can you teach them to talk?

[destiny]

is there a site so I can play sounds for them and teach them to speak

[Kelly27]

Im not sure, i dont think so. Anyone else know?
To teach a budgie to talk, it has to be really quite young. My Nana has a talking budgie, Billy, and he was bought from a breeder at just 6 weeks old. She taught him to talk herself by repeating words over and over again until he imitated them himself. 2 years on and he is a brillant talker! Good luck, keep us updated!
Kelly
xXx :)

[Star]

No, I highly doubt there is. Budgies have the ability to talk but many just don't want to. The bird has to be willing to talk and there is no way to just "teach" it to. It's really not your choice, only if the bird wants to it will.

[cfnbryn]

Budgies do not talk like parrots - they do not exactly mimic the human voice. However, they can learn to repeat sounds, and if you repeat one word often enough, your budgie should will begin to make a sound similar to that word. Make a tape of yourself repeating one word over and over, and leave it playing beside the cage...
If you are prepared to give your budgie the time it takes to teach a word, a sentence and eventually whole verses of nursery rhymes, it will give you hours and hours of amusement as you listen to its repertoire.
The first words are important. Once a budgerigar has begun to copy a word, it will quickly add to its repertoire, but it often takes a while before it masters is first couple of words. It is best to choose something quite simple to start, which is why pretty boy is so popular. It is best if one person, preferably female, because the females voice is pitched higher than the male, so it takes on the task of teaching the first words, so that the bird is not confused. If time is of the essence, then a tape recorder can be used. If the teacher records, for example "pretty boy", on a tape for as many times as the tape will allow, this can be played near the cage, even when no one is in the house. Once the budgie has learned the first phrase, another can be added. Nursery rhymes are popular and, in general consist of simple words, but a budgerigar in Wales is on record as being able to say "Llanfairpwllgwyngyllgogerychwrndrobwll llantisilogogogoch"
A word of warning, a budgie will not talk if it has other budgies to talk to. It must be kept as a single pet for it to learn to talk, and it will be very unlikely for it to talk if training is not started before it is four months old. It has been known but the likelihood is very remote.
As well as speech, budgies can be taught to wolf whistle. The wolf whistle is a good place to start. In this case, it is a man who is usually better teacher. A tune should be chosen which has a simple opening phrase and this is repeated until the budgerigar can remember and reproduce it with ease. Once this has been achieved, a new section is added and both are always whistled together, until the budgie has learned the two, then another and another until the whole tune is mastered. No musical box can give the same thrill as a budgie greeting you with a happy tune when you return to your home, and it will be a source of constant amusement to your the people calling at your home.

[cfnbryn]

quite long but quite useful even if i do say so myself lol

[Amy]

Wow! What a long, and yes, informative post! Very interesting.

[Amber]

I read an article recently in a bird mag while I was at the vet (for my dog). They were writing about the top 3 most intelligent pet birds...guess what they were?!

In no particular order...the African Grey, the Cockatoo and...you guessed it, the BUDGIE!! I was not highly surprised, but I was curious to see that budgies are smarter than tiels. ;)

anyway, the article went on about how budgies are not only good mimics...they may also be conscious of what they are saying...for example, there was a very talkative budgie who was given a mate...he actually NAMED her Sarah!! Imagine, he didn't just name her Chair or Table, he actually knew the difference between an object and a name! It was pretty amazing. So yes, budgies are VERY intelligent, and I'm sure you can teach them how to talk with time and patience. Good luck~

[Meghanxx4]

Darn that means i wont be able to teach my budgies to talk since iw as planning on getting two....i geuss if i really wanted to i could put hem in seperate cages, since i have 3 empty cages, but it not something that has to be done i probably wont, i mena it would eb cool though.ya i think the best way to teach a budgie to talk is if you just record your self and play it while your out.So you dont get tired of sayng the same word over , and over again and stuff. yea my freind has a budgie named charlie and he can say, charlie(his name), hello and pretty boy.
omg i can teach my bird to say sup lol jk

[ETAHoffman]

Yes, the will talk but it takes a lot of patience and time to get them to do so. And, it is not just a matter of having two, or more, in separate cages. If they can simply hear each other's chirps, they will not be inclined to talk.

A personal story: Before we got married, I gave my girlfriend the last of the baby birds I had from a particular clutch. She named him Harvey and spent many many hours trying to get him to talk. Well, after a few months, she got a puppy and, of course, the bird went on the shelf because the puppy needed a lot of time for training, etc. The puppy was named Patches. To ad a lot of humor to the overall story, I must admit her favorite expression was, "Oh, S--t" when she was upset.

To get the pup's attention, she would wolf whistle and call, "Patches!" To which the pup would bark.

You guessed it. In a couple of months, we suddenly heard, from the bird, " (Wolf whistle), Patches, woof woof, Oh, S--t!" All in one sentence. Over and over and over until the day he died. That was all he ever said.

[Budgiekin]

That's a hilarious story!! Imagine having your sweety birdie saying Oh S---! Boy oh boy!! :p

[pal0m1n0]

Yes, that is hilarious. :)