnt impressed with being in the shower so he just sat on the end of the perch as far from the water as he could get and sat there looking disgruntled and didnt make a peep. lol

its just a matter of trial and error to see what he enjoys and what i can teach him to enjoy.

Cheers
Paul

[MissK]

Paul, are you able to just blow steadily into a tube and move a stick?

If you are, then you can use a slide whistle. It would not be the same as just whistling a tune, but it might be some fun, maybe worth doing. More breathing control makes more options, but you could certainly have some fun with a steady exhale.

Here are some slide whistle links, just in case:

sample: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=CjEchyxy4qg
ambitious example: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=WgGTdZT1dgA
basic instruction: http://www.chimes.com/t-songs-americanslidewhistle.aspx
video instruction: http://www.youtube.com/watch?v=xLB0ngd5LzA

-MissK

[mattcoffs]

This sounds very similar to my bird.
She's learned "Whatchya doin," her first words infact (allbeit the whatchya part is a little rough)
But she hasn't seemed to learn anymore and she rarely says it...

I try and reward her when she does but it's so hard to catch it!

Good luck!

[ellieelectrons]

Paul, don't give up on the shower. Mine were scared off it at first. It took a couple of weeks for them to get the hang of it.... and now they love it!

Ellie.

[InTheAir]

The weather this week must be inspiring some birdy talking, Nele barely shut up all day!
He usually only talks infront of us if there is background noise, and he isn't too close, but this morning he actually said 'what you doing' from his perch by the kitchen table! He did have his back to us, but still... He is also still working hard on a new sentence, and we still have no idea what it is meant to be. lol its cute though.

Paul; Congrats on your bird talking! Btw Nele was rather dubious about the shower at first, but we just let him hang out in there without getting him wet until he started trying to get closer to the spray. Now he gets so excited about it that if he jumps straight to his perch, he squawks at you if you are cruel enough to redirect the stream towards yourself before he is finished with it. If he doesn't get a shower every day, he gets so excited about it that he generally falls in... He doesn't really like to be in the direct stream, he prefers the water to bounce off the glass below him so the drops are smaller.

Claire

[Fidgit_Green]

hi guys,
sorry for the late reply, thanks for the advice.
i will keep putting Fidgit in the shower with me and hope that he starts to enjoy it.
and to Missk, thank you for the idea of a slide whistle, it had never occurred to me as they dont seem to be a very common thing where i live, but i had a quick look on ebay and can get one off there.
so i will order one and have a play around with it an see what i can come up with.

thanks everyone
Cheers
Paul