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Re: Congo
Posted by khasley on 5/25/09

On 4/29/09, nj wrote:
> I recently just bought a male congo african grey which is
> only 22 months old... The bird does talk but seems to have
> the identical voice of his previous owner which was a
> man... And his voice is so low you have to really pay
> attention to what he is saying..... My question is now
> that i own him, which im a woman will his voice change or
> get any louder with the new words that is taught to
> him.... Thank you.


NJ,
I have bred African Greys for over 18 years and let me
first say they are such fascinating birds. With nearly every
baby I have sold to individuals their first question is:
How can I teach my grey to talk? I don't teach my birds to
talk ~ I just talk to them. I have found that if your voice
is exciting and they like what they hear - it's a done
deal. Your bird's prior owner may have been a man but that
won't be a problem in the future. He may at times speak in
that voice but he's not going to be limited to it. I sold a
baby a couple of years ago to a very nice lady but her bird
showed not interest in talking at all. I had her bring him
back and after observing for just a couple of minutes I saw
the problem. She spoke with such a monotone, soft voice it
was nothing he wanted to repeat. As nicely as I could, I
explained they love variation in tones, catch words and
vocal excitement. It wasn't anytime I heard back from her
and she was proud of the progress he was making. I begin
talking to the babies from the first day I begin handfeeding
and some are saying words before they even wean, others it
takes a while. My own personal grey, Sidney didn't even say
her first word until she was 11 months old but after she
went through her garble speech period ~ she was talking in
full sentences in a couple of months. You can always tell
if your grey likes what he hears just from watching his head
movement. If he cocks his head and looks as though he
looking in to outer space he's thinking about what he just
heard. Many times they only have to hear something a couple
of times and they have it down. Since your bird speaks in
a soft, low voice make sure when you speak to him you speak
in a strong, pleasant voice hitting the highs and lows of
the word. I hope this helps!

Karen

Posts on this thread, including this one

• Congo, 4/29/09, by nj.
• Re: Congo, 4/29/09, by GreyLady.
• Re: Congo, 5/25/09, by khasley.