Training a Parrot to Talk

Training a parrot to talk is great fun and you will build up a great relationship with your parrot in the process.

Introduction

Some species of parrots are able to learn to talk much better than others. Therefore, if your aim is to have a parrot for its talking abilities you must choose the species of parrot that you keep very carefully. Of course, we believe that there are so many other qualities that parrots have, that its speaking abilities will probably come second to their other attractive characteristics.

Parrot Species

The first point to note if you wish to train your parrot to talk is that smaller breeds tend to be less proficient in talking than the larger species. Firstly, smaller parrots take a lot longer to learn to speak, and secondly, when they do learn phrases of words they tend to be more difficult to understand. Species of parrot that are not known for their good abilities to talk include:

• Parakeets
• Ringnecks
• Alexandrine
• Plumhaeds
• Cockatiels
• Conures
• Loikeets
• Lovebirds

As a general rule these species of parrot will not have excellent talking abilities.

Scientists have discovered that African Grey Parrots have the greatest capability to learn to talk. It is considered relatively easy to train an African Grey Parrot to talk, so if this is your goal, this parrot would suit you well.

Of the New World Amazon parrots, scientists have discovered that Yellow Nape, Blue Fronts and Double Yellowheads are the parrots with the best talking abilities. To train these parrots to talk it is best to start exposing them to speech as early as possible. Macaws are relatively good at learning to talk however they tend to have quite loud brash voices and a relatively limited vocabulary. Cockatoos also have a rather limited vocabulary; however they have voices which are softer than Macaws.

Parrot Temperament

When training a parrot to talk it is important that