by Dave & Karen » Sat Oct 19, 2013 9:50 pm
A lot of birds do this, they are called closet talkers because they learn and speak several words when they know nobody's watching or when they're in another room but as soon as they realize that they're being watched, they shut up.
You might be able to get her past this shyness by rewarding her when she speaks by giving her a verbal praise as soon as you hear it and then give her a treat. This works by you being just outside the room and out of her sight, then when she says a word, you give her a lot of praise as you wlak into the room and reward her, maybe repeating the word she said a few times in your praise to her.
Our first parrotlet was shy this way but in his evening chatters we would hear words being said so I'd drop what I was doing and offer him praise and reward, but I'd repeat what he said while praising him. After a few days I'd hear a word and just repeat it every time he said it and he'd repeat it back to me. Another thing that got him talking was when we got another bird, he went to the new bird's cage and began saying a bunch of words we didn't even know he could say, but we were able to coax those words out of him once we knew he could say them. It does take some time but she'll begin to talk in front of you.
Right now our IRN has begun saying her name "Baby" and one night last week she was saying it so when I began repeating it to her she started saying it more. Then I started telling her "hi Baby" and to my surprise she repeated it to me. It's still hit and miss with her right now, but she's definitely losing her shyness about saying her name.