Teaching Your Pet Parrot to Speak

After buying a bird, most pet parrot owners will want to teach their new feathered friend to speak. Teaching your pet parrot to speak is a gradual process and to do this successfully you must be prepared to be patient and repeat yourself over and over again - similar to teaching a child word familiarity and their first words.
Speak clearly and say the same few phrases or words repeatedly to the bird every day. Enthusiasm in your voice is a key learning factor. The bird will not
be interested or want to learn if you talk in a boring or monotonous tone. Your pet parrot will not pick up everything you are trying to teach them; instead they will pick up the words and phrases that interest them the most. Be careful not to introduce and curse words to your bird. It is normal for a parrot to speak with the same tone and accent as their owner. If owned by a family, the parrot will adopt the same voice as a particular member of the house - usually the person that talks to or interests the parrot the most.

Some people think it is funny for their parrot to utter a few curse words or dirty phrases, but how would you feel if the bird did that in front of a house guest such as children, your parents or grandparents or perhaps in front of a church member or leader. If your pet parrot does learn to use bad words, try to replace the word with a similar sounding word like "fudge" for the popular "f" word, or "shrimp" for the most popular "s" word. You can personalize these words according to your vocabulary, but the key is to always use the same substitution for the curse word and never let your pet hear the unwanted curse word again. Under any circumstance, do not yell at your parrot. This will only teach them that this is proper behavior, and they will start mimicking it.

Some parrots will not talk around people until they are older, or better at speaking, or when they become more comfortable around their owner. Only when the room is empty, will they begin to practice their speech and can often be heard murmuring or even screaming their favorite words and sentences. You can find out what your parrot is saying by turning on a tape recorder when you walk out of a room. Most of the times, you will be surprised at the range of words your parrot has learned.