Cockatiels
 

I'm wondering if any-one here has had a cockatiel since tiny that learnt to talk. If so, can you please tell me how long it took before they started to repeat words?

Our male cockatiel is around 9 months old and lives indoors with us. We got him at 6 weeks old and we talk to him constantly. We even let him watch TV ... :D... (he's spoilt) and although he seems to be making lots of clicking type sounds, he's not actually making any noises yet that sound like words.

We chose a young male from advice I got here on NT, but are now starting to wonder if we're doing something wrong, or he's still too young, or else he has no desire to talk to us at all. :(

I've repeated the same words and short phrases over and over ever since we got him, so could somebody please tell me if there's still any chance that he may talk, or has this been a fruitless exercise?

Our son Michael had a cockatiel named Baby. He talked fairly early...didn't say a lot.."my name is baby and I'm a pretty bird." He loved to take a shower in the sink and to perch on a glass for a drink of water. I think he was a male. They are a lot of fun aren't they Koala! :hug:

I don't know a thing about this but here are a few web sites that might help ((Koala)).


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HEE HEE this is good just for the pictures!
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Interesting, this one says no-no to TV.
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This is just cute, lol.
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My Sun Conure and Jenday Conure never talked but squawked alot! They were very intelligent birds. Their actions "spoke' more than their voices. They weren't cockatiels, they were parrots, talking was not as expected as in other birds.

Yes, I have cockatiels! We bought a young pair a couple of years ago, and now we are hand raising their first baby. Georgie, is now 7 months old and they only start showing the male coloring at around 6 months...so now we know Georgie is a boy! lol Anyway, Georgie talks non-stop, and started talking around 3-4 months! He has picked up a lot of things we say. one of the first things he said was 'watcha doing' and 'Georgie porgie', because I would say that to him every morning when I uncovered the cage! lol
~Jaime~

This is a pic taken 3 weeks ago. It's hard to get a pic of him, because he flies off when the flash goes off! lol He gets to come out of his cage and fly around the livingroom in the afternoons. Some of the things he says now is... 'watch out', 'watcha doing' 'up you get', 'quick', 'hi birdo' 'georgie porgie', 'noisy bird' and he whistles short tunes! lol
~Jaime~

Thank you everyone. I had a look through those web sites Doody and they had some interesting information. I am getting quite a collection in my bookmarks, and I only had one of those. :p

I'm wondering if there's still time to teach our Reg to talk seeing your Georgie started at 3-4 months Jaime_S, and he does try to mimic what we say by clicking noises which seem to have to same number of syllables as the word we're repeating, so maybe there's still hope. We do what you do and repeat the same words every morning when we uncover him.

Thank you for the photo...your Georgie is so cute. I don't have a recent photo of Reggie because the flash upsets him too much, but if you look at the following webpage... he looks just like the first bird on the left, on the second row....the pale gray with the yellow crest.

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I just love the one 3 along from the Reggie look-a-like! :D

So, your cockatiel is named Reggie...the father of Georgie is named Reggie too! lol
Here's a pic of the parents...Reggie & Cheryl :o

How funny! Your Reggie looks a lot like our Reggie. :D

Our's has a little grey under his chin but apart from that, they have similar colourings. Thank you so much for sharing your photos.

Your Cheryl looks pretty too, but she appears to be a bit camera shy there! :wink:

Our birdy's first word!
 

I feel like a young mum with a baby who's so proud of their little one's first word! LOL :D

It's not rocket science stuff, but progress is progress and I'm rather pleased to announce that Reg can now say..... YUM!

Every time we eat, he eats. Every time we serve breakfast we tell him... "breakfast time Reg ..... Yum Yum", and he goes & eats. Same with our other meals.

Now whenever he goes to eat, he says YUM!

As I said, it's not rocket science stuff, but I was rather excited so wanted to share.

PS. I promise not to bore you if he says any more words. :wink:

How exciting! Congratulations on his first word. I hope you will tell us if he says anything else. It's amazing to me how smart these birds are. Maybe this is just the beginning and he'll be chatting up a storm soon! :)

Thank you Kitty!

I was starting to think he may never talk, but I'm feeling a bit more positive now that's said his first one. :D

We talk to him all the time and repeat the same things over and over.

The most frequent things we say to him at the moment (apart from YUM at meal times), are "good morning" and "what ya doing?"

Waiting, waiting, waiting now to see if he learns to say anything else. I assure you it wouldn't be for the lack of trying. :wink:

This is a fun thread! Yes, Koala please keep us up to date
with the words. Looks like food is an incentive for him for sure.

Does he have a special treat, you could just give that each time he says a word? Betcha he would increase his vocabulary quickly!

I had parakeets when I was young...they were fun too.;)

Thank you mrsD.

His two most favourite foods are BokChoy and grated apple. Cauliflower is a very close third, and then comes SumChoy. (Can you tell we cook a lot of Asian dishes?)

He's not much interested in those honey type treats you buy at the pet shop although the first time he tried one he loved it. Not any more though..... he doesn't seem to have a sweet tooth.

But..... that's a good idea about the special treat mrsD. We'll have to think of one.

I really think food is the royal way to get animals to do things.

It has been for our cats. Food rules their lives!

It might be that some birds don't realize you WANT them to talk.

By using the incentive and reward thing...they learn very quickly that you WANT them to talk. I think once you break that barrier, your cute bird will perhaps talk your arm off! LOL

I love cauliflower too! (hubby hates it). I'd certain "talk" or work for cauliflower treats!

My second parakeet Willie... used to go bonkers for ice cream or milk. If he saw me having some, he would run back and forth on the bottom of his cage bursting with energy--which was fun to watch and hard to ignore---to be let out. I guess it was the calcium in those foods? He didn't eat alot of it but just have to have a few little pecks. I can still hear his little feet making the pattering sound on his cage floor paper! I never had to train him with treats tho... he was an avid mimic. He could do my dad's cough and a squeaky door as well as words and phrases.

He'd follow me around the house when out of his cage. I'd just say " come on Willie, let's go" and he'd fly onto my shoulder and I'd go to my room for homework. He'd come with me to the bathroom and loved when I took a bath. I had a little shallow bowl for him on the sink and he'd splash around too all the while watching himself in the vanity mirror. He was a great bird, and a great friend at that time in my life!

So please keep us up to date with your Reg's antics, Anne. I love reading about them! Ditto for the other bird lovers here!

Never give up, I say. Breeders have told me *Old birds don't learn to talk.* And lovebirds don't talk. Female birds don't talk. Or Birds that whistle. And so on and so on.

Well, I have a cockatiel, a Jenday conure and a lovebird we got when it was older.

The cockatiel says a ton of things, and giggles like a little girl. He even tells a joke - (taps on cage) knock knock, banana who? hahahaha!

The conure doesn't say much - he'll tell me night night, love you, yum yum and scream an expletive. He does a lot of tricks - not that we taught him, but that he figured out. Hanginging upside down and putting a bell on his head, eating with a spoon, laying on his back and juggling hot peppers - that one is funny.

The lovebird yells ME! ME! if someone else gets a treat, and she wants one too. And also says "Who's that pretty bird? Why MINNIE bird! hahahaha!" She stole that from the cockatiel. And she is starting to whistle the theme song from Pinky Dinky Do.

MrsD is right about the treats. Jake would do anything for papaya, and Jesse would for an oreo cookie - all of em are bonkers for popcorn.

With birds, I find first they want a vocal response. They LOVE a reaction above all. That's why you never scream if they bite you lol - it only eggs them on.

If I even think I hear one of them say a new word I smile big and say loudly SAY WHAT??? Then all of them go nuts. They see that as a good thing - it does help, I think, having a few of them.

Thank you Brain for your very encouraging post. Your birds sound like lots of fun. I cracked up about the knock-knock joke, and I loved the bit where you said one bird learnt words off another. How funny.

Reg doesn't do any tricks yet, but maybe that's something to come later when he's increased his vocabulary. One can hope. :D

BTW. Does anyone know why our bird licks the side of his cage? He can't get the color off as it's baked on, but he spends ages licking it sometimes.

Georgie
 

Georgie is learning more words now. In the evening, My mum or I put him in his cage and say... "Up you get", 'On your perch, quick!" and he does as he's told and climbs onto his perch. Now he repeats those words over and over! He is forever saying 'Watcha doing', and we have been teaching him to say 'Mind your business', but he hasn't quite got that right yet. But he is always chattering away to himself all the time, and some days he just won't be quiet! lol
:p
~Jaime~

:D Your post made me really smile! :D

We ask Reg 'Watcha doing?" so hopefully he'll add that to his vocabulary too one day! As I said before.... one can only hope! :rolleyes:

No idea. But then I have no idea why Jesse taps his cage bars, either. They just do what they do, it's their hobby, I guess.

When Minnie bangs the bars, it's because she wants what the others are getting. Maybe if you keep watching, you'll see there is something that goes on and be able to see there is some reason he's doing it other than he enjoys it - maybe it's his way of telling you something, like you're eating a snack and he wants it or he wants attention?

Jake puffs his head up if he wants to be petted, fluffs up his whole body if he wants a bath. They have a body language, each of their own, trying to get what they want/need. It can take years to learn what they're *saying*.

I've often thought that's a big reason they do try to talk, because it's hard otherwise to get us to understand.


Wow, all this is really making me miss my pets! I've been gone a month.

update
 

Just thought I'd give an update on our cockatiels...
Our first baby, Georgie is almost 12 months old now, and still talks a lot! lol
We had one more baby born 2 months ago, we are hand-raising 'it' and we hope it's another male that will talk. This one we called Charlie, and is easy to handle, and is more advanced than Georgie for it's age (that is probably because Georgie turned out to be partially blind!)
We decided we didn't want to have any more babies, so my mum gave Reggie, the father, to a friend. But next thing we knew, the female, Cheryl, was sitting on more eggs, less than a month after the birth of Charlie (who is now inside with us)!
So, I thought...one more baby will be OK...but it turned out there are 3 babies in the nest...and the poor mother is having to feed 3 hungry ones by herself! lol
One of the babies is looking like it will be multi-colored like the father, so I might keep that one!
:eek::p
~Jaime~

Oh, look at those babies! How cute !!(well cute for birdies with no feathers yet... cough cough.)

I bet they are fun to watch! Thanks for posting...they are very interesting!

A
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Thank you for that update Jaime, and your babies are so cute. I'd be half tempted to take one off you if we lived a bit closer.

Your Georgie looks similar to our Reg who hasn't really learned any more words apart from Yum. He does chat away to us but we've not been able to decipher any more of it yet.

I am thinking about getting a bird when I move. I don't know a thing about them but this post brings up interesting things. Also, by the link your bird looks rather sharp.

barbara

Thank you for posting the pix of your birdies. :) I'm a bird watcher (and feed the wild birds in our yard.)

I love birds of all kinds but I think I might have an allergy. I wish I could have pet birds again but I'll enjoy the pix of all your babies when you post them. :)

Jaime - A
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Congrats on the babies! They all have their own personality, don't they? It's hard for me to contain myself with animals - I fall directly in love and could take everyone of them home.

:o

Wiz - birds are pretty bad for allergies, and I'd say 'tiels and cockatoos are probably the worst of them, a LOT of dander. You might consider Finches or canaries though, with their smaller size and low ratio of dander would be a good test. and they generally enjoy bathing, which keeps the dander down.

Finches are inexpensive and a lot of pretty ones. not too bad if you have to part with them because of the allergies, so it would be a good way to test it out.

My conure is a bigger investment and longer commitment, but if you found you could keep birds, conures tend to be good ones, too. He will bathe regularly, and I never see any dander from him. Jake will climb right in the water and soak himself - and anyone else close, lol.

I wish the dogs would do that. :p

If you decide to get one, please post for suggestions. It's a lot more complicated than getting a dog (which breed is best for me?). Birds vary so much and can live SO long! Do some research and you will really be amazed how cool it is when you end up with one that suits what you were looking for.

IMO, it doesn't matter how little you know as long as you're willing to learn, because the bird will teach you what you ned to know.

Our "Reg" gave us a Christmas gift of his own! :D

After only ever being able to say "Yum", on Christmas Day he piped up with "Whatcha doing?"

It's one of the short phrases that we often say to him, and finally he's picked it up! I was surprized that he didn't say "Good morning" first because we've always said that to him every day when we uncover his cage, but maybe the other was easier for him.

No matter..... whatever the reason, we're thrilled!

I betcha if you gave him a treat reward each time he said a word, he'd figure out how to say more! ;)

I was wondering if you'd got your bird yet Barbara.

Please let us know if you do. I in particular would like to follow your progress as I'm enjoying mine so much and they're the most wonderful, entertaining pets!

Georgie's most repeated phrase is Whatcha doing! But he usually says 'Whatcha doing Georgie Porgy, or 'Whatcha doing Birdo'. It's something I always said to him without realizing it! lol
New baby Charlie, is just over 2 months old now, he/she is more affectionate than Georgie, (loves nibbling my ear and hair!) but hasn't started talking yet, but there's plenty of time yet!
~Jaime~

I just love the bird updates! I wonder if the other bird will serve as a model, and increase the chances of Charlie talking! If that happens, then maybe Koala could get a video of birds talking and that might give Reg the idea too! LOL ;)

Koala - Yay for Reg! Watch out now, I bet he'll figure out words a lot faster.

:p

Some of them, it's treats and some, it's how you respond - they love to see your face, hear what you say in return.

My first tiel would scream "what cha doing?" until I told him. Then he'd start with "Well, c'mon, c'mon c'mon!"

He was fiesty, Neil.

Speaking of birds, gotta go feed mine before Jadison gets here. I was online trying to find a good price on a new cage for Jake. I saw a really cool one, looks like a house with a play stand on top! Gotta email that link to dh.

Took this pic this morning...this is the first baby out of the nest, it's the only one that looks like it's daddy! It's been so hot and humid here, we will probably take it inside tomorrow. We've got cages everywhere now, it's hard to find a place for them all! lol

Well, things have changed...that little baby I took the pic of, is now, for some unknown reason, not able to walk! I don't know what happened. When it jumped or fell out of the nest, which is fairly high up, he was fine for nearly a week, he was running around the bottom of the cage as normal, (like Georgie and Charlie did when they finally got out of the nest). But then, Friday night, he must have injured himself somehow, and when I came to take him out of the cage the next day, I discoverd he couldn't move his legs at all. He is now inside in a small cage, and still can't walk, and uses his wings to get around. But, I don't know what to do with him, I don't know if it's permanent. I don't know if he will survive...but I can't get rid of him! It made me sad, because I love all the birds, and I really wanted to keep him because he's the only baby that looks like the father.
:(
~Jaime~

I did some searching:


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some ideas here: about splayed legs:

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Oh, I do know how you feel...I'd be beside myself too.

Jaime, I'm so sorry that you're going through this anguish with with the little one. I know I'd feel the same if it was my bird. Will you take it to the vet, or wait and see?

Thanks for the links. But I think with our baby things seem a bit different, his legs just seem to be paralyzed. He was fine in the nest and when he first came out of the nest he walked normally, but now his legs and feet just won't move, he drags himself around using his wings and the feet just drag behind. Maybe he injured his spine somehow. He seems OK otherwise, and eats well, (and was fed well in the nest), but I have to keep cleaning him and the cage as he's always sitting in the mess!
:o
~Jaime~

Well, birds always pretend nothing is amiss, it's self preservation. That's why you hear people say they looked fine right up to when they died - my Neil did (looked and acted normal, I mean).

The only sign anything was wrong with Jesse was he was sitting on the bottom of his cage, and if you talked to him, he would not answer. That was when he was 1 yr old. He's 11 now. TG we knew something was up. I sat with him all night with a heating pad and an eye dropper, to feed him, keep him hydrated.

Got him to the vet in the am - she ran tests, got him on anti biotics right away. He had some sort of infection, as little birds will get. He recovered in a few days and has been fine since.

Birds are born full of bacteria, and generally their mother's feedings help them build immunities to those diseases, so they fight them off and survive. Pet store pets (like Jess) have a high mortality rate at 6 mos to a year because thay are eithe hand raised or taken too soon from the parents - so my bird friends tell me, anyway.

Same is true with some reptiles.

Well, in the end, we didn't have to make a choice about what to do with the baby...he died last night. I knew it was for the best... :(
We have 2 other babies out of the nest now...so hopefully they will survive...they are both doing well so far.
:o
~Jaime~