A talking parrot makes a wonderful pet. If you intend on purchasing a parrot and teach it to talk it is best to do with a parrot that is about 2 months old. It is during the infancy stage that a parrot bonds well with its master. The requirement on your part is just patience. Like human babies exposing child parrots to words will instill in them an favour in talking. When exposed to words baby parrots tend to recognize them fast even though they may not be ready to talk yet. But with your patience they will be capable to mimic words at the age of 4 months old.

Between 4 months to a year a parrot picks up words fast. It is during this time that you can truly mould you bird into a talking parrot. They are most receptive before they are 1 year old. Beyond that it may receive a longer time to study new words. So use this 1 year times to teach like many words as you can and discipline your bird to listen to your command. However if you pick an older bird that has very little socializing with humans you may end up with a parrot that may refuse to learn to talk at all. But that should not be a deterrent in keeping parrots if your desire is to keep parrots as pets. A parrot that talks is just a plus factor.

Male parrots are better talkers than female parrots and more receptive too. However it is almost impossible to tell the sexes of parrots apart before you purchase one. You may need to see a vet to determine that as a surgical procedure or a blood test is often required.

The best time to teach your parrot to talk is early in the morning or late in the evening. In the wild birds are more energetic during these times and are at their noisiest as they gather to eat and squeak at each other. Take benefit of this natural phenomenon to entice your parrot to talk and utter new words.

As with training other animals positive reinforcement by giving a reward works best. Identify your parrot’s favorite food and use it as a reward for getting the right word. When this is practiced continuously your parrot will seem forward to such training sessions and respond positively.

Switch off the TV radio and try to remove all sound distractions such as wind-chimes and sounds from other pets in the house. Take charge of the situation and let the bird understand that you are in command. Speak the word in a loud and plain voice and give a reasonable amount of pause before you repeat the word again. Use facial expressions or hand gestures to give more meaning to the word. Parrots that you see dancing on youtube videos is the result of their owners using action with words.

Learning the first word is frequently the hardest. It gets easier through time until the parrot reaches an age when it just stops learning and you will know that the window learning period has closed. But again it doesn’t mean that your parrot will not learn talking at all as different parrots adjust differently.

Teaching a parrot to talk is lots of fun especially when the parrot has built a lexicon of words that are funny and cheeky. A talking parrot is often the life of the party and it also makes a great partner as well as it has a very long lifespan.

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